AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY(1964), but this
clever and unusual novel runs a close second.
James is a young boy condemned to what
might be close to the ultimate doom for children.
He lives with two nasty aunts who call him names
and make him do chores all the time. He has no
toys, no friends, and little hope until one day the
barren peach tree in the garden suddenly bears
fruit, one fruit, actually, but a gigantic one. The
aunts see the oversized peach as their key to for-
tune and begin charging admission to see it, while
James, of course, spends all of his time cleaning
up after the tourists. But one day, while finishing
his chores, James finds a doorway in the peach,
enters, and discovers its inhabitants, a silkworm,
a centipede, a grasshopper, a ladybird, and an
earthworm.
The peach breaks free, flattening the aunts in
the process, and James and his companions are off
for a series of wacky adventures. They cross an
ocean, are lifted into the air by seagulls, visit the
clouds, and are mistaken for aliens when they fi-
nally return to the Earth. The story is absurd, and
young readers know that as well as adults, but they
are more accommodating to absurdity. The novel
has had a steady and appreciative audience for
more than 40 years.
James, M. R.(1862–1936)
Montague Rhodes James was one of the first and
most influential of British ghost and horror story
writers, and his collection Ghost Stories of an Anti-
quary(1904) was probably the single most influen-
tial work of supernatural fiction in the early years
of the 20th century. Three more collections con-
tain the bulk of his remaining stories, More Ghost
Stories of an Antiquary(1911), A Thin Ghost and
Others(1919), and A Warning to the Curious and
Other Ghost Stories(1925). The various individual
stories have since been reassembled in several
forms and under several titles, with a few addi-
tional tales added. The Collected Ghost Stories of
M. R. James(1931) is the most complete single
volume.
To a large extent James was inventing many of
the standard devices of horror fiction, though
modern readers may find that his stories have been
imitated so often that they seem slightly stale. One
major exception is “CASTING THE RUNES” (1911),
which is still one of the very best stories about the
consequences of a magical curse. Although James
called his fiction ghost stories, actual ghosts rarely
make an appearance. “The Mezzotint” (1904), for
example, tells the story of a mysterious painting
that gradually changes to reveal the kidnapping of
a child. In “Oh Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My
Lad” (1904) a magical whistle conjures up a very
unusual and frightening apparition, a creature
made of cloth. Church furnishings constructed
from the wood of a hanging tree bring death to a
guilty man in “The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral”
(1911), and a magical crown is moved by unseen
forces in “A Warning to the Curious” (1926). An-
other tree is the vehicle for a witch’s curse in “THE
ASH-TREE” (1904), and a ghostly form does appear
in “COUNT MAGNUS” (1904).
Although James never wrote any horror nov-
els, two of his novellas published as books are fan-
tastic. A man acquires magical powers to
communicate with animals and see fairies in The
Five Jars(1922), and the protagonist of Wailing Well
(1928) unwisely chooses to ignore a local curse
and is taken away by animated skeletons. Al-
though much of James’s importance lies in the in-
novative plots he wrote at the dawn of modern
horror fiction, his own stories have aged surpris-
ingly well and have remained in print fairly steadily
for the past century.“The Jar”Ray Bradbury(1944)
The power of suggestion can be very effective, as is
illustrated in this early story by Ray BRADBURY.
Charlie is a simple man whose fascination with a
carnival exhibit changes his life. The exhibit con-
sists of a nameless something, which Bradbury
never describes in any detail, preserved in a bottle
of fluid. He buys it with all of his ready money after
the carnival owner insists that he was a bit dis-
turbed by the jar in the first place and is just as
glad to see it gone. Even Charlie’s horse recoils
when it catches sight of the jar and its enigmatic
contents. But Charlie sees it as a badge of prestige:
Possession of such an unusual item will enhance
his standing in the community.182 James, M. R.