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.’ "
