Criticism: M.R. James and the Horror of History

By Swagato Chakraborty

History is a labyrinth. It is a labyrinth where we must enter to make sense of our being, of our present. Yet, it is easy to get lost. The paths of this labyrinth are even more darkened today by the clouds of deliberate misinterpretations and distortions. Today, more than ever, we require Ariadne’s thread to guide us out of this labyrinth. However, where can we find it?

Montague Rhodes James’ literary works provide a part of that thread. His literary texts are focussed on history. This is hardly surprising as James was an outstanding historian himself. According to A. Tindall, James was able to catalogue more than a thousand manuscripts of the St. Edmund Abbey in Bury, and much more impressively, was able to track down lost graves of several medieval abbots of St. Edmund. It is thus obvious that, the author M.R. James would incorporate the historian M.R. James as well. However, this is not something out of the ordinary. Authors often engage in historiography and such engagements often prove to be much truer than academic history. This is mainly because literature is free of the limits that constrain the practice and writing of academic history. We just need to turn to works like One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), The Crucible (1953) or The Gypsy Goddess (2014) to bear witness to it. Hence, we must not be surprised to find the theme of history returning again and again in the works of M.R. James. Rather, the question we must ask is this – what is the nature of such an oft repeated theme? How does James look at history through literature? And most importantly, what does he want to communicate to the readers through such an engagement with history?

Firstly, the nature of M.R. James’ historiography is general and not particular. Unlike Marquez who focusses on Latin American history, Miller who looks back on the shameful witch-trials of Salem and Kandasamy who explores the people’s struggle against exploitative landlords in Tamil Nadu, James does not focus on any particular course of history. In other words, the interaction between human beings and general history is the concern of James. Now, what exactly is this interaction? M.R. James is interested in how human beings react when they become aware of the past. To put it more clearly, he examines how we cope when we suddenly find ourselves face-to-face with the force of history. This can be plainly observed in his short stories (indeed, the title of his 1904 anthology – Ghost Stories of an Antiquary – is case in point). For instance, in “Oh, Whistle, And I Will Come to You, My Lad” an “antiquarian” asks Parkins to look at a historical “Templars’ preceptory” site, and determine if it is “any good to have a dig there in the summer’” (James 65). There, he finds an ancient whistle that brings him unimaginable terror. Similarly, in “Count Magnus”, Wraxallvisits an “ancient manor-house in Vestergothland” (James 55) to read “family correspondence, journals, and account-books of the earliest owners of the estate” (James 56) which brings him face to face with the horrific history and lingering presence of Count Magnus. This same engagement with history can also be observed in the stories outside the mentioned anthology. The best example of this is “A Warning to the Curious” (1925) where Paxton unearths the “three ’olycrowns [...] buried in the ground near by the coast” (James 308) meant to keep the invaders at bay. The discovery of this historical artefact haunts him, leading to his death. Similarly, in “An Episode of Cathedral History” (1914), an old tomb discovered during the renovation at a cathedral invites supernatural chaos to the clergy. Thus, in most of his short stories, the interaction between human beings and history takes the central stage.

Now, we come to the most important aspect of James’ portrayal of history – what does he want to communicate to his readers? Although rich in factual content, the stories in themselves are not lessons to be taught in History classes in school. No, they serve a special purpose and communicate a special message. The main idea that James brings to his readers, through his engagement with history, is the consequence of one’s irrational reaction to history. In other words, the supernatural in these stories is symbolic of the characters’ inappropriate attitudes to history.

For example, in “Oh, Whistle, And I Will Come to You, My Lad”, Parkins discovers a historic relic – the whistle – but rather than storing it safely or investigating into its past, he tries to make it his own by playing it. This private ownership of history, as James shows, is an inappropriate response to history, bringing him terror. Similarly, in “A Warning to the Curious”, it is history, symbolized as a fleeting, shadowy apparition, that haunts Paxton for stealing the Old English crown and for imposing his ownership on it. The apparition is described as someone that Paxton “always saw him with the tail of my eye on the left or the right, and he was never there when I looked straight for him” (James 313). History too, is this lingering presence. It is the past and thus it is never there when we try to look directly at it, but must be reconstructed from sources here and there, left and right. This symbolization of history in this story is arguably James’ best, marred only by the patriarchal notion of history as a “him”, as a masculine entity. In a similar vein, we can turn to “Count Magnus”. Wraxall’s attitude to the historical figure of the Count is irrational. He is aware of the Count’s exploitation of his tenants and yet desires to see him. As he says “‘You may have been a bit of a rascal in your time, Magnus,’ he was saying ‘but for all that I should like to see you” (James 63). Here, James is exploring the issue of historiography. As a historian, Wraxall tries to ignore the social consequences of the Count’s past actions and neutralize him as a historical figure. This is also seen when he discovers the alchemy book where Magnus has jotted down portions of an occult ritual. Although, the narrator comments that this discovery “threw a rather lurid light” on the Count, Wraxall, who is “separated from [the Count] by nearly three centuries” thought it made Magnus into a “more picturesque figure” (James 58). Thus, as a historian, Wraxall fails and his inappropriate interaction with history leads to his own doom. Lastly, if we turn to “An Episode in Cathedral History”, we find two irrationalities. Firstly, Dean Burscough shows irrationality towards history by deciding to move the old alter-tomb from its original (read historical) position. Secondly, the decision to renovate the medieval, “previous to the twelfth century” (James 228) church (which Worby suspected to be actually even older and dating back to the Old English period) according to the style of Gothic revival, is itself seen by James as an inappropriate thing to do to a historical building.

Another, totally opposite, reading can also be made. It is equally possible to argue that, the negative reaction of the Worby family and the rest of the clergy towards the restoration is the actual irrational moment. Their resistance to a renovation that could have improved the condition of the building (structural and otherwise), and made the historical features of it more safe and secure, is what is inappropriate and the origin of the supernatural. Nonetheless, in whichever way we read it, James seems to be critiquing the irrational or inappropriate human reaction to history.

Thus, M.R. James looks at history through literature. For him, literature becomes the stage where human beings are forced to confront historical reality. James argues that one must have a measured, rational and appropriate response to history. It must be noted that this notion of history is a result of James’ cultural position. He was between the Victorian and the Modernist literary ages, preferring to write in a Georgian style (the opening passages of “A Neighbour’s Landmark” contains the style and praise for Victorianism). With the advent of postmodernism, however, James’ view of a rational or appropriate response could be challenged. In postmodernist poetics, history is regularly stripped off its epistemic centrality and thus responses to history also become doubtful. However, this does not mean that we can discard James’ message about history. The inappropriate or irrational response to history is a problem for our times. Throughout the world, fascistic and totalitarian forces continuously distort history in order to rise to or stay in power. Rising together with them are the ultracrepidarian “influencers” on social media, who butcher history with opinion from their digital pulpits. Perhaps, now is the time we flip the pages of M.R. James and take stock of the force of history and the grave consequences of our response to it. Otherwise, we are reduced to Parkins, Paxton, Wraxall or Worby, lost in the labyrinth, forever haunted by history.

Works Cited:

James, M. R. Collected Ghost Stories. Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1992.

Tindall, Adrian. “M R James and the Abbey of St Edmund.” Bury St Edmund & Beyond, visit-burystedmunds.co.uk/blog/m-r-james-and-the-abbey-of-st-edmund. Accessed 27^th April 2024.

Swagato Chakraborty is a writer from India who believes that the world can be changed through literature. His works have previously appeared in Aphelion, Borderless Journal and Schlock.