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Title: A Warning to the Curious
Author: M. R. James
Narrator: Roy Macready
Format: Unabridged
Length: 39 mins
Language: English
Release date: 08-30-16
Publisher: Spiders' House Audio
Genres: Classics, British Literature
Publisher's Summary:
M. R. James (1862-1936) was provost of King's College, Cambridge, and Eton College. He was a highly regarded scholar and academic in his time but today is remembered for his ghost stories, which are considered among the finest in the genre. Here is one of them: "A Warning to the Curious".
Members Reviews:
Outrageous!
Even though this is the name of one of M.R. James' beloved collections of ghost stories, what is being sold here is no collection. Instead, it's the sale--for ten bucks, no less!--of a single short story of about five pages that is in the public domain and may be freely found by searching the Internet. Not only that, but the copy is full of print-to-etext typos. In other words, it's a scam. This is shameful, and if it and all the other five- or six-page "ebooks" aren't taken down, they will be very likely to drive Kindle readers away from using the Kindle Store.
A haunted crown and a stolen prayer book
"A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories" (1925) is a very satisfying volume of M. R. James's (MRJ's) supernatural stories. However, it only contains six of his short stories. Instead of purchasing this volume, you might want to consider one of his more complete collections. Ash-Tree Press's "A Pleasing Terror" (2001), contains the complete and heavily annotated supernatural writings of MRJ, and no true Monty fan should be without it.
The next best collection, "Casting the Runes and Other Stories" edited by Michael Cox, contains most of MRJ's supernatural stories and is quite a bit cheaper than "A Pleasing Terror."
The following stories are included in "A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories":
"The Haunted Doll's House"--This story was written for the library of the Queen's Doll's House, and somewhat resembles MRJ's "The Mezzotint" from the earlier "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary." Mr. Dillet buys an unusual doll house in the Strawberry Gothic fashion from an acquaintance, and sets it up in his bedroom. "It was quite six feet long, including the Chapel or Oratory...and the stable on the right." The house is completely furnished and has several inhabitants, including "a gentleman and lady in blue satin and brocade, respectively...and a white haired old gentleman in a long linen night-dress and cap." When the house seems to come alive, it tells a ghastly tale of murder and revenge from beyond the grave.
"The Uncommon Prayer-book"-- Mr. Davidson strikes up a conversation with an old gentleman on a train and is invited to view a disused Chapel. MRJ engulfs his reader in quaint British dialects in this story of a prayer book that would not stay shut.
"A Neighbour's Landmark"-- A gentleman spends a wet August afternoon in his host's library and discovers an old pamphlet with two lines from a country song, "That which walks in Betton Wood/ Knows why it walks or why it cries." When the weather clears, he explores the part of his friend's property that used to be called 'Betton Wood.'
"A View from a Hill"--A pair of field-glasses made by an old and rather unlikeable watch-maker reveal peculiar landscape features, including a gibbet and something hanging from it.
