Ibi Cubavit Lamia
(There laid the screech owl)

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth
Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep?
(253)

But in another minute they were in the sitting-room of the house, a small, high chamber with a stone floor, full of moving shadows cast by a wood-fire that flickered on a great hearth.
(4)

I can only just manage to tell you now the bare outline of the experience. I was conscious of a most horrible smell of mould, and of a cold kind of face pressed against my own, and moving slowly over it, and of several - I don't know how many - legs or arms or tentacles or something clinging to my body.
(95)

He never saw much of what was around him, but he felt the scenes most vividly.
(107)

How clear Betton bell sounds tonight after the rain!; but instead images came to me of dusty beams and creeping spiders and savage owls up in the tower, and forgotten graves and their ugly contents below, and of flying Time and all it had taken out of my life.
(285)
( )

Alright, so, I listened to the "Ash Tree" and the first 10 minutes was about a court case on Witchcraft. That shit was boring af. ( )

Selection of 30+ ghost or just plain weird stories by a master of this form. Early gothics. The typical story has James as narrator telling of a particular character discovering a particular item and then strange happenings and appearances occur. Some stories take place in libraries, churches, estates, schools, etc. Disturbing and unsettling atmosphere. Writing is old-fashioned--Victorian or Edwardian--but keeps one's interest. ( )

A fun read, the type of ghost stories I like (not horror or gore). This was like sitting around a campfire and hearing creepy stories told. The author lets the reader's imagination take over to ponder out the results of the events in the stories. Sometimes it feels half-told, but the effect is that the mind lingers on the tale. I found it best to read one story a night before bed. ( )

The Collected M.R. James
Review of the Oxford World Classics hardcover (2017), an expanded and enhanced edition of the original "The Collected Ghost Stories Of M. R. James" (1931)

I have my ideas of how a ghost story ought to be laid out if it is to be effective. I think that, as a rule, the setting should be fairly familiar and the majority of the characters, and their talk such as you may meet or hear any day. ... Another requisite, in my opinion, is that the ghost should be malevolent or odious: amiable or helpful apparitions are all very well in fairy tales or in local legends, but I have no use for them in a fictitious ghost story. - M.R. James from the Preface to More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911)

Do not, in any case, bring it into the house. It may not be alone ... (Dots are believed by many writers of our day to be a good substitute for effective writing. They are certainly an easy one. Let us have a few more ......) - a rare instance of humour from M.R. James in his article "Stories I Have Tried to Write".

I read Collected Ghost Stories in stages, and reviewed the earlier selections Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911) and A Thin Ghost and Others (1919) over the past two years. Those included the first 19 stories of this collection, so this review only covers the final 13.

The quality drops off quite a lot in the final short vignettes (#26 to #32). In a letter, James himself even admitted to #32 not being up to his previous standards. Still I don't hesitate in rating the entire collection with 5 stars due to the extensive introduction and explanatory notes provided by the editor Darryl Jones.

See book at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9b/The_Collected_Ghost_Stories_of_M....
A copy of the first edition of Collected Ghost Stories (1931). Image sourced from Wikipedia.

Included in A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories (1925)
20. The Haunted Doll's House A collector buys an elaborate doll's house which appears to come alive during the night and allows him to see a reenactment of a crime that happened in the real house which the replica is based on. James himself admitted that this somewhat of a variation on his earlier story The Mezzotint.
21. The Uncommon Prayer-Book A traveller comes across a deserted chapel where there are several copies of a prayer book illegally printed during the time of Oliver Cromwell. The books appear to be haunted in some manner. A book dealer is also interested in them.
22. A Neighbour's Landmark A haunted forest was cut down in an attempt to remove a curse. The curse appears to remain though in the shape of a howling figure.
23. A View from a Hill A traveller visits a friend in the country and together they observe the nearby district from a viewpoint on top of a hill. A cursed pair of homemade binoculars allows the traveller to view scenes from past history which the friend cannot see.
24. A Warning to the Curious An antiquarian finds one of the three lost crowns of East Anglia and is then stalked by its ghost guardian.
25. An Evening's Entertainment A grandmother tells a frightening story to her grandkids.

Included in the original Collected Ghost Stories (1931)
26. There Was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard An invented ghost story to continue the interrupted story of Prince Mamilius in Shakespeare's "A Winter's Tale".
27. Rats An inn contains a haunted room.
28. After Dark in the Playing Fields More of a fantasy story. A man meets a talking owl.
29. Wailing Well A reckless boy scout leaves his troop to inspect a cursed well.

Included in the expanded editions of Collected Ghost Stories
30. The Experiment The death of a man leads to an experiment as to whether he can communicate the location of a treasure after his death.
31. The Malice of Inanimate Objects Mostly just a listing of the harm caused by accidents, but then there is an unexplained murder.
32. A VIgnette A plantation gate is haunted.
[33.] The Fenstanton Witch [Not included in this collection]

Appendix: M.R. James on Ghost Stories. This is a collection of the various introductions and articles that M.R. James wrote for his own ghost story books and for other books and journals.

I read Collected Ghost Stories as part of a subscription to independent bookshop Shakespeare and Company's 2020 Year of Reading Lost Treasures.

Trivia and Links
The Ghost Stories of M.R. James have been adapted on an occasional basis by the BBC TV Series A Ghost Story for Christmas (1971-78, 2005-ongoing).

Most of the Collected Ghost Stories in their earlier separate book releases can be read for free at both Wikisource and Project Gutenberg.

Most of the Collected Ghost Stories can also be listened to for free through public domain audiobooks at LibriVox. ( )