Червенокосата вещица

by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ф. Скот Фицджералд, Александра Микова (translator)

Скот Фицджералд е американски писател, един от водещите представители на така нареченото "изгубено поколение" в литературата. Най-голяма известност му носи романът "Великият Гетсби", както и редица романи и разкази, представящи американската "Ера на Джаза" от 1920-те години. Неговите творби са преведени на множество езици, а посланията, които носят са запазили актуалността си и до днес.

"Той притежаваше едно от най-редките качества в литературата: чар."
Реймънд Чандлър

"Хубавите разкази се пишат сами. Лошите трябва да бъдат написани."
Ф. Скот Фицджералд

"Талантът на Скот беше естествен като шарката върху крилца на пеперуда."
Ърнест Хемингуей

"Фицджералд остава образец и архетип, и то не само на 20-те години от XX век - той олицетворява човешкия дух в неговата крехкост и устременост."
Малкълм Каули

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, American, Audiobook, Literature, Romance

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1921

About the author

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, widely known simply as Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age, a term he popularized in his short story collection Tales of the Jazz Age. During his lifetime, he published four novels, four story collections, and 164 short stories. Although he achieved temporary popular success and fortune in the 1920s, Fitzgerald received critical acclaim only after his death and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.
Born into a middle-class family in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Fitzgerald was raised primarily in New York state. He attended Princeton University where he befriended future literary critic Edmund Wilson. Owing to a failed romantic relationship with Chicago socialite Ginevra King, he dropped out in 1917 to join the United States Army during World War I. While stationed in Alabama, he met Zelda Sayre, a Southern debutante who belonged to Montgomery's exclusive country-club set. Although she initially rejected Fitzgerald's marriage proposal due to his lack of financial prospects, Zelda agreed to marry him after he published the commercially successful This Side of Paradise (1920). The novel became a cultural sensation and cemented his reputation as one of the eminent writers of the decade.
His second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1922), propelled him further into the cultural elite. To maintain his affluent lifestyle, he wrote numerous stories for popular magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's Weekly, and Esquire. During this period, Fitzgerald frequented Europe, where he befriended modernist writers and artists of the "Lost Generation" expatriate community, including Ernest Hemingway. His third novel, The Great Gatsby (1925), received generally favorable reviews but was a commercial failure, selling fewer than 23,000 copies in its first year. Despite its lackluster debut, The Great Gatsby is now hailed by some literary critics as the "Great American Novel". Following the deterioration of his wife's mental health and her placement in a mental institute for schizophrenia, Fitzgerald completed his final novel, Tender Is the Night (1934).
Struggling financially because of the declining popularity of his works during the Great Depression, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood, where he embarked upon an unsuccessful career as a screenwriter. While living in Hollywood, he cohabited with columnist Sheilah Graham, his final companion before his death. After a long struggle with alcoholism, he attained sobriety only to die of a heart attack in 1940, at 44. His friend Edmund Wilson edited and published an unfinished fifth novel, The Last Tycoon (1941), after Fitzgerald's death. In 1993, a new edition was published as The Love of the Last Tycoon, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli.

Reviews

[Paula Mota · Rating 5 out of 5]

Então aconteceu aquilo, ou melhor, começou a acontecer. Caroline pegou num volume de poesia que estava em cima de uma pilha de livros, folheou-o distraidamente com a sua fina mão branca e, de repente, com um gesto desenfadado, lançou-o para o tecto, onde desapareceu por cima do candeeiro purpúreo e ali ficou. (...)
- Ficou ali em cima! – exclamou ela jubilosa. – Ficou ali em cima, estás a ver?
Aquilo pareceu a ambos o sublime cúmulo do absurdo. Os seus risos misturaram-se, encheram a livraria, e Merlin alegrou-se de descobrir que a voz de Caroline era sonora e cheia de sortilégios.

“Ó Bruxa do Cabelo Avermelhado” é, sem dúvida, o meu conto preferido de F. Scott Fitzgerald e um dos que mais convida à meditação. A mestria com que passa do humor à melancolia, da juventude à velhice, daquilo a que aspiramos ser àquilo que acabamos por nos transformar é genial e comovente, tornando esta história simplesmente perfeita.

O vestíbulo cheirava a velhice: às verduras de 1880, (...) a cortinas a que o pó acrescentara uma onça de peso, a sapatos gastos e a cotão de vestidos que já tinham sido transformados em colchas de remendos havia muito tempo. Esse odor perseguia-o pelas escadas, mais forte e mais acre em cada patamar, onde se somava aos aromas da cozinha contemporânea e, depois, ao empreender a subida do seguinte lanço, tornava-se mais ténue, até não ser mais que o aroma da rotina morta de gerações já passadas.

[anemoska · Rating 4 out of 5]

“But it was too late. He had angered Providence by resisting too many temptations. There was nothing left but heaven, where he would meet only those who, like him, had wasted earth.”

________________

irrevocably impressive, yet deceitful melancholic story. Go and chase what you wanted, life is manipulative for wishful lusts. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald nailed this one. *chef's kiss*

[Ocean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd only ever read Gatsby by Fitzgerald but I've been meaning to explore his other works. Two short stories seemed like the perfect way to get into it.
The first one, "The cut glass bowl" ended very abruptly and was not to my taste.
To the contrary "O Russet Witch" had an exquisite ending, thrilling even. In both I loved the poetic writing and the eerie atmosphere.

Next up: "Tender is the night".

[Dina Batista · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uma das primeiras obras de Fitzgerald e muito ao estilo dele sem final feliz. Duas pequenas histórias de desilusão com a vida e de uma juventude desperdiçada e de chama apagada. Estou a gostar cada vez mais de ler escritores do início do século XX.

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of Fitzgerald's earlier works, and in my opinion not one of his better ones. It is a story of repression, rebellion, regret and is largely fantasy. The main character, Merlin Grainger, works in The Moonlight Quill Bookshop, which is just around the corner from the Plaza hotel in NYC, where Scott and Zelda were living in 1921. Twenty-five year old Merlin lives a hand-to-mouth existence with little excitement, other than his fantasizing over a 19 year old woman he sees from the rear window of his fourth floor apartment, as she goes about her life in her own apartment. He eats his sparse meals and imagines he is "having dinner with her". He has never met her, but calls her "Caroline".

One day Caroline enters the bookstore with several other men, and proceeds to perform some preposterous acts, which cause much damage to the store. She even lures Merlin into participating with her. He finds this act exhilarating. The damage to the store causes Mr Quill to turn it into a "used book store". Caroline exerts some kind of power over Mr Quill, and he presses no charges against her. A year and a half later Merlin throws caution to the winds, and surprises everyone when he asks co-worker Olive to marry him, and she accepts. Caroline suddenly enters the same restaurant, where the proposal has taken place. She is with 3 or 4 other men and she is very vivacious and exciting. She proceeds to dance on a table top. Merlin is distracted, much to Olive's consternation, but the moment passes.

Eight years later Merlin, Olive and son Arthur are on an Easter morning walk on Fifth Avenue. Life is going well for their family. Merlin has finally asked for a raise, and he got it! He was also given part ownership in the store. He has come to the conclusion that

"They are the sort of people for whom life was ordered and that something very grand and brave and beautiful would soon happen to them if they were docile and obedient to their rightful superiors and kept away from pleasures."

Caroline appears in a crimson limousine, sees Merlin, Olive and Arthur, and smiles to them. She is attracting a crowd of men and is causing traffic problems. She has Zuleika Dobson-like powers over men. Olive is aghast with "that woman".

Merlin last encounters Caroline when he is 65 years and she enters his bookstore. She remembers him and hopes that she has provided some courage to break out of his humdrum life. He admits that he was not able to follow through on her inspiration. Merlin has all along imagined that Caroline was supernatural—not human. He is shocked to find out other people could see her as well, and knew her to be an "adventuress" that was totally different than the woman he saw.

He reflects with regret on a life devoid of any joy or pleasure, and we see how this has affected Olive and Arthur as well.

"He had angered Providence by resisting too many temptations. There was nothing left but heaven, where he will meet only those who, like him, had wasted earth."

Merlin realizes that he had settled for convention over romance.

[Vessy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Малка, чаровна, кокетна, дива, игрива и много щура.

За живота, който понякога ни предлага хиляди възможности, но е толкова забързан, че докато се чудим и той отлетял.
За решенията и страховете, които имаме когато сме млади и за закъснелите изводи, когато животът вече почти ни е изпреварил и времето не стига.

[Bouabida Yassine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un petit livre en demi teinte par l'auteur de Gatsby le magnifique avec un côté fantastique pas a mon goût, bref incomparable à son chef-d'oeuvre

[Carolane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good and so sad!

[Tamer Goueli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life presents us every now and then with a few chances to enjoy, to let go and to rebel. In short, to live. You either grab the chance or lead an ordinary dull life albeit safe. Fitzgerald sums it up "He had angered Providence by resisting too many temptations. There was nothing left but heaven, where he will meet only those who, like him, had wasted earth." A story about missed chances, ageing and regret. Beautiful and sad.

[Deity World · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good writing here but prefer some of his other work

[Rebecca Timberlake · Rating 3 out of 5]

My edition has a brief word from Scott before this story, and it seems that he was okay with a lukewarm reception of it. It feels like he was playing with something here, whether it was style or genre, though, I'm not sure. Maybe he simply had some feelings he wanted to get out, and this story let him do it. Either way, this really only for those dedicated Fitzgerald fans, and I would advise anyone unfamiliar with Scott not to start here. It'll surely turn you off to his work as a whole.

[Benjamin Stahl · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was occasionally good, the writing was nice and all. I just found it a little puzzling and a far from satisfying read.

[Meredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sales clerk Merlin Grainger has several chance encounters with a mysterious and beautiful woman who seems to possess magical powers that make him want to throw caution to wind and recklessly pursue life's pleasures.

Between the ages of 25 and 65, Merlin has four interactions a beautiful woman with russet (red-brown) hair whom he dubs Caroline. He first spies her through the lone window in his cheap apartment. Nightly, he observes the goings-on in her nearby luxury apartment, including a steady stream of suitors. She possesses an unearthly beauty and seems to exert a magical influence over others.

One evening when he is 25 years old, Caroline unexpectedly enters the antiquarian bookshop where Merlin works. She addresses him knowingly, which shocks him since he was unaware that she had also been watching him through her window. Caroline then begins to throw books into the red silk chandelier overhead, encouraging Merlin to do the same. Soon the two completely -- and happily -- trash the bookshop, which ruins most of the stock. The owner and his secretaries appear not to notice the mayhem going on the front, leading Merlin to believe that Caroline may be a supernatural being as well as the incarnation of his own longing for adventure.

After she casually strolls out, Merlin is tempted to run out after her and leave his boring hand-to-mouth existence behind. Instead, he cleans up the mess they made the best that he can, but most of the expensive and rare books are damaged. Mysteriously, the owner says nothing about the destruction and simply turns his establishment into a second-hand bookstore. The experience does inspire Merlin to take a risk and ask the younger secretary out on a date.

Merlin does not see Caroline again until a year and a half later. He is dining at an Italian restaurant with Olive whom he has just asked to marry him when Caroline strolls in with a group of male admirers and sits down the table next to him. As Olive drones on about their future life together, Caroline and her party begin causing a ruckus that climaxes with Caroline dancing on the tabletop. Merlin is mesmerized. He is tempted to join them, but Olive insists they leave the restaurant, dragging Merlin reluctantly away.

The third time Merlin sees Caroline is when he is 35, ten years after their first meeting. As he, Olive, and their son Arthur leave church on Easter Sunday, Caroline appears riding in a convertible with the top down, dressed in black and lilac. She has visibly aged but has retained her beauty as well as her intense magnetism. She causes a traffic jam as male admirers are drawn into the street to throng around her car and attempt to speak with her. Upon noticing her, Olive shoves through the crowd of onlookers and ushers Merlin away, muttering about "that woman."

Merlin's final encounter with Caroline is when he is 65 years old and the proprietor of the used bookshop where he began as a clerk. A limousine pulls up in front of the store, and a confused chauffeur enters, attempting to purchase a book for his employer. Unable to determine what book she wants, the chauffeur returns to the car, and a rich young man enters, asking for a particular rare edition that his grandmother had seen advertised in the newspaper. As he and Merlin haggle over the price of the book, Caroline enters the shop.

She is now a stately older woman with silver hair and fine wrinkles, dressed in fur. She still has a commanding presence. When she sees him, she and Merlin go off into a corner and have a good laugh together. Things turn sour when Merlin recounts her apparitions to him but refuses to pay court to her as he is now an old man and she is now an old woman. Angered, Caroline demands the book for which Merlin refuses her proffered money and departs from the bookstore. Merlin never sees her again.

When he enters the office, the aged secretary startles him out of his reverie by informing him that Caroline, whom Merlin believed to be a witch or simply a manifestation of youthful passions whom others cannot see, is Alicia Dare who had once been a famous dancer and scandalous New York City personality before marrying an extremely wealthy man. If Merlin had read the newspapers when he was younger, he would have instantly recognized her when he first saw her. The owner of the bookstore had once been one of her many besotted lovers, which is why he never stopped her on the night she wrecked his store. Merlin is shattered by this revelation. He regrets not having yielded to the temptations of youth that his brushes with Caroline/Alicia inspired.

"But it was too late. He had angered Providence by resisting temptation too many times. There was nothing left but Heaven where he would meet only those who, like him, had wasted earth."

This story embodies the ethos of the Roaring Twenties to which F. Scott Fitzgerald was an adherent. Its moral is to grab life by the horns, live to the hilt, and to follow one's dreams, all of which are easier said than done even for people with inherited wealth. Those who live hand-to-mouth and work for wages have even less of a chance of actualizing such maxims.

The main character is looked down on by the author and the other most notable character for wasting his youth by playing it safe. As a fellow square who believes in hard work instead of risk taking, I disagreed with the story's conclusion. (And for all the high living and fun Fitzgerald and Zelda had, they were never happy, and their story didn't end happily.) He worked his way up from being a sales clerk to being a middle-class business owner, and his son is working in finance and will have even more social mobility. His life is successful by most standards of measurement.

I did feel sorry for Merlin though. He harbored a longing that could never be satisfied until the desire to fulfill it gradually withered with age.

I was rather hoping that Caroline was actually a witch. An elderly witch and an elderly man who had been under her spell during his youth would have had an interesting emotional beat at the story's conclusion.

Fitzgerald's prose is always a joy to read even when the content doesn't interest me. He does know how to turn a phrase.

[ADay001 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Has a lot of merits as articulated by other reviews here that I would link to except that I’m on my phone atm.

In short, the most compelling reading of this is as a case study in the dangers of choosing nebulous socio-economic security under capitalism at the price of pursuing meaningful fulfillment of either professional or personal needs. It proves itself a heavy-handed morality tale by punishing the protagonist for not pursuing his own happiness.

But **then** there is a second twist. His happiness was symbolized and embodied by a woman he longed after for years (‘If only he had pursued her while he could!’). TURNS OUT she was not worth his pursuit at all! She was always a (though the text does not contain these literal words) a whore and a slut who had the depravity to sleep around and then marry for money.

It is abundantly clear that Fitzgerald (as both author and person) is entirely unconscious of the irony of this twist. To any informed 21st century reader who thinks of women as human beings, it is clear the female MC was also only following a rational path to economic security. Her choices were also severely curtailed by the same forces that made the protagonist opt for a life of relative safety/stability rather than pursue his deepest desires—which of course are summed up in the person and specifically the physical appearance/body of a woman.

This last plot twist was obviously meant to vilify the female love interest as unworthy of the MC’s love; if only he had made his move years ago he could have got with her or at least discovered her venal nature, rather than building up a fantasy of her for literally most of his lifetime. The story strongly suggests the real failure here was that the MC never put himself out there enough to discover how truly awful women are.

The possibility that the MC might not have ever been an ideal catch or that any red-blooded white cis-het man does not ultimately deserve to both pursue and then obtain the ideal female is not entertained.

In the logic of the story, the MC projected the feminine ideal in the wrong place/woman, and furthermore failed to pursue that ideal once he had identified it. The story suggests the MC is *most* flawed for misidentifying female perfection and for thinking he *didn’t* deserve perfection in his partner.

Can you say self-centered, narcissistic misogynistic bullshit???


At the risk of igniting ALL the controversies, this is literally as much or (I personally think) MORE egregious than the novels of Ayn Rand making a virtue of selfishness. (And to some small extent I do feel that her arguments have been exaggerated and politicized by far-right pundits even as the far left today lauds the virtues of self-care and ‘putting on your own oxygen mask first’ etc.)

[Jacqui Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had only heard of The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald until I started my 23 books for 2023 challenge, then by chance in the summer I realise that he had written the short story ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’. I wanted something quick to read this evening so I decided to see what other short story he had written. I was so glad that I found “O Russet Witch”
The story is about the mundane life of Merlin Grainger who works in a New York bookshop for all of his adult life. This story is not mundane at all though, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Throughout your lifetime, you will often be given a few chances to rebel, and live life in on the full. You can either take these chances or continue playing it safe. The final paragraph of this short story sums it up perfectly “He had angered Providence by resisting too many temptations. There was nothing left for him but heaven, where he would meet only those who, like him, had wasted Earth”. This is a bittersweet story about missed opportunities, aging and regret, but I loved how poetically it was written. A great way to spend a few cozy reading hours, on an Autumn evening.

#bookstagram #bookreview #shortstory #fscottfitzgerald

[Aiko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Avez-vous déjà pensé que quelqu’un ou quelque chose ait un pouvoir maléfique sur votre existence ? C’est le cas d’Evie Piper et de Merlin Bringer dont F. Scott Fitzgerald nous raconte, de son ton léger et ironique, les histoires pessimistes et lugubres dans « La coupe de cristal taillé » et « la Sorcière rousse ».
Dans la première nouvelle, la ravissante Evie Piper se voit offrir par un amant éconduit une coupe de cristal taillé aussi belle, aussi dure et aussi vide que l’est la jeune femme. Dans le défilé de sa vie, de sa jeune beauté à sa mort, ce cadeau se révèle finalement à l’origine de tous les malheurs qui lui arrivent.
De la même façon, la sorcière rousse du jeune libraire Merlin Bringer lui apparaît lors des événements décisifs de son existence, à chacun de ces choix après lesquels il est impossible de retourner en arrière. Vision de joie, de spontanéité et d’aventure, la jeune femme contraste avec le caractère terne de Merlin qui s’enferme progressivement dans une routine sécuritaire bâtie sur les décombres de ses rêves et de ses ambitions d’antan.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

🖊 A fun and somewhat humorous short story.
📙 This book was published in 1921.
🟢The e-book version can be found on Project Gutenberg.
✿●▬●✿●✿●▬●✿

[Mike Lisanke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again this story has a little purpose which makes a story interesting and Acceptable to me... a story about nothing is pointless communications... rambling. So, read this and the other 3 or more star Fitz stories. Ignore the stories that appear to read senseless.

[Hanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Annoying, depressing, mostly pointless and unreliable.
If it wasn't such a short book, I would never finish it.
Did I mention ANNOYING?

A waste of time.

[Liv · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the best. About missed chances and generally kind of sad

[Nawel Hadibi · Rating 4 out of 5]

deux histoires très attachantes , une leçon de vie en ce qui concerne les relations amoureuses , les regrets , le passé et son impact sur la vie et sur la personne elle meme.

[Jailen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it never a dull moment in this story

[Gabin Chapellier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deux sublimes nouvelles ! La plume de Fitzgerald, le symbolisme d’une époque ainsi que la chute fatale de personnages simples, voir caricaturales, au service du lecteur.

[Christina (ig: baslerbooks) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sad short story about lost chances and missed opportunities. Merlin lives the structured life that is expected of him and never seems to find real joy.

[Megan Beavers · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh

[sléya · Rating 3 out of 5]

aucun souvenir mdr

[Geoff Foss · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully written tale of melancholy.

[Gil · Rating 3 out of 5]

משונה וחמוד.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

meh

[Ty Roberts · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very strange book about a guy who fancies a girl and does nothing about it. I would say I learned that someone should say their feelings, but not even that would have made a difference for this book. Wouldn’t recommend.