Montague Rhodes James (1862–1936)

You know what you're getting with M R James - spooky things from the past where if you dig too hard they'll kill you - but this really does feel just like ringing the changes on the same basic theme. The first story in this collection even has an author's note at the end saying "It will be said, perhaps, and not unjustly, that this is no more than a variation on a former story of mine called The Mezzotint. I can only hope that there is enough of variation in the setting to make the repetition of the motif tolerable.", which kind of sums it up. To be clear it's enjoyable enough! I expected basically this stuff. But it definitely feels like a step down in quality. Everyone is an antiquarian wandering about the countryside and staying at country houses. The spookiest story - A Warning to the Curious - feels quite similar to Count Magnus. But overall it's really hard to pick between these stories. I enjoyed it enough because I do really like his style but there's nothing special in these ones.

(Note that this is rating the stories from the original publication, the editions are a bit weird here. List copied from wikipedia:

"The Haunted Dolls' House"
"The Uncommon Prayer-Book"
"A Neighbour's Landmark"
"A View from a Hill"
"A Warning to the Curious"
"An Evening's Entertainment")… (mehr)