The Mezzotint (1904) by M.R. James

The Mezzotint, written by M.R. James in 1904 is one of the many ghost stories the author is famous for. This short story is typical of the ghost story in many ways that we will develop, but with an originality that almost undermines the genre.

The Mezzotint is constructed like so many ghost stories, with the apparition of a disruptive something that cannot be explained by the rational known rules that govern the world and the mind, and this apparition takes place in a common setting, with common people, to make us feel that it could happen to anybody, including us. That it is anchored in a contemporary setting is one of the many literary achievements of M.R. James, thus allowing a more direct identification with the characters than if they were from the Middle-Ages as it was fashionably the case in gothic and ghost stories. Indeed, London is the backcloth and our main character is a Mr. Williams with the honorable job of presiding over a museum and being in charge of making new acquisitions to enlarge its extensive existing collection. The rarity as it is first mentioned in the text will come to him through very common ways, his usual dealer sending him his catalogue as usual, with a quick note to the effect of a particular topographical picture.
The first unexplainable thing is only a detail but it still sets the machinery to work: why would Mr. Britnell ask such an exorbitant price for such an ordinary picture? But since the dealer “knew his business and his customer” Mr. Williams asks the original picture to be sent to him. On his receiving it, he is greatly disappointed since “the whole thing gave the impression it was the work of an amateur” and “an indifferent mezzotint is perhaps the worst form of engraving known”. Turning it over “with a good deal of contempt”, Mr. Williams discovers an incomplete writing that doesn’t allow him to even situate the original manor of such a poor picture. Probably forgetting about it