This is a review of the short story Count Magnus, written by M.R. James and published in his collection Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. Read my reviews of The Treasure of Abbot Thomas, Canon Alberic’s Scrap Book, ‘Oh, Whistle, And I’ll Come to You, My Lad,’ and Number Thirteen. M.R. James was a Cambridge scholar who wrote ghost stories in the early 20th century.
A scholar and gentleman-of-means named Wraxall travels to Sweden to write a guidebook and becomes interested in one Count Magnus, a deceased Swedish nobleman with a nasty reputation. Among other things, it’s said the Count went to Chorazin on the Black Pilgrimage and brought something/someone back with him. Before this, I’d never heard of Chorazin or the Black Pilgrimage. Reading is educational!
Wraxall, who talks to himself and easily loses track of his surroundings, seems like the type who walks into trees and other people’s houses. His cluelessness proves fatal when he unwittingly resurrects the Count and his companion, who looks like Cthulhu’s bratty kid brother.
Does this sound familiar? Maybe it does, because it’s the same plot as the past four stories in this volume. It goes like this: a scholar and man-of-means with wanderlust encounters the supernatural during the course of his travels. Sometimes he escapes with a few bad memories and minor phobias; sometimes his curiosity costs him his life.
None of James’ narrators have much in the way of a personality. All overstep a boundary, often without knowing it. In this case, Wraxall summons Count Magnus by saying out loud he’d like to meet him. He has no way of knowing that the Count is ready and eager to accept visitors!
Lastly, the star of James’s stories is always the ghost, whether it’s a dancing and singing ghost, a ghost made out of bedsheets, or a ghost with the skin of a toad. James’s ghosts – and the way he describes the ghosts – are why he is still known and read today. Recommended for ghost story lovers!
Abandoned Places 