In my opinion, the stories in the first volume ([b:Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories|255374|Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories|M.R. James|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1391750303l/255374._SY75_.jpg|247500]) were more memorable. However, this is still an excellent collection of ghost stories. The articles in the appendix were also very interesting as they illuminated James' thoughts on writing and what makes for a good ghost story. ( )

I received this book as a gift last year at Christmas and decided to keep it until October before reading it. It set the mood for the month in a spectacular way. The stories are similar in tone and style to others I've read from the same time period so they aren't scary in the same way modern horror stories are. However, they are wonderfully suspenseful and frightening in a more classic manner. I've marked my favorites to reread next fall. ( )

My first ‘’meeting’’ with M.R.James was through the marvelous Classic Ghost Stories series narrated by the living legend that answers to the name Robert Powell. The strange thing is that for some unknown reason I hadn’t actually read any of his stories. Shame, I know. A few weeks ago, my mum went to our favourite bookshop to pick up an order and took the initiative to buy the collection. ‘’I don’t recall having seen this author on your shelves’’. Because she is cool like that…

Can you actually get scared reading a ghost story while you’re in a train, in a calm Thursday evening, with people all around you? Especially when you are a seasoned ghost - stories reader? Actually, you can. I mean, I was petrified. In the title story, an antiques dealer finds himself as the temporary owner of a beautiful, unsettlingly realistic doll’s house. From the very first moments, something seems to be wrong. And he is right to think so for every night, at exactly one o’clock the doll’s house come alive. It comes alive with a story that is too terrible to describe…

There are many stories worthy of praise in this collection. My favourites include Wailing Well, The Mezzotint, The Ash Tree, I’ll Come to You, My Lad but it is The Haunted Dolls' House that made me shiver while in a public place. Definitely a volume that should find a home on the shelves of every horrorphile.

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/ ( )

Genuinely creepy tales where less is more and Mr. James lets your imagination fill in the details. ( )

Way back when I read Michael Chabon's Maps and Legends (review) I noted that I'd have to hunt up some of the stories of M.R. James, which Chabon discusses in one of his essays. At least one reader emailed to encourage me in that, and when I saw a copy of James' The Haunted Dolls' House and Other Ghost Stories (the second volume of Penguin's "Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. James") sometime later, I snatched it up. It finally made its slow way to the top of the pile, and I thought a nice long weekend would be the perfect time to dip into the stories. I was not disappointed.

While the editor calls the stories included here "generally inferior" to those in the other volume, which includes James' earlier stories (and which I've now ordered up), I quite enjoyed those between these covers. James captures supernatural visitations and unexplained events very well, and has a way of lending very creepy powers to seemingly benign, inanimate objects (among them are binoculars, fabric, and, as might be expected from the title, even a dollhouse).

All of the stories here are well worth reading, but if I had to pick just a few, I'd highlight "The Residence at Whitminster", "The Diary of Mr. Poynter", "Two Doctors," "The Haunted Dolls' House", "A View from a Hill," and "The Uncommon Prayer-Book" (which takes as its supernatural element a bibliographically-mysterious Commonwealth-period Book of Common Prayer). One of the things I really like (and I'm sure you'll be shocked, shocked at this) about James' stories is the inclusion of books, libraries, book auctions and antiquarianism in the plots (he was a medievalist and manuscript cataloger).

Some of my favorite Conan Doyle stories are his supernatural tales, and these reminded me (in a good way) of those. Creepy, but highly enjoyable, and very much recommended.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2010/11/book-review-haunted-dolls-house.html ( )