BiblioAddict The First Step on the Road to Recovery

I know Halloween was almost two weeks ago, but once I start reading creepy tales for the month of October I always find it hard to stop.  There’s something about the whole winding-down of the year that makes reading shiver-inducing tales impossible to resist, which is why I just read my very first M.R. James story, “Count Magnus.”  According to Wikipedia, Mr. James is best known for his ghost stories, which are “widely regarded as among the finest in English literature.”  Seriously?  How, then, is it possible that I have never heard of James or his stories until today?  What rock have I been hiding under?

Luckily, most of M.R. James’ stories are in the public domain so I was immediately able to satisfy my curiosity by reading “Count Magnus,” one of James’ most well-known stories.  The story begins with an unnamed narrator who has inherited a series of papers and book notes by a recently deceased travel writer.  The notes detail the days leading up to the author Mr. Wraxall’s mysterious and gruesome death.  According to the papers, shortly before his death, Mr. Wraxall traveled to an old Swedish estate to research his next book.  There, he became curious about a man who was lord of the manor 300 years ago, Count Magnus. The villagers still tell stories of what a cruel lord Count Magnus was; they also reluctantly talk of Magnus’ “Black pilgrimage” from which he returned with some unspeakable object or thing. No one knows what this thing was, but they do know that something walks that “should not be walking” in the woods behind manor years after the Count supposedly died.  Wraxall, refusing to heed the warning of these ominous tales, decides to investigate the Count’s tomb.  Naturally, what he finds is not to his liking at all… not at all.

It is said that Mr. James’ stories have been a big influence on horror writers such as H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King.  This might be why I felt as if I had read “Count Magnus” before even though I hadn’t.  The voice of the narrator is incredibly familiar – especially if you’ve read Lovecraft – and I could see the end coming a mile away.  Yet, for all that, I found “Count Magnus” delightfully creepy.  If “Count Magnus” is any indication, James is a skilled creator of dark and foreboding atmosphere.  James slowly builds the suspense until the very end even though it’s clear from the story’s onset that something terrible is going to happen.

Furthermore, James leaves several questions unanswered by the story’s end:  Exactly what did Count Magnus bring back from his black pilgrimage?  Does Wraxall act of his own volition or is he being operated upon by some sinister force when he investigates Count Magnus’ tomb?  Why is this sinister force fixated on Wraxall at all?  These are all questions James doesn’t answer and, though I would’ve appreciated a little elucidation, I understand why James chose not to since the the lack of answers merely enhanced the story’s eerie suspense.  The reader doesn’t know exactly what happened by the end of “Count Magnus,” but they do know that whatever it was, it wasn’t good for Mr. Wraxall.

I definitely plan to read more of M.R. James.  Right now, I’m kicking myself because I’ve discovered James a month too late for the R.I.P. challenge.  I could save the rest of James’ stories for next year’s R.I.P., but I seriously doubt I’ll be able to wait that long.

* Short Story Monday is a weekly meme hosted by John at The Book Mine Set.

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