M.R. James Stories Ranked (2024 edition)

 I do this every year, but haven't posted the results on the blog for a number of years now. The position changes marked below are in line with my rankings from last year, which I posted on Gallifrey Base, and which were the first time I'd included the five extra stories not included in Collected Ghost Stories. I do like the idea, given the publication date of The Experiment, that, no sooner had M.R. James written in that collection that he didn't see himself writing any new tales, than he was immediately writing another. 

Without any further preamble, here are the ghost stories of M.R. James, ranked from least good to best...

Oh and fragments (Mr Humphreys, Game of Bear, etc) aren't counted. It's the 30 stories in Collected plus Experiment, Malice, Vignette, Fenstanton Witch and Speaker Lenthal's Tomb, the latter of which I feel is complete enough to make a judgement. All opinions are of course solely mine, so apologies if I slag off your favourite ghost story...

The Rise of the Supernatural

Previously published in 2009. 

The Rise of the Supernatural

Michael S. Collins

I - A Welcome to the Supernatural

II - The Foreshadowing of Mr Dickens

II.2 - The Signalman

III - Le Fanu's Haunting

IV - Lost Hearts: Creeping Horror

IV.2 - Lost Hearts

IV.3 - A Warning to the Curious

V - Conclusions

I

A Welcome to the Supernatural

If you look at the history of the supernatural fiction, from recorded beginning to the current day, it becomes clear that there was a peak of some magnitude during the Victorian era. This stretches from A Christmas Carol in the 1840s, until beyond the death of Edward VIII. In this eighty-year time period, supernatural fiction sold like hot cakes. The people lapped them up. Every writer known to the language tried their hand at one: some, like Dickens, tried often, and some, like Le Fanu, were genre specialists. And they sold, and they were highly regarded for their craft, and the subject was frequently a best seller. All of the greatest writers of the supernatural all come from within this time period of 1840-1920.

Introducing: The40p

My new fiction market has been launched. The40p is so named because every story published sells for 40p (or more, if the buyer so wishes, no writer turns down a gift horse in the eye after all).

You can find us here.

Submission are now open, here are the guidelines. They'll be getting tweaked over the next week as the current length doesn't show up too well on mobile devices. Basically, we'll take any genre (including non-fiction) if its well written, and the only outright No-Nos are abuse and fanfic.

You can follow us on twitter @the40pdotcom.

Alternatively, we have Facebook and on Linkedin. We shall soon have pages on all the main social media sites.

We also have two stories. One by yours truly, "Love You, Sweetie!", about a murder, revenge and a ghost from Celtic mythology. When I picked an old legend to base the tale around, I managed to somehow luck upon one my folklorist wife hadn't heard of.

However, we were delighted to welcome on board Interzone books editor Jim Steel. "Thrilling Air Stories!" is a typical Steelian tale, where the average person in the street rapidly finds themselves completely at sideways with reality. This one involves a failing marriage, balloons, and a war zone.

We hope you enjoy!