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Acolyte, v. 3, issue 4, whole no. 12, Fall 1945
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IRONY and HORROR: The ART of M.R.JAMES by Samuel D. Russel -o0o- With the publication in 1944 of the Best Ghost Stories of M. R. James (1) by Tower books, the work of the man who is generally acknowledged to be the finest modern writer in this genre has at last achieved popular circulation. His manner of writing has had a strong and lasting influence on recent supernatural fiction, and many writers during the last twenty years have attempted, with greater or lesser success, to follow his technique; but none have consistently equaled his effectiveness. Perhaps, then, it is time to examine and analyze his fiction thoroughly, with a view to describing his methods and trying to answer the oft-raised admiring cry of his reviewers, "How does James do it?" To this end it will be best to describe first the man himself, then the content of his stories, and finally their form and style. Montague Rhodes James was born in England on August 1, 1862, one of the three sons of the Rev. Herbert James, who in 1865 became the curate of the village of Livermere in Suffolk, and until the father's death in 1909 the family lived in the Rectory on the edge of the great park surrounding Livermere Hall. Young Monty was a book-lover as early as six, and with the encouragement of his father he educated himself so well that he was not sent to school until he was eleven. At Temple Grove school he was a gentle, lanky, spectacled lad who was quite popular among his classmates but loved reading and scholarship above all else. Like his father, he attended Eton and later King's College, Cambridge University, where, despite considerable physical strength, his nearsightedness prevented him from participating in games, and where he became fascinated by the byways in Latin, Greek, and the Apocrypha, and won several prizes and scholarships. During his last year in college he was a half-term master at Eton, and the following year (1887) he participated in archaeological excavations in Cyprus, but the antiquarian lure of medieval manuscripts and apocryphal literature proved even stronger than classical archaeology. Upon his return he was elected to a fellowship at King's and became Assistant Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, where he began his long career of cataloging medieval manuscripts. In 1893 he became director of the museum and Dean of King's College, where he stayed for twelve congenial years; having no lecturing and little business work to do, he was free to devote his time to scholarship, so that in his early thirties he already ranked third or fourth among European savants in knowledge of manuscripts. Probably what helped him most to attain this intellectual eminence was his vast and retentive memory, universal in scope and unerring in application, which steadily improved with the years and speeded his scholarly work immensely. Though placid and unhurried at all times, he never wasted a spare moment but worked constantly and unobtrusively during odd minutes, writing on any scraps of paper that were handy. His clear and well-directed mind needed no inspiration or "warming up" to begin work, and moved swiftly from one subject to another without strain in the transition. Nothing was beyond or beneath the range of his catholic interests, for he never concerned himself with whether a thing was worth knowing; to him all knowledge was its own reward. His youthful popularity continued unhampered by his bookish seclusion, and -- 3 --
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IRONY and HORROR: The ART of M.R.JAMES by Samuel D. Russel -o0o- With the publication in 1944 of the Best Ghost Stories of M. R. James (1) by Tower books, the work of the man who is generally acknowledged to be the finest modern writer in this genre has at last achieved popular circulation. His manner of writing has had a strong and lasting influence on recent supernatural fiction, and many writers during the last twenty years have attempted, with greater or lesser success, to follow his technique; but none have consistently equaled his effectiveness. Perhaps, then, it is time to examine and analyze his fiction thoroughly, with a view to describing his methods and trying to answer the oft-raised admiring cry of his reviewers, "How does James do it?" To this end it will be best to describe first the man himself, then the content of his stories, and finally their form and style. Montague Rhodes James was born in England on August 1, 1862, one of the three sons of the Rev. Herbert James, who in 1865 became the curate of the village of Livermere in Suffolk, and until the father's death in 1909 the family lived in the Rectory on the edge of the great park surrounding Livermere Hall. Young Monty was a book-lover as early as six, and with the encouragement of his father he educated himself so well that he was not sent to school until he was eleven. At Temple Grove school he was a gentle, lanky, spectacled lad who was quite popular among his classmates but loved reading and scholarship above all else. Like his father, he attended Eton and later King's College, Cambridge University, where, despite considerable physical strength, his nearsightedness prevented him from participating in games, and where he became fascinated by the byways in Latin, Greek, and the Apocrypha, and won several prizes and scholarships. During his last year in college he was a half-term master at Eton, and the following year (1887) he participated in archaeological excavations in Cyprus, but the antiquarian lure of medieval manuscripts and apocryphal literature proved even stronger than classical archaeology. Upon his return he was elected to a fellowship at King's and became Assistant Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, where he began his long career of cataloging medieval manuscripts. In 1893 he became director of the museum and Dean of King's College, where he stayed for twelve congenial years; having no lecturing and little business work to do, he was free to devote his time to scholarship, so that in his early thirties he already ranked third or fourth among European savants in knowledge of manuscripts. Probably what helped him most to attain this intellectual eminence was his vast and retentive memory, universal in scope and unerring in application, which steadily improved with the years and speeded his scholarly work immensely. Though placid and unhurried at all times, he never wasted a spare moment but worked constantly and unobtrusively during odd minutes, writing on any scraps of paper that were handy. His clear and well-directed mind needed no inspiration or "warming up" to begin work, and moved swiftly from one subject to another without strain in the transition. Nothing was beyond or beneath the range of his catholic interests, for he never concerned himself with whether a thing was worth knowing; to him all knowledge was its own reward. His youthful popularity continued unhampered by his bookish seclusion, and -- 3 --
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