The article addresses M. R. James, a figure frequently cited in prefaces as the main responsible for the modernization of the ghost story. According to the opinion expressed by Rogério Casanova, James would have replaced the hysteria typical of the Gothic genre with new narrative approaches.
James's fundamental contribution to horror literature lay in the so-called virtues of suggestion and omission, in contrast to the more explicit and exaggerated elements characteristic of the earlier Gothic tradition.
