Sunday, June 8, 2008

Something About Jamesian Inspirations

M. R. James
Knowing Bellairs was fond of the ghost stories of M. R. James has led a few people to send us their recommendations for similar tales.  What's your verdict?
Nick Campbell shared something about An Enemy at Green Knowe by Lucy Boston:
...Enemy is about demons and witches and things that go bump in the night – I think it's deliberately [M.R.] Jamesian (there's a hideous white hopping thing, just like in "Casting The Runes") and it definitely gave me a shiver, whilst obviously being something very individual, a children's novel, and with a happy ending - for the goodies, that is....
Charlotte sent her review of The Bone Key by Sarah Monette:
In this collection, ten old-fashioned ghostly stories are connected by their unwilling and frequently-appalled narrator, the unfortunate Kyle Murchison Booth. Awkward, insomniac, painfully shy, the archivist participates in just one badly-orchestrated necromantic ceremony and now the dead won’t leave him alone. Inspired by the antiquarian ghost stories of M.R. James, Monette’s elegant prose delivers shivers without gore, Lovecraft without the bombast.

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