A School Story - M.R. James

A School Story
M.R. James

I really like James poking fun at all the common stereotype ghost tales around in the opening, but I feel like at some point, there's James, sitting at his desk, writers block hitting, Christmas round the corner, comes up with an idea but DAMN IT, he already used it at the start of School Story!

"‘I dare say it was. Then there was the man who heard a noise in the passage at night, opened his door, and saw someone crawling towards him on all fours with his eye hanging out on his cheek. There was besides, let me think—Yes! the room where a man was found dead in bed with a horseshoe mark on his forehead, and the floor under the bed was covered with marks of horseshoes also; I don’t know why. Also there was the lady who, on locking her bedroom door in a strange house, heard a thin voice among the bed-curtains say, ‘Now we’re shut in for the night.’ None of those had any explanation or sequel. I wonder if they go on still, those stories.’ "

 

 

All of these sound like more interesting tales than 2 Doctors or the Diary of the Hairy Hands.

"Memento putei inter quatuor taxos" - I also loved the idea of the ghost manifesting via Latin homework. Knew that stuff was deadly.

"Well, I bagged the extra paper, and kept it, and I believe I have it now. And now you will want to know what was written on it. It was simple enough, and harmless enough, I should have said. ‘Si tu non veneris ad me, ego veniam ad te,’ which means, I suppose, ‘If you don’t come to me, I’ll come to you.’ ’"

It might be lowkey, but thats one of my favourite Jamesian bits of foreshadowing. No big set piece, just a nice casual threat from the other side. Although again, there is a feeling James is burning through some great ideas for longer mood pieces in this rather throwaway tale.

"There was a man sitting or kneeling on Sampson’s window-sill, and looking in, and I thought he was beckoning."

One of the most influential moments in horror for me aged 9. Even today i need to edit out too many beckoning monsters! And I completely stole this image (sorry, paid homage) for a set piece in another of my stories (The Watcher) only it was told from the perspective of the person in the room watching this thing beckon to them.

A story I later told some folk was based on a real incident. And they believed me. Happy days!

Its the Mezzotint spook reveal and told to us second hand, but I quite like it as its in the flesh, McLeod sees it from the window, and at any moment the creature could have turned round and seen him. Feels more real as a result.

I mean, wearing my editors, writers, or critics hat on, there are plenty of flaws in School Story. James tells, doesn't show. He summarises where the Jamesian Wallops would be, and he doesn't do any character work of note. It feels like crib notes for a far longer tale. Instead we get Ghost by Numbers.

And yet, in the summer of 1995, I had 2 quick new influences. The works of the great RL Stine, and this story in a school book. It might not be top M.R. James but it enthralled the 9 year old me, and the quick counter punch of the two led to me seeking out more and more horror literature, and starting to write my own. Too much of my own hobbies and career since derive directly from this tale in a forgotten 90s collection. So weaker James tale, for sure, but my own history and nostalgia means I cant help but look fondly at it.