M. R. James - The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral (read by Michael Hordern)

[@ripleypipe]

Thank you Paul, another superb M R James story read by the incomparable Michael Hordern, just can't be bettered.

[@purdy9170]

James is the king of the English Ghost Story at its finest .. they never pale ...and are brought to life again and again by great narrators such as Mr Horden . 💕💕💕

[@stewartlancaster6155]

to be pedantic, he is not a Mr., he was a Sir as he was knighted by the Queen in 1983. He died of kidney disease in 1995.

[@Planetholmes]

I love the writings of MR James .These stories so well done are a wonderful treat and a blessed retreat from current events and trite modern entertainment.

[@susanbeesley8299]

Well worth listening to thank you

[@yellowkangdexasthur4904]

Thank you for no ads

[@carollawson1210]

I think I've become addicted to M.R.James so Thank You for the wonderful collection of stories. I've listened to Audio Books for quite a few years now and of course Ruth Rendell is one of my favourite Authors so thank you once again for the Wexfords videoes. Just like to add that I also don't get any adverts in the Wexford videos 🤗

[@chrisevans5259]

I never tire of Michael Horderns rich voice and his wonderful storytelling

[@paulgoddard]

I so agree. There are many other books I wish he had narrated. 🙂

[@BenjaminBartle-li3pc]

What a great voice for a great story

[@TheRickie41]

One of my favorites. The tv adaptation with Hardy is appreciated during the festive season, as a ghoststory for Christmas.

[@MeriScrapper13]

Just watched this acted by a great British cast. I have Britbox, one of the best decisions i made in addition to dropping cable tv. Love this, thank you!

[@budahbaba7856]

Mr James! What a writer he was! ;)

[@barneyhiggins5630]

Marvellous stuff

[@suzitagroom2869]

Love and Light Forever. My Father is a wonderful Gentleman. Kind hearted. And people loved being in his presence. He made his family always feel special. And everything he cooked was perfection at its finest. I loved being around my Father. Sargent Major Bray is my Dad.

[@montsemajanmartinez9824]

Merry Christmas to you. Peace be on you and your family.

[@kateking3953]

"Let me wish you...a happy New Year..." - wonderful!

[@javedsultan4830]

I must stay firm

[@yohei72]

"May I come in?" is the shiveriest part for me.

[@EleanorPeterson]

How frightening for a clergyman to be haunted by visions of one of Mrs Slocombe's furry friends... 🐈👀

[@GwynEllisHughes]

Well, you know how her pussy got up to all kinds of shenanigans 😂

[@leebrockbank5813]

Beautiful

[@steerpike66]

James was a fan of literary allusions and pastiches, and this story, which I consider one of his best, seem to be a murderous riff on Anthony Trollope. Not to mention it is also a cat story and semi-epistolary, built up from newspaper articles, notes, and diary entries. Haynes is one of the few protagonists who seems to have earned his grisly fate, though his motivations for removing the doddering Pulteney appear to have been more a desire for orderly administration than sheer ambition.

[@javedsultan4830]

you wrote this comment as if it were from your doctoral assignment.

[@phillatimer6315]

I agree he earned his fate but would the haunting have ended if he had publicly confessed and repented of his sin? Of course, he would have lost his position as Archdeacon and would have to face the criminal charges of the civil authorities. His pride and stubbornness sealed his fate.

[@jacqui7672]

For a hornytoad you do more than croak with verbiage

[@inisipisTV]

I remember in the preface of the book M.R. James said that he intentionally use name of the fictional Barchester as homage to the Barchester towers chronicles. While the cathedral itself in the book is partly based on Canterbury cathedral.

[@johnbryant8603]

Thank you

[@rtelkin2194]

Thanks. Unusual for MRJ to state the murder instead of leaving it entirely, by reticence, to inference; it seems still one of his best tales.

[@steerpike66]

These moments of graphic horror are actually in the James mode, but he was very much into using them economically. Mr Wraxall meets a similarly hideous disfigurement in 'Count Magnus' and there is a very gory human sacrifice in 'An Evening's Entertainment.'

[@nicholasgerrish6022]

Not so very unusual, If one remembers “Martins Close”, for example……

[@steerpike66]

Like the hunter in 'Count Magnus' Haynes ends up literally defaced. James had no objection to bloodshed, as long as people didn't welter in it needlessly.

[@javedsultan4830]

He does it fast and without much gruesome details. so it doesn't hurt

[@BenjaminBartle-li3pc]

English/ British authors truly are the best in the world. I’m so proud that other countries that think they are great borrow my language and copy what we do whilst trying to claim credit for it. The English doesn’t need to tell the world who they are as the world already knows

[@2msvalkyrie529]

Proust ? Victor Hugo.? Thomas Mann ? Edgar Allan Poe? Tolstoy.? de Maupassant..? etc, etc.. I am British but great writers have no nationality.... much as I love Shakespeare I consider Rostand's Cyrano De Bergerac the single greatest play of all time.

[@BenjaminBartle-li3pc]

@@2msvalkyrie529 no your totally wrong all great writers are English

[@stewartlancaster6155]

your language ?

[@BenjaminBartle-li3pc]

@@stewartlancaster6155 yes cockbreath my language

[@BenjaminBartle-li3pc]

@@stewartlancaster6155 well who’s else is it?

[@appalachiahiker853]

Perhaps MR James symbolise the best the traditional English inteligentisa. A traditionalist, a devout Anglican, a strong anti communist, an English puritan.

[@yellowkangdexasthur4904]

They don't make em like him anymore

[@2msvalkyrie529]

And a devotee of certain practices traditionally associated with the Ancient Greeks ..?

[@elizebethpenington3755]

Who is sergeant Michael Bray? Does he have something to do with this story?

[@squaretriangle3945]

the reader is in a too relaxed mood to read a ghost story

[@yellowkangdexasthur4904]

M.R. James himself was the same way when he would do his own readings. It was just his style.

[@Ardepark]

There is such a thing as a comfy ghost story you know

[@adamhughes4442]

Nobody can top Micheal Horden.

[@stewartlancaster6155]

@@adamhughes4442 even if you spell Michael wrong eh ? basic courtesy to spell someones name correctly.

[@stewartlancaster6155]

these stories were by tradition read by James to colleagues and students around the fireside on Christmas Eve, I doubt he bellowed and shouted in a dramatic manner whilst reading his works. Most likely after a good dinner with a glass of port and cigars / pipes. Go and watch / listen to American crap...