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WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!this explanation/intro will be posted before each day’s short story. scroll down to get to the story-review.this is the FOURTH year of me doing a short story advent calendar as my december project. for those of you new to me or this endeavor, here’s the skinny: every day in december, i will be reading a short story that is 1) available free somewhere on internet, and 2) listed on goodreads as its own discrete entity. there will be links provided for those of you who l...
“Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come to You My Lad” is a classic, a must-read for all lovers of the English ghost story. (“But you always say that about M.R. James’ stories.” “Well, yes . . . at least for the stories in first two collections, I do.)I don’t want to spoil its thrills by saying much about it, but I’ll say this: if you have ever disturbed, in the growing dark, by the shape of crumpled bed clothes, then this is the tale for you.Three other things: 1) Our protagonist Perkins’ area of specializa...
This was classic M.R. James. It made my hair stand on end.
2.5 stars
4.5*Having just finished King’s Later, I couldn’t resist revisiting one of my favourite ghost stories. Yes, it is old fashioned, but it works. David Suchet’s rendition is of course stellar and makes the whole experience that much better.
Rating: 4* of fiveReading it was most amusing as I was, only yesterday, watching the 1968 BBC adaptation of the story. I am deficient as a human being, somehow, as James's "creepiness" whizzes past me and leaves no trace on my creeper. The story is, as a story, delightful and James is, as a writer, mannered yet quite readable.The adaptation is delightful but again leaves me utterly uncreeped. It is a moral failing on my part, I'm sure, and the legions of James fans are superior souls who see som...
Text + audio.SYNOSPSIS: "Parkins, the protagonist, is a young Cambridge University professor on holiday in the town of Burnstow (a fictionalized version of Felixstowe, Suffolk), on the southeast coast of England. He resides at The Globe Inn for the duration of his stay, and has promised to investigate the grounds of a nearby preceptory for a colleague during his stay, with view to his colleague further exploring the site the following summer.While investigating a cavity within what he believes t...
This is the best MR James story that I have read so far. I had already seen the BBC television version starring John Hurt, but the story is even better. Bedsheets have never been this scary!
An essay in Michael Chabon's Maps and Legends titled 'The Other James' refers to this M.R. James ghost story as "one of the finest short stories ever written," high praise that couldn't help but prompt me to read it. And I did enjoy it, although I wouldn't say it was among my favorite short stories, let alone the finest ever written. It reminded me a great deal of William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki, The Ghost Finder.
M.R. James sets up another supernatural short story using nature as a stepping stone. On a desolate beach by the dim and murmuring sea, a vacationing professor accidentally stumbles upon an old Templar site, where he finds a strangely carved whistle. As usual with James, there are bitterly cold winds blowing, so the Professor takes his strange discovery back with him to his room at the seaside inn. As he walks, he can see something trying to catch up with him, although it never seems to make up
One of James's more famous stories, and for good reason. Not only is it very atmospheric and creepy, particularly in the former half, but he also infuses a surprising amount of humour into it as well. Just the professors bantering with each other at campus in the beginning is immediately engaging. But then James takes you into his usual, magnificent realm of classic, understated, British ghostliness. The imagery he evokes as the protagonist makes his way home along and the beach, and eventually
Pretty spooky poltergeist.
This short story came very well recommended by a gentleman (there was no other way to describe him, really) of many winters as well as a girl in her mid-twenties. Well, I thought, if a text spans a gap like that and comes out on top, surely it's worth a look. The first thing that struck me about the story is that it is very well written and very classically crafted - and so made me feel immediately impatient. The opening few pages take the form of a pretty stilted conversation between the protag...
James writes marvelous ghost stories of steadily increasing creepiness. this is one of his best.
I have arranged my thoughts into a haiku:"Something to be learned:Items one finds in the dirtDon't go in one's mouth."
I wasn't really expecting much out of this audiobook since I had got it for free, what with being an audible.com member but I ended up enjoying it. I thought the voice of the narrator really suited the plotline of the book. It ended up really sucking me into the book I could not stop listening it, even though it is only less than an hour long, it makes it perfect as you can sit and listen to it in one take.