M.R. James: A Seasonal Delight

As winter settles in, readers of weird fiction who relish certain works and authors by season will be looking for the most suitable accompaniments to months haunted by holidays, frigid air, and mountains of ice. Haunted? If this is what you're after, then look no further than the seminal ghost stories of M.R. James for a traditional and otherworldly chill to go with winter. James' tales are all about unusual hauntings. Beloved by H.P. Lovecraft and well respected in Britain today, the erudite Medieval scholar and writer of spectral fiction is a master of atmosphere.

It's no secret that weird readers often maintain sensitive minds not unlike the authors they absorb. Right now, many will begin peering out the windows of their homes, libraries, or cafes while pondering the deadness of the glazed cities and smothered white plains surrounding them. This is where reading M.R. James can really enliven the nerves and the mind. Who can resist reading the chronicles of antiquarians unwittingly channeling weird terror through mysterious artifacts? Who can't help but feel a sense of unease toward the unknown tripled by the hostile whispers of winter just outside their window? James, whose fine style many believe represents the culmination of the traditional ghost story and a pioneering force upon the emerging weird genre, wrote stories that speak directly to our fears in idle, lonely moments--fragmentary periods far more common in the isolation of winter.

Even better is the fact that Britain has a wonderful tradition of wintertime ghost stories. This is something M.R. James himself was intimately acquainted with, and he was known for passionate readings of his own tales at Christmas time. With experimentation, this is a holiday past time would enrich all of us. It's also one more reason why taking in a few stories by James at this time of year makes so much sense.

Luckily, for those unfamiliar with his work, M.R. James has a good many of his earlier works in the public domain for easy sampling. Google Books has one of his earliest and best collections, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary available for full viewing here. Several other stories by James are nicely linked via "The Literary Gothic" as well. Sample him, delve in, and devour him. There's no time like now to observe the weird specters of M.R. James while nature's cyclical demons are an imposing presence. Of course, one shouldn't merely enjoy James during winter. Like Lovecraft or Poe, Montague Rhodes James is a weird titan permanently in season--whether there's snow on the ground and tinsel in the trees or not. There are always malevolent spirits in the pages of Britain's foremost ghost story writer.

-Grim Blogger