Number 13
‘Three stupid mistakes in twelve hours were too much for a methodical, accurate-minded man, so he turned back to make sure. The next number to 14 was number 12, his own room. There was no Number 13 at all.’
Number 13 – M. R. James
Welcome to the M. R. James countdown to Halloween. It would have been more sensible to read Number 13 on day thirteen, but I’m so fond of this story I couldn’t wait. It’s another ‘academic gets in trouble on while abroad’ job, although he’s actually meant to be doing some work this time.
Our hero is Mr Anderson stumbles across satanic goings on during his stay at an old hotel in the not-at-all fictional Danish city of Viborg. I’ll admit that I thought lovely Viborg was fictional like so many of M. R. James’ settings, so shame on me because it looks great and apparently has “everything you could wish for in history, cosiness, shopping, sports and culture“. I’m not sure what I wish for in history, so perhaps it has a mysterious old hotel that doesn’t have a room numbered ‘13’ after dawn. Who knows.
The story isn’t as frightening as I remember, veering a little on the side of mysterious-goings-ons as opposed to oh-dear-god-what’s-that-behind-me. Anderson is a plodding protagonist with a rubbish sense of spatial awareness who doesn’t seem to notice his room gets smaller each night and an entire window disappears. It’s still a cracking story despite Anderson and his inability to spot enormous holes in the wall covered in glass. Maybe don’t read it in a hotel older than 1950.
Verdict
*** (3 screaming nightmares out of 5)
Moderately unsettling. It’ll make you check your hotel room number that’s for sure.
M. R. James bingo
Anderson doesn’t ditch anyone, so good on him. There’s no book abuse either although I’m going to say there’s a bit of ‘ignoring the blindingly obvious’, the man didn’t notice an entire window went missing. No golf either, hooray.
Ditching friends or offers of company on holiday- Getting into trouble on said holiday
Book abuse- Ignoring the blindingly obvious facts/hints of others
GolfInterfering with an archaeological site- 19th century snobbery
The Story
The story can be found in James’s anthology Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904) and is included in most later collections of his stories. Depending on your country and copyright restrictions, you may be able to access the book legally and for free via Project Gutenberg.
The lovely people at literature wiki have put together an excellent synopsis here.
K.M. Cooke 