Episode 19: 'Rats' by M.R. James

 

While I work on some longer stories (involving, as you might anticipate, longer production times) I thought it prudent to put out a sort of holding episode - not to diminish this story, which is one of its author's finer later works, but to excuse its brevity. Even the narrator calls it an "ill-proportioned" tale.

Yes, for this episode (19 already!!) we return to M.R. James and Rats - which, aside from the obscure Dickens quotation that opens it, is surprisingly uninfested with rodents, but does reveal something rather more awful under the bedclothes - and is a story composed by James while provost of Eton College, and, indeed, first published in the college magazine At Random.

Rats cleaves to the by-then well-established Jamesian formula. Once again we have a lone male traveller on an extended sojourn in a rural and coastal location (the author's beloved Suffolk), and one whose "indefensible curiosity" leads him to uncover...

Well, listen to the episode and find out.

Suffice to say, this (to invoke another M.R. James title) is not simply a warning to the curious, but a warning to anyone who has ever wondered whether the neighbouring rooms in the hotel are superior to theirs.

I do hope you are enjoying the series. I am very excited for you to hear the upcoming stories - one of which I believe to be a bit of a "deep cut", as it were. Mary Cholmondeley's Let Loose (Episode 11 of the podcast) - another relatively obscure tale - has proved popular with listeners, so I trust this upcoming story will hold similar appeal.

Until then,

Jasper

 

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About the episode

"Rats" by M.R. James was first published in the March 23, 1929 issue of the magazine At Random and later as part of his Collected Ghost Stories. Read it online here.

End theme music: 

The Black Waltz by Scott Buckley | www.scottbuckley.com.au Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Incidental music:

Music used : " DARK ORCHESTRAL LULLABY " composed and produced by "Vivek Abhishek" Music link : https://youtu.be/3jU3rSdWajU SUBSCRIBE us on YOUTUBE: https://bit.ly/3qumnPH Follow on Facebook : https://bit.ly/33RWRtP Follow on Instagram : https://bit.ly/2ImU2JV

Music used : " THE CORRIDOR " composed and produced by "Vivek Abhishek" Music link :https://youtu.be/r0EWPSHD8lY SUBSCRIBE us on YOUTUBE: https://bit.ly/3qumnPH Follow on Facebook : https://bit.ly/33RWRtP Follow on Instagram : https://bit.ly/2ImU2JV

Vivek Abhishek is an astonishingly good composer/producer of "no copyright" music, especially (but not limited to) horror soundtracks. Check out his awesome work on YouTube!

Sound effect attributions: 

https://freesound.org/people/gneube/sounds/315847/*

https://freesound.org/people/GeorgeHopkins/sounds/537197/*

*All used with the following licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

All other sound effects sourced at Freesound.org

The recording was created using Audacity and BandLab. Podcast hosted by Anchor.

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