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Great Short Stories
1950
- GenresShort Stories
536 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1950
1 person is currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
Wilbur L. Schramm
26 books8 followersWilbur Lang Schramm (August 5, 1907 – December 27, 1987) is sometimes called the "father of communication studies," and had a great influence on the development of communication research in the United States, and the establishing of departments of communication studies in U.S. universities.
Schramm was born in Marietta, Ohio. After working for the Associated Press, he received an MA in American civilization at Harvard University and a Ph.D. in English at the University of Iowa, where he eventually founded the creative writing workshop. His own stories resulted in his award of the O. Henry Prize for fiction in 1942. His interests extended beyond the humanistic tradition, and some of his early work examined the economic conditions surrounding the publication of Chaucer's tales, and audience reactions to poetry written in different meters. During the Second World War, Schramm joined the Office of War Information to investigate the nature of propaganda, and during this time and after employed largely behaviorist methodologies.
In 1947-1955, Schramm was Founding Director and Research Professor of the Institute for Communications Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was also Founding Director of the Institute for Communication Research (1957-1973) and Janet M. Peck Professor of International Communication (1961-1973) at Stanford University, where he retired and became Professor Emeritus in 1973. In 1973-1975, Schramm served as Director of the East-West Communication Institute at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. He later held the titles of Director Emeritus of the East-West Communication Institute and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the East-West Center. In 1959-1960, he was Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.
Schramm was especially influential for his 1964 book Mass Media and National Development which was published in conjunction with UNESCO, which effectively began research into the link between the spread of communication technology and socio-economic development.
Schramm was born in Marietta, Ohio. After working for the Associated Press, he received an MA in American civilization at Harvard University and a Ph.D. in English at the University of Iowa, where he eventually founded the creative writing workshop. His own stories resulted in his award of the O. Henry Prize for fiction in 1942. His interests extended beyond the humanistic tradition, and some of his early work examined the economic conditions surrounding the publication of Chaucer's tales, and audience reactions to poetry written in different meters. During the Second World War, Schramm joined the Office of War Information to investigate the nature of propaganda, and during this time and after employed largely behaviorist methodologies.
In 1947-1955, Schramm was Founding Director and Research Professor of the Institute for Communications Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was also Founding Director of the Institute for Communication Research (1957-1973) and Janet M. Peck Professor of International Communication (1961-1973) at Stanford University, where he retired and became Professor Emeritus in 1973. In 1973-1975, Schramm served as Director of the East-West Communication Institute at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. He later held the titles of Director Emeritus of the East-West Communication Institute and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the East-West Center. In 1959-1960, he was Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.
Schramm was especially influential for his 1964 book Mass Media and National Development which was published in conjunction with UNESCO, which effectively began research into the link between the spread of communication technology and socio-economic development.
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July 25, 2021
The Tell-Tale Heart - Edgar Allen Poe
Rappaccini's Daughter - Nathaniel Hawthoren
The Outcasts of Poker Flats - Bret Harte
The Open Boat - Stephen Crane
All-Gold Canon - Jack London
The Furnished Room - O. Henry
The Lost Phoebe - Theodore Dreiser
Neighbor Rosicky - Willa Cather
Sophistication - Sherwood Anderson
Now I lay Me - Ernest Hemingway
By the Waters of Babylon - Stephen Vincent Benet
The Leader of the People - John Steinbeck
The Bear - William Faulkner
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse - William Saroyan
The Secret Sharer - Joseph Conrad
The Incarnation of Krishna Mulvaney
The Red-Headed League - Arthur Conan Doyle
The Storyteller - Saki (H.H. Munro)
Timber - John Galsworthy
The Man Who Could Work Miracles - H.G. Wells
The Dill Pickle - Katherine Mansfield
The Lotus-Eater - W. Somerset Maugham
The Death of the Dauphin - Alphonse Daudet
The Inn - Guy de Maupassant
The Beggar - Anton Chekov
The Invisible Collection - Stefan Zweig
The Laugh in the Desert - Pedro Prado
If I had this as a textbook instead of a Norton Anthology of random crap, I might have dedicated myself to English and Composition instead of History. Some of the stories made me laugh. Some made me cry. A few made me research them to learn what I missed.
Nearly the first 50 pages are an introduction to literature. What is a short story? How is it written? How to read a short story? What makes them good? And it is rounded off with a glossary of literary terms. This section is rather subjective. There are good points. Schramm argues that a short story is rarely anything to do with a straight-forward reading. He tells his students to look for different layers of meaning. Sometimes it is hard to find multiple layers of meaning; and the basic story itself carries strong emotions. Schramm also tried to get his students to consider how short stories as a genre changed over time. Consequently, he includes similar stories from different eras (Tell-Tale Heart, The Inn, and Laugh in the Desert all describe a descent into madness). Each chapter concludes with thought-provoking questions, probably as a prompt for homework.
The Tell-Tale Heart is the story about a man who becomes obsessed with the evil eye of his employer. The victim never treated the man wrong; but the look gradually turned the murderer into a madman. He plotted the murder with extreme care over months of preparation. The deed was quick and savage. Upon covering up the crime, the murderer remains demented. The police visit and inspect the place. The murderer receives them cordially. The police relax and enjoy the hospitality while the murderer's mind spins further out of control until he confesses. Schramm claims that this is an example of the murder mystery. But the police have no role except to sit and talk mostly among themselves. There is no hint that they were investigating a murder.
Rappaccini's Daughter is the tale of academic intrigues. Two professors battle more than their reputations in this quasi-thriller of a girl raised on poison. A student falls in love with her and gradually becomes immune to the poison. The story ends in tragedy as one academic sabotages the other. There are many layers to this story. Rivalry, madness, love, suspense, are all on display. There are layers of subterfuge and a story that resembles Romeo and Juliet.
The Outcasts of Poker Flats is the story of a frontier town driving out the undesirables. The outcasts must find shelter before the winter sets in trapping them in the mountains. There are many layers to this story too. Each character in the story represents a common literary trope: the hardened villain, the prostitute with a heart of gold, the greedy scalawag, the "good" citizens of Poker Flats, etc. It is a brilliant and moving story.
The Open Boat is a seemingly simple story about four shipwrecked men bobbing along the coast after the boat broke up. Salvation appears multiple times only for the men to be let down time and again. Funny and tragic, the survivors curse the employees and revelers of a resort who casually waive at them as they desperately seek help. They eventually make land; but tragedy continues to befall them. I suspect each character represents a metaphor of life with its ups and downs. But this story carries little criticism in the literature.
All-Gold Canon is possibly the only adventure story in this tome. The prospector finds an isolated place to pan for gold. He finds some. He slowly narrows down the source. All the while he feels that someone is nearby watching him. He sees the signs and the danger; but he is blinded by the gold. Finally, there is a climax that results in one person leaving the peaceful place in solitude.
The Furnished Room is part mystery, part ghost story. It is suspencful and scary. O. Henry describes the environment rather than the people. We know almost nothing about the lodger. He is looking for someone; but that is almost all that we know. He displays an attention to detail that conjures up the great detectives. But he ultimately fails in his quest. Or does he? The mystery is brilliantly explained after the lodger leaves; but questions still linger. It is not obvious that there are layers to this story. The emphasis is on the macabre lodging room and not much else. One could almost argue that the story is an exercise to simply set the environment with barely a story imposed upon it.
Lost Phoebe is one of the saddest stories I have heard or read. I freely cried as I watched the widower go mad searching for his lost love. This story shows all too well how some married couples die within a short span of each other. The widower searches further and further from home, living like a wild man in the open calling for his lost Phoebe. The end of the story suggests that he found her; but at a terrible cost. Is there hidden meaning beyond Schramm's emphasis on stories involving madness?
Neighbor Rosicky is a strange story that seems to go along with Lost Phoebe. Rosicky is an immigrant who starved and scrounged in misery to finally come to America, find a wife, find a farm, and raise a family. Times are tough for the family (and the whole country); but Rosicky opines that these times are safe and secure compared to what he had to endure to get there. His children do not know privation because he was always able to provide. He is uniquely optimistic even in trying times. His focus is on security and safety, not luxury. He does not understand the anxiety of his children. Like so many other stories, death is the climax to this story and reveals the moral of the story.
Sophistication is the first story that did not involve death. It was a bit refreshing to see a simple story about love between two young people. The story highlights the rapidly changing society in the early 20th Century. George represents the ignorant farm boy. Helen represents the liberated female. There is attraction and there is friction. What will happen to these lovers who share a single kiss? The title portends the future; but that future is really left to the reader. The story is full of the upheaval of society. The world is changing. George tries to keep pace. To some extent, so too does Helen; but she embraces the changes more readily than George. However, without tragedy, this story allows for the possibility of happiness. It marks a sudden change in the tempo of the book.
Now I Lay Me is a deceptively simple story about two soldiers trying to get to sleep. The story focuses on the dialogue rather than the environment. It is night time and the soldiers are trying to fall asleep. The reader does not know if they are on the front lines or on leave. Are they safe? We don't know. The dialogue is drab and utterly pointless. However, it seems clear that the two soldiers are from different backgrounds. One is clearly better off than the other. The two men discuss what they will do after the war, and convince the other what they should do. The mindless banter shows a realism that readers may readily identify. The background sets the two characters in the same circumstances despite their differences before the war. Clever, if somewhat boring.
By the Waters of Babylon is a post-apocalyptic story. Civilization has fallen, probably through war. Tribes of people fear the ruins of the gods (even if the wild animals do not). Readers will probably realize that the brave hero ventures into the ruins of Washington D.C. as the forbidden land of the gods. He braves wild animals to climb a lofty building to see the remains (skeleton) of a god sitting in his chair and looking out the windows on his land. The skeleton crumbles. The hero returns to his tribe with more authority than every before. There are obvious layers of meaning to this story. The imagery is vivid. The action is vivid, similar to Asimov's I Am Legend. Benet died before the H-bomb destroyed Hiroshima. But he still imagined a world so destroyed by war that he invented this fantastic dystopia.
The Leader of the People is the sad tale of a grandfather who once led a caravan across the plains to the west coast, only to be forgotten to history. Like the adult man who only remembers playing football in highschool, the grandfather remembers that journey and relives it all day, every day. His son-in-law is bored with the story from so long ago. It has no bearing to their circumstances now. They barely eek out a living somewhere in the plains. The stories of fighting Indians, thirst, and weather are meaningless now to the younger generation. The leader's grandson, Jack, knows all oft he stories, but he encourages grandpa to relive his youth. Jack's eagerness gives grandpa hesitation. Are his stories for children, or are they significant. He sadly distances himself from Jack and leaves without helping Jack hunt the mice.
More than any other story in this book, The Bear, has more layers of understanding. At its core, the story is about a boy coming of age. The boy joins the annual hunting party. The veterans talk in awe of a massive bear in the wilderness that eludes them every year. The boy faces it that first time and is too scared to shoot. Years later, on the same annual trip, he sets off alone to hunt, trap, and kill the bear. He does everything right and gets the bear in his sights. But once again, he declines to shoot. The obvious question is to what the bear represents: innocence, the wilderness, something else? The dynamics of the hunting party also show layers of thought. The boy is trained by a half-Indian to hunt, not his father or the party's traditional leaders. The boy learns from the Indian and barely associates with the older generation of gentleman hunters.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall was the first story in this book that made me research what was going on. It turns out, professional critics have as much difficulty with the story as the casual reader. Granny Weatherall is on her death bed. She is surrounded by her children, or at least one of her children. But she can only fixate on two things: the first was being abandoned at the alter on her wedding day. She curses the man who left her, saying that she married a fine man after all; but the fact that she is still fixated on the man who jilted her, suggests that she prefers the first one. The other item that she fixates on his the mysterious Hapsy. Hapsy may have been a mother, sister, daughter, friend, lover, etc. Granny envisions her carrying a baby in her arms and greeting her; but Granny clearly feels that Hapsy abandoned / jilted her too. As her pain and lack of control over her life weigh on her, she decides to "blow out the candle" and die. There is a huge amount of imagery and plenty of guesswork as to who is Hapsy. The sad part is that her pain guided her more than anything else.
The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse is more a study in culture than a literary masterpiece. Schramm mentions that he included it because of the Armenian perspective on life. The people in the story are reasonably well off, even for immigrants. The community does not present any poverty or social problems. Into this idyllic community are two boys who love horses. One boy steals a horse and hides it in the countryside. They ride the horse every night, usually losing it, finding it, and hiding it again. They know it is wrong to steal the horse, so they claim they are borrowing it. The owner of the horse sees the boys riding the horse. He compliements them on the beautiful horse remarking that it looks just like the horse stolen from him. The man does not confront the boys or their parents. The boys return the horse. The next day the owner visits the parents of one of the boys and remarks it was a miracle the horse returned home. Most readers will not have familiarity with Armenians to read too deeply, so only a shallow interpretation is possible. Saroyan was an Armenian, so he is not calling attention to an foreign community, but rather celebrating their diversity.
The Secret Sharer by Conrad is the story of a stow-away who is hidden on another ship by the captain. They share the secret of the stow-away. Why does the captain keep the man hidden, especially after he learns that he is a wanted murderer? That is the purpose of the story. The captain is alienated from his crew. He somehow sees himself in the stow-away, so he keeps him hidden until safe for the man to swim to shore. Loneliness is a common theme in this book, loneliness bordering on madness. Was the captain going mad? Who can say?
The Incarnation of Krishna Mulvaney is a style of slapstick comedy. Mulvaney is a British soldier in India who is part Han Solo and part Pink Panther. Wherever he goes, whatever he does, the result is comedy. The climax of the story is Mulvaney being tricked onto a train going clear across India. He ends up in a holy city and finds himself bumbling into a religious ceremony calling on the god Krishna to bless a group of women. Krishna Mulvaney blesses some of the women, disappears off stage, bribes to priests to keep quiet (after all, if Krishna really visited the temple, they will have more pilgrims), and returns to the barracks weeks later. He joyfully goes to the stockade with a wonderous tale. Are there layers of meaning? Sure, the corrupt priest, the gullible pilgrims, the lazy officers, the vile press gang supervisor. But the story sure is funny.
The Red-Headed League is a very simple mystery. Schramm says as much in his introduction. The post reading questions allude to the simplicity of the mystery. There was hardly detective work involved. Only the final showdown between Holmes and the villain required some intuition to set the right time for the ambush. Schramm observes that this story does little to establish characters, environment, or plot. He uses it to contrast with Tell-Tale Heart.
The Storyteller is a short and simple story. Schramm introduces Saki to say that he delighted in unexpected endings. This funny story certainly ended unexpectedly. Two children are riding across country in a carriage with their aunt. Like any child, they are bored with the nothingness and seek entertainment. The aunt is beside herself. Sharing the coast is a grouchy gentleman who finally deigns to tell the children a story. The story quickly grabs their attention. As they are drawn in, the story takes a sudden turn and ends very unexpectedly. The aunt grumbles that it was a bad story to tell children. The gentleman curtly replies that he did what she could not - keep them quiet for ten minutes. Beautiful and funny.
Timber is yet another example of a single man alone in the world descending into madness. Unlike most of the other stories of madness, this one does not have a sympathetic character. The man has sold his hunting forest to the military for a nice profit owing to the war. He decides to take one last walk through the woods. He becomes lost and increasingly desperate to find his way home. Night approaches. Snow falls gently. He curses the trees and rejoices they will be chopped down. The story is like so many others except for the falling action in the end. The imagery is rich, the dialogue is weak. The plot is predictable.
The Man Who Could Work Miracles is a science fiction story about a man who discovers that he has the powers of God. He scares himself and seeks consolation with a religious leader. The religious leader seems eager to test the powers. There is no caution or hesitation. He pushes for more and more displays of power. Finally, he asks for more time. The miracle worker stops the earth rotation, sending everyone and everything hurling a thousand miles per second into the abyss. He wills himself back to what he was before he learned of the power. Is the power gone? What is the symbolism of the priest? What is the lesson here? There are some easy riddles.
The Dill Pickle was one of my favorite stories. A woman tries to reconnect with a former boyfriend. The casual meeting in a cafe shows that he has not changed. He remains as condescending, ignorant, and stingy as she remembered him. He casually plops down one insult after another interspersed with nonsensical stories such as the one where a Russian peasant offers him a dill pickle. "Imagine that! He just offered a pickle to me!" Although it is not clear from the story, Russia was on the cusp of the Revolution, and about the explode. The dill pickle was describing an almost idyllic place full of people who recognize their betters.
The Lotus Eater is the story of an average man who decides that he will retire early and use his pension to live blissfully on the island of Capri. He knows the money will not last. He plans suicide when his funds run out.
The Death of the Dauphin is another short short story. The dauphin issues commands. People obey. Someone whispers to him and he petulantly cries and whines. His power is meaningless in the face of death.
The Inn and the Laugh in the Desert describe a solitary figure turning mad. The Beggar is the tale of a beggar who rises out of his status, not through good graces, but through a helping hand. The Invisible Collection is the story of a blind gentleman admiring an art collection that his family had to sell off piece by piece to support themselves. A visitor is asked to play along with the deception and give the old man happiness.
Rappaccini's Daughter - Nathaniel Hawthoren
The Outcasts of Poker Flats - Bret Harte
The Open Boat - Stephen Crane
All-Gold Canon - Jack London
The Furnished Room - O. Henry
The Lost Phoebe - Theodore Dreiser
Neighbor Rosicky - Willa Cather
Sophistication - Sherwood Anderson
Now I lay Me - Ernest Hemingway
By the Waters of Babylon - Stephen Vincent Benet
The Leader of the People - John Steinbeck
The Bear - William Faulkner
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse - William Saroyan
The Secret Sharer - Joseph Conrad
The Incarnation of Krishna Mulvaney
The Red-Headed League - Arthur Conan Doyle
The Storyteller - Saki (H.H. Munro)
Timber - John Galsworthy
The Man Who Could Work Miracles - H.G. Wells
The Dill Pickle - Katherine Mansfield
The Lotus-Eater - W. Somerset Maugham
The Death of the Dauphin - Alphonse Daudet
The Inn - Guy de Maupassant
The Beggar - Anton Chekov
The Invisible Collection - Stefan Zweig
The Laugh in the Desert - Pedro Prado
If I had this as a textbook instead of a Norton Anthology of random crap, I might have dedicated myself to English and Composition instead of History. Some of the stories made me laugh. Some made me cry. A few made me research them to learn what I missed.
Nearly the first 50 pages are an introduction to literature. What is a short story? How is it written? How to read a short story? What makes them good? And it is rounded off with a glossary of literary terms. This section is rather subjective. There are good points. Schramm argues that a short story is rarely anything to do with a straight-forward reading. He tells his students to look for different layers of meaning. Sometimes it is hard to find multiple layers of meaning; and the basic story itself carries strong emotions. Schramm also tried to get his students to consider how short stories as a genre changed over time. Consequently, he includes similar stories from different eras (Tell-Tale Heart, The Inn, and Laugh in the Desert all describe a descent into madness). Each chapter concludes with thought-provoking questions, probably as a prompt for homework.
The Tell-Tale Heart is the story about a man who becomes obsessed with the evil eye of his employer. The victim never treated the man wrong; but the look gradually turned the murderer into a madman. He plotted the murder with extreme care over months of preparation. The deed was quick and savage. Upon covering up the crime, the murderer remains demented. The police visit and inspect the place. The murderer receives them cordially. The police relax and enjoy the hospitality while the murderer's mind spins further out of control until he confesses. Schramm claims that this is an example of the murder mystery. But the police have no role except to sit and talk mostly among themselves. There is no hint that they were investigating a murder.
Rappaccini's Daughter is the tale of academic intrigues. Two professors battle more than their reputations in this quasi-thriller of a girl raised on poison. A student falls in love with her and gradually becomes immune to the poison. The story ends in tragedy as one academic sabotages the other. There are many layers to this story. Rivalry, madness, love, suspense, are all on display. There are layers of subterfuge and a story that resembles Romeo and Juliet.
The Outcasts of Poker Flats is the story of a frontier town driving out the undesirables. The outcasts must find shelter before the winter sets in trapping them in the mountains. There are many layers to this story too. Each character in the story represents a common literary trope: the hardened villain, the prostitute with a heart of gold, the greedy scalawag, the "good" citizens of Poker Flats, etc. It is a brilliant and moving story.
The Open Boat is a seemingly simple story about four shipwrecked men bobbing along the coast after the boat broke up. Salvation appears multiple times only for the men to be let down time and again. Funny and tragic, the survivors curse the employees and revelers of a resort who casually waive at them as they desperately seek help. They eventually make land; but tragedy continues to befall them. I suspect each character represents a metaphor of life with its ups and downs. But this story carries little criticism in the literature.
All-Gold Canon is possibly the only adventure story in this tome. The prospector finds an isolated place to pan for gold. He finds some. He slowly narrows down the source. All the while he feels that someone is nearby watching him. He sees the signs and the danger; but he is blinded by the gold. Finally, there is a climax that results in one person leaving the peaceful place in solitude.
The Furnished Room is part mystery, part ghost story. It is suspencful and scary. O. Henry describes the environment rather than the people. We know almost nothing about the lodger. He is looking for someone; but that is almost all that we know. He displays an attention to detail that conjures up the great detectives. But he ultimately fails in his quest. Or does he? The mystery is brilliantly explained after the lodger leaves; but questions still linger. It is not obvious that there are layers to this story. The emphasis is on the macabre lodging room and not much else. One could almost argue that the story is an exercise to simply set the environment with barely a story imposed upon it.
Lost Phoebe is one of the saddest stories I have heard or read. I freely cried as I watched the widower go mad searching for his lost love. This story shows all too well how some married couples die within a short span of each other. The widower searches further and further from home, living like a wild man in the open calling for his lost Phoebe. The end of the story suggests that he found her; but at a terrible cost. Is there hidden meaning beyond Schramm's emphasis on stories involving madness?
Neighbor Rosicky is a strange story that seems to go along with Lost Phoebe. Rosicky is an immigrant who starved and scrounged in misery to finally come to America, find a wife, find a farm, and raise a family. Times are tough for the family (and the whole country); but Rosicky opines that these times are safe and secure compared to what he had to endure to get there. His children do not know privation because he was always able to provide. He is uniquely optimistic even in trying times. His focus is on security and safety, not luxury. He does not understand the anxiety of his children. Like so many other stories, death is the climax to this story and reveals the moral of the story.
Sophistication is the first story that did not involve death. It was a bit refreshing to see a simple story about love between two young people. The story highlights the rapidly changing society in the early 20th Century. George represents the ignorant farm boy. Helen represents the liberated female. There is attraction and there is friction. What will happen to these lovers who share a single kiss? The title portends the future; but that future is really left to the reader. The story is full of the upheaval of society. The world is changing. George tries to keep pace. To some extent, so too does Helen; but she embraces the changes more readily than George. However, without tragedy, this story allows for the possibility of happiness. It marks a sudden change in the tempo of the book.
Now I Lay Me is a deceptively simple story about two soldiers trying to get to sleep. The story focuses on the dialogue rather than the environment. It is night time and the soldiers are trying to fall asleep. The reader does not know if they are on the front lines or on leave. Are they safe? We don't know. The dialogue is drab and utterly pointless. However, it seems clear that the two soldiers are from different backgrounds. One is clearly better off than the other. The two men discuss what they will do after the war, and convince the other what they should do. The mindless banter shows a realism that readers may readily identify. The background sets the two characters in the same circumstances despite their differences before the war. Clever, if somewhat boring.
By the Waters of Babylon is a post-apocalyptic story. Civilization has fallen, probably through war. Tribes of people fear the ruins of the gods (even if the wild animals do not). Readers will probably realize that the brave hero ventures into the ruins of Washington D.C. as the forbidden land of the gods. He braves wild animals to climb a lofty building to see the remains (skeleton) of a god sitting in his chair and looking out the windows on his land. The skeleton crumbles. The hero returns to his tribe with more authority than every before. There are obvious layers of meaning to this story. The imagery is vivid. The action is vivid, similar to Asimov's I Am Legend. Benet died before the H-bomb destroyed Hiroshima. But he still imagined a world so destroyed by war that he invented this fantastic dystopia.
The Leader of the People is the sad tale of a grandfather who once led a caravan across the plains to the west coast, only to be forgotten to history. Like the adult man who only remembers playing football in highschool, the grandfather remembers that journey and relives it all day, every day. His son-in-law is bored with the story from so long ago. It has no bearing to their circumstances now. They barely eek out a living somewhere in the plains. The stories of fighting Indians, thirst, and weather are meaningless now to the younger generation. The leader's grandson, Jack, knows all oft he stories, but he encourages grandpa to relive his youth. Jack's eagerness gives grandpa hesitation. Are his stories for children, or are they significant. He sadly distances himself from Jack and leaves without helping Jack hunt the mice.
More than any other story in this book, The Bear, has more layers of understanding. At its core, the story is about a boy coming of age. The boy joins the annual hunting party. The veterans talk in awe of a massive bear in the wilderness that eludes them every year. The boy faces it that first time and is too scared to shoot. Years later, on the same annual trip, he sets off alone to hunt, trap, and kill the bear. He does everything right and gets the bear in his sights. But once again, he declines to shoot. The obvious question is to what the bear represents: innocence, the wilderness, something else? The dynamics of the hunting party also show layers of thought. The boy is trained by a half-Indian to hunt, not his father or the party's traditional leaders. The boy learns from the Indian and barely associates with the older generation of gentleman hunters.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall was the first story in this book that made me research what was going on. It turns out, professional critics have as much difficulty with the story as the casual reader. Granny Weatherall is on her death bed. She is surrounded by her children, or at least one of her children. But she can only fixate on two things: the first was being abandoned at the alter on her wedding day. She curses the man who left her, saying that she married a fine man after all; but the fact that she is still fixated on the man who jilted her, suggests that she prefers the first one. The other item that she fixates on his the mysterious Hapsy. Hapsy may have been a mother, sister, daughter, friend, lover, etc. Granny envisions her carrying a baby in her arms and greeting her; but Granny clearly feels that Hapsy abandoned / jilted her too. As her pain and lack of control over her life weigh on her, she decides to "blow out the candle" and die. There is a huge amount of imagery and plenty of guesswork as to who is Hapsy. The sad part is that her pain guided her more than anything else.
The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse is more a study in culture than a literary masterpiece. Schramm mentions that he included it because of the Armenian perspective on life. The people in the story are reasonably well off, even for immigrants. The community does not present any poverty or social problems. Into this idyllic community are two boys who love horses. One boy steals a horse and hides it in the countryside. They ride the horse every night, usually losing it, finding it, and hiding it again. They know it is wrong to steal the horse, so they claim they are borrowing it. The owner of the horse sees the boys riding the horse. He compliements them on the beautiful horse remarking that it looks just like the horse stolen from him. The man does not confront the boys or their parents. The boys return the horse. The next day the owner visits the parents of one of the boys and remarks it was a miracle the horse returned home. Most readers will not have familiarity with Armenians to read too deeply, so only a shallow interpretation is possible. Saroyan was an Armenian, so he is not calling attention to an foreign community, but rather celebrating their diversity.
The Secret Sharer by Conrad is the story of a stow-away who is hidden on another ship by the captain. They share the secret of the stow-away. Why does the captain keep the man hidden, especially after he learns that he is a wanted murderer? That is the purpose of the story. The captain is alienated from his crew. He somehow sees himself in the stow-away, so he keeps him hidden until safe for the man to swim to shore. Loneliness is a common theme in this book, loneliness bordering on madness. Was the captain going mad? Who can say?
The Incarnation of Krishna Mulvaney is a style of slapstick comedy. Mulvaney is a British soldier in India who is part Han Solo and part Pink Panther. Wherever he goes, whatever he does, the result is comedy. The climax of the story is Mulvaney being tricked onto a train going clear across India. He ends up in a holy city and finds himself bumbling into a religious ceremony calling on the god Krishna to bless a group of women. Krishna Mulvaney blesses some of the women, disappears off stage, bribes to priests to keep quiet (after all, if Krishna really visited the temple, they will have more pilgrims), and returns to the barracks weeks later. He joyfully goes to the stockade with a wonderous tale. Are there layers of meaning? Sure, the corrupt priest, the gullible pilgrims, the lazy officers, the vile press gang supervisor. But the story sure is funny.
The Red-Headed League is a very simple mystery. Schramm says as much in his introduction. The post reading questions allude to the simplicity of the mystery. There was hardly detective work involved. Only the final showdown between Holmes and the villain required some intuition to set the right time for the ambush. Schramm observes that this story does little to establish characters, environment, or plot. He uses it to contrast with Tell-Tale Heart.
The Storyteller is a short and simple story. Schramm introduces Saki to say that he delighted in unexpected endings. This funny story certainly ended unexpectedly. Two children are riding across country in a carriage with their aunt. Like any child, they are bored with the nothingness and seek entertainment. The aunt is beside herself. Sharing the coast is a grouchy gentleman who finally deigns to tell the children a story. The story quickly grabs their attention. As they are drawn in, the story takes a sudden turn and ends very unexpectedly. The aunt grumbles that it was a bad story to tell children. The gentleman curtly replies that he did what she could not - keep them quiet for ten minutes. Beautiful and funny.
Timber is yet another example of a single man alone in the world descending into madness. Unlike most of the other stories of madness, this one does not have a sympathetic character. The man has sold his hunting forest to the military for a nice profit owing to the war. He decides to take one last walk through the woods. He becomes lost and increasingly desperate to find his way home. Night approaches. Snow falls gently. He curses the trees and rejoices they will be chopped down. The story is like so many others except for the falling action in the end. The imagery is rich, the dialogue is weak. The plot is predictable.
The Man Who Could Work Miracles is a science fiction story about a man who discovers that he has the powers of God. He scares himself and seeks consolation with a religious leader. The religious leader seems eager to test the powers. There is no caution or hesitation. He pushes for more and more displays of power. Finally, he asks for more time. The miracle worker stops the earth rotation, sending everyone and everything hurling a thousand miles per second into the abyss. He wills himself back to what he was before he learned of the power. Is the power gone? What is the symbolism of the priest? What is the lesson here? There are some easy riddles.
The Dill Pickle was one of my favorite stories. A woman tries to reconnect with a former boyfriend. The casual meeting in a cafe shows that he has not changed. He remains as condescending, ignorant, and stingy as she remembered him. He casually plops down one insult after another interspersed with nonsensical stories such as the one where a Russian peasant offers him a dill pickle. "Imagine that! He just offered a pickle to me!" Although it is not clear from the story, Russia was on the cusp of the Revolution, and about the explode. The dill pickle was describing an almost idyllic place full of people who recognize their betters.
The Lotus Eater is the story of an average man who decides that he will retire early and use his pension to live blissfully on the island of Capri. He knows the money will not last. He plans suicide when his funds run out.
The Death of the Dauphin is another short short story. The dauphin issues commands. People obey. Someone whispers to him and he petulantly cries and whines. His power is meaningless in the face of death.
The Inn and the Laugh in the Desert describe a solitary figure turning mad. The Beggar is the tale of a beggar who rises out of his status, not through good graces, but through a helping hand. The Invisible Collection is the story of a blind gentleman admiring an art collection that his family had to sell off piece by piece to support themselves. A visitor is asked to play along with the deception and give the old man happiness.
July 5, 2023
This was a school book from the middle of the last century. I can just imagine some young version of myself sitting in a classroom waiting to be called on to read the next page out loud. I don’t think I would have appreciated it the way I just did reading these fantastic short stories. Kipling’s The Incarnation of Krishna Mulvaney was a wonderful tale, but even more wonderful were the images and the dialogue. Who would think that a story titled, The Dill Pickle, by Katherine Mansfield would have anything to do with love or be so filled with emotions? Jack London’s, All Gold Canyon, brings out the sweat from the burning sun as well as from the impending doom. Of course, all of the choices are classic examples of writers at the top of their form. Go back to school and learn a thing or two.
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