I've been working my way through the complete works of Ambrose Bierce for a while, which I picked up because Episode 200 and Oil of Dog kept picking at the corner of my brain.
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Anyone have suggestions for the best collection of James's work?
I'm glad I'm not the only one who went out and bought the complete works of Bierce after Episode 200!
As far as James goes, I've been reading stories of his on and around Christmas for a couple years now, and he really isn't that prolific. Off the top of my head, I think he only published around 30 or so stories, most of them relatively short. They are all or mostly all in the Public Domain, so Wikisource and Gutenberg are reasonable places to read them, although I am quite a fan of the Librivox recording of "Ghost Stories of An Antiquary" read by Peter Yearsley. He has an excellent voice and is probably my favorite Librivox reader. The Librivox version of "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" is actually James' first two collections (out of 4). The first eight stories are from the original book of the same name, and the rest are from "More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" which was published a couple of years later. I'd start there, if only because I find audio fiction goes faster for me in terms of actually getting around to reading it.
That said, you need to pay attention to some of the endings and I know I got more out of some stories by reading/listening to them more than once.
I think the 8 stories in "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" (I've typed that too many times, haven't I) are a pretty good overview of James. They aren't universally his strongest stories, but neither are they his weakest. I'd put "The Ash Tree", "Lost Hearts", and "Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad" in my all-time James favorites, but tastes vary.
I do think that those first 8 stories hit most of his major themes and techniques and give a pretty good overview of his writing though. And some are weird little gems. For example, I didn't find "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book" scary at all, but it's still one of those stories I find myself thinking about at weird times, and I'm not really sure what quality gives it that.
One last thing:
WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT LISTEN TO "THE TREASURE OF ABBOT THOMAS" IN AUDIO. It is one of the only stories
not made for reading aloud. It contains long stretches of Latin and gibberish cipher letters that look much better on the page than read aloud. It isn't a bad story, but it is unlistenable. But being the thorough folks they are, Librivox recorded it anyway.
Anyway, if you didn't pick up on it, I'm quite the M.R. James fan and I'd always be happy to talk about any of the stories with you if you want discussion. Maybe we should start an M.R. James book-club next Christmas or something...