Casting the Runes and Other Ghost StoriesWhen we think of ghost stories, we tend to think of cub scouts cringing by a fire, s'mores at the ready, as some aging camp counselor tries to scare them witless with yet another tale from the crypt. But as Michael Chabon's marvelous introduction reminds us, the ghost story was once integral to the genre of the short story. Indeed, as he points out, it can be argued that the ghost story was the genre. Dickens's "A Christmas Carol," Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw"--most of the early short story writers wrote ghost stories as a matter of course. And the best writer of ghost stories, the acknowledged master, was M.R. James. In Casting the Runes, we have twenty-one tales that, in Chabon's words, "venture to the limits of the human capacity for terror and revulsion...armed only with an umbrella and a very dry wit." The stories here represent the best of James's work. They are set in the leisurely, late-Victorian, middle-class world of country houses, seaside inns, out-of-the-way railway stations, and cathedral closes, where gentlemen of independent means and antiquarian tastes suddenly find themselves confronted by terrifying agents of supernatural malice. But what these tales are really about, writes Chabon, "is ultimately the breathtaking fragility of life, of 'reality, ' of all the structures that we have erected to defend ourselves from our constant nagging suspicion that underlying everything is chaos, brutal and unreasoning." The tales in Casting the Runes are both chilling fun and, as Chabon concludes, "unmistakably works of art." Anyone who loves short fiction or who enjoys a good scare will find these stories an irresistible delight. |
Contents
Canon Alberics Scrapbook | 1 |
The Mezzotint | 14 |
Number 13 | 26 |
Count Magnus | 43 |
Oh Whistle and Ill Come to You My Lad | 57 |
The Treasure of Abbot Thomas | 78 |
A School Story | 97 |
The Rose Garden | 105 |
Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance | 170 |
The Diary of Mr Poynter | 197 |
An Episode of Cathedral History | 208 |
The Uncommon Prayerbook | 226 |
A Neighbours Landmark | 242 |
A Warning to the Curious | 255 |
Rats | 273 |
The Experiment | 279 |
The Tractate Middoth | 117 |
Casting the Runes | 135 |
The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral | 156 |
The Malice of Inanimate Objects | 286 |
A Vignette | 291 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abbot afternoon ain't Anderson Anstruther Archdeacon asked Belchamp St Paul believe Betton Wood Brockstone cathedral choir church Colonel Count Magnus course dark Davidson dean dear Dennistoun Denton door Dunning Eldred eyes face fancy father felt figure garden Garrett gate gentleman ghost stories Gregory groynes hand happened Harrington hear heard hour Humphreys interest James James Denton Karswell kind knew landlord laugh letters light look M. R. James martello tower matter maze mezzotint MICHAEL CHABON mind minutes morning never night Number 13 once paper Parkins Paxton perhaps picture portmanteau recollect remember round sacristan seemed seen someone Somerton Southminster stalls suppose sure talk tell there's thing thought told took trouble turned Viborg walk Warwickshire Williams Wilsthorpe window Worby word Wraxall