Customer Reviews:
 Great Listening January 17, 2008
A must have for lovers of ghost stories in general and particularly those of M.R. James. Superbly read by the great Derek Jacobi who really makes the stories come alive. A real treat.
 A useful addition to my audio library January 17, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I was intoduced, 50 years ago, to the delights of the ghost stories of M.R. James by my Latin master at school who usually read one of these superb stories at the end of term. These made such a deep impression on me that, to this day, ghost stories fall into 2 groups - those by M.R. James and the rest!
By far and away the best recordings of M.R. James' ghost stories were those recorded by the incomparable Michael Hordern on the Argo label, now sadly long deleted. His voice characterizations seem to hit exactly the right note.
Unfortunately Hordern did not record all the stories, so this CD is a very welcome addition to my audio library, as it contains two that Hordern didn't do - A View from a Hill & The Story of a Disappearance & an Appearance. Derek Jacobi's characterizations are of a wider range than Hordern's, but the general narrative style doesn't quite do it for me in the same way that Hordern's does.
It has to be said that recordings of all James Stories are being released, narrated by David Collings (if, that is, the publisher ever get round to releasing the 2nd tranche - I've been waiting 10 months!!). However Collings' characterizations are, by a long way, the poorest of the three. He has a flat & monotonous intonation which I find tedious, so in terms of material available today, Jacobi's recording is to be greatly commended.
|
