Collected Ghost Stories (Tales of Mystery & the Supernatural)

During his life, four different books with his ghost stories were published. Then, in 1931, "The Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James" an omnibus collection of those 4 previous books was published. All these stories plus an extra one about writing ghost stories are in this volume. The book itself is in a handy format and the cover looks nice (even though I'm not a fan of the skull on it, which is a bit cheesy to me, but all in all, it's a nice cover). 8.99$ for this is really a good price. This Wordsworth edition is ideal if you are on a budget, or if you are like me and you want to sample writers/books. I had heard about M.R. James but never read him. So I took a chance and paid 8.99 for this book. I was not disappointed. James is a master story teller! Add it to your collection!

M.R. James is singularly responsible for my lifelong interest in ghost stories, and he is a true master of the genre. His antiquarian tastes are reflected in many of his ghost stories with the result that these stories are imbued with a high sense of atmosphere and creepiness.I had worn out my old copy of his collected stories so I decided to splurge and got this handsome 2011 OUP edition. It is a sturdy hardcover edition with a beautiful grey ribbon marker. The cover is suitably Gothic with an angel statue portrayed glaring downwards. This edition features all of James' published ghost stories, as well as an appendix of James' writings on the ghost story. This edition has been edited with an introduction and notes by Darryl Jones and also contains a select bibliography as well as a chronology of M.R. James. There are also some explanatory notes on each of the stories at the end of the book. The select bibliography may not be extensive but has several gems, including The Lore of the Land: A Guide to England's Legends, from Spring-Heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys which I promptly purchased for my reading pleasure.In his Introduction, Darryl Jones wisely advises, "Readers who are unfamiliar with the stories may prefer to treat the Introduction as an Afterword." Indeed, loyal fans of M.R. James will be acquainted with some of the matters brought up in the Introduction, such as James' famed ghost story readings at Christmastime in Cambridge, the basis for TV productions such as BBC's Ghost Stories for Christmas (available at Amazon's UK website) and Ghost Stories from the BBC: Lost Hearts / The Treasure of Abbot Thomas / The Ash Tree (Brand New & Sealed DVD). Even the issue of M.R. James' sexuality is briefly touched upon here. The Introduction is predictably brief, and a deeper insight into James' life and influences can perhaps be found in M.R.James: An Informal Portrait.This volume collects all of MR James' ghost stories except for "A Night In King's College Chapel", and "The Fenstanton Witch", as well as Monty's unfinished ghost stories all of which are found in one complete volume, in A PLEASING TERROR: The Complete Supernatural Writings. To conclude, this Collected Ghost Stories of M.R. James is a handsome edition which is bound to please loyal fans and readers new to this master of the supernatural tale.

This was my first purchase of one of these Wordsworth books. I was hesitant to purchase it because I did not see one person mention in the reviews for this or a handful of the other books I looked at about the quality of the materials.I was concerned that I was going to be buying something similar to the Dover Thrift Editions, books printed on such cheaper paper that they are really only meant to be read once or twice. I'm not knocking those - they have their place, but that's not the kind of book I was looking for.I can safely say that these are quite a few notched higher than the Dover Thrift Editions. The paper is probably similar to that used in your average mass market paperback - but what do you expect for $5?The cover of mine was different - it's the newer cover that is all orange with an embossed skull on the cover and also on the binding. The binding was good. It's glued well enough that there doesn't seem to be any danger of it splitting at the binding. Sometimes with cheap books, especially ones of length, this can be a problem.This edition contains an interesting 5 paged introduction by the editor.The only thing I wish it would have added is perhaps the date each story was written/published, a short introduction to each story (even if just a once sentence description), and perhaps occasional footnotes that explain some of the very archaic words (such as verger, sacristan) and some of the few instances when someone says something in a foreign language. Minor things, of course.Since purchasing this copy I have also purchased 6 other books in the Tales of Mystery & the Supernatural by Wordsworth. They do look nice on the shelf together. I appreciate how each volume has a small version of the cover illustration on the spine - it makes them look quite nice. I do very much like it when companies make their books to look nice on the shelf.As for the stories in the book, I have only finished a handful of them, but so far I have enjoyed them. They are short enough that you can read one before going to bed, or perhaps a little earlier if you'd rather read them before it gets dark! One of my favorite ways to read them is to find an audio version of the story (several good ones can be found on YouTube) and listen to them being read as I follow along in the book.The back of the cover says "They are all designed to instill that satisfying sense of unease in the heart of the reader." And I would say that this is very accurate.Update: I have since purchased 14 other books in this series, both new and used. There have apparently been several edition cover changes in these. The current editions at the time of this review are the ones with the single color cover (yellow, orange, dark green, etc.) and a simple embossed drawing. The previous editions are the ones with the red covers and a picture. These ones have started to very slightly age (even though some of them were new). But no problems with the books. The editions before that is the one that is currently pictured for this listing - the dark grey cover with the grayish picture and the blood on the spine. These ones have aged significantly. It also seems like there was at least one more edition before that. The bindings on those were still alright, though those were all thinner books - some of these books are 500-900 pages. I suspect those would have problems separating at the spine.All in all, I think these are still very good as a series. Many of the stories in these books are very hard to find in print, especially at such affordable prices. I have also found the introductions to be very interesting well thought out.

The media could not be loaded. Some of the best ghost stories I have read. Was having a hard time finding anything enjoyable to read for a long time, but as soon as I started reading these I feel like I love reading again. The book itself is a nice collectors edition with soft feeling paper.

Beautiful language and interesting read.

The paper's decent and the book has most of M.R. James' collection, especially his quite famous stories.The printing font is a little small but manageable.Publishing house is Wordsworth Editions.All in all, I'm satisfied.

Resulta anticuado leerlas desde nuestro punto de vista, no en su época. Demasiado intelectuales y algunas bastante aburridas , con el mismo desenlace ( fantasmas con forma de animal siniestro). A veces el argumento resulta incongruente, muchas veces el desenlace es decepcionante.

La edición no es la misma, el diseño es aburrido y resulta tedioso para leer, la imagen no tiene nada que ver con el producto real de baja calidad

This new edition appears to replace the earlier OUP edition of James stories: it's a bit more comprehensive, though with much uglier cover art … The new introductory material by the editor is quite interesting, and takes into account a lot of recent academic readings of James, with predictable emphasis on repressed homophilia, etc. M.R. James himself needs no introduction for fans of weird tales: he's really the master, and bears many re-readings with no loss of shivers … this edition is a good, compact collection.