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Impulse
- GenresShort Stories
Unknown Binding
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About the author
Conrad Aiken
308 books83 followersKnown American writer Conrad Potter Aiken won a Pulitzer Prize of 1930 for
Selected Poems
.
Most of work of this short story critic and novelist reflects his intense interest in psychoanalysis and the development of identity. As editor of Selected Poems of Emily Elizabeth Dickinson in 1924, he largely responsibly established her posthumous literary reputation. From the 1920s, Aiken divided his life between England and the United States and played a significant role in introducing American poets to the British audience.
He fathered gifted writers Joan Aiken and Jane Aiken Hodge.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_...
Most of work of this short story critic and novelist reflects his intense interest in psychoanalysis and the development of identity. As editor of Selected Poems of Emily Elizabeth Dickinson in 1924, he largely responsibly established her posthumous literary reputation. From the 1920s, Aiken divided his life between England and the United States and played a significant role in introducing American poets to the British audience.
He fathered gifted writers Joan Aiken and Jane Aiken Hodge.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_...
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 29, 2024
Aiken takes us on a wild ride through the labyrinth of human desire. He crafts a poignant narrative that explores the depths of human nature and the unpredictable forces that shape our destinies. The narrative intricately weaves together themes of desire, consequence, and the enigmatic nature of choice, eliciting a range of emotions from curiosity to introspective reflection. As the story unfolds, one is compelled to confront the complexities of human impulses and the ramifications they carry, leaving an indelible impression.
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May 17, 2024Aiken tells the story of a man who lives and suffers due to his psychological and intellectual blindness.
He sees others, notices details of mannerisms, notices the ways his wife's skin shows its age, notices his friends' accents and foibles, et al, but he remains blind to his own sublimation, his own pride, his own suppression of the truth.
Aiken's blade cuts.
He sees others, notices details of mannerisms, notices the ways his wife's skin shows its age, notices his friends' accents and foibles, et al, but he remains blind to his own sublimation, his own pride, his own suppression of the truth.
Aiken's blade cuts.
February 6, 2026
Mission 2026: Binge reviewing (and rereading on occasion) all previous Reads, I was too slothful to review, back when I read them.
Here, Aiken does not merely tell a story; he orchestrates a mood, a trembling hesitation between decision and doubt, where the mind circles its own shadows, questioning motive, morality, and the strange unpredictability of human desire, and reading it today I felt less like an observer and more like an accomplice inside the protagonist’s restless awareness. The “impulse” of the title is never just an action—it is a disturbance, a ripple in the still surface of rationality, suggesting how fragile the illusion of control truly is and how quickly civility can give way to darker undercurrents, and Aiken captures this with a prose that feels simultaneously precise and dreamlike, as though logic itself were dissolving under emotional pressure. What struck me most on rereading is the modernist pulse beneath the narrative: the fragmentation of certainty, the distrust of stable identity, and the quiet suggestion that human beings are less governed by reason than by fleeting, irrational surges that arrive unannounced and depart without explanation, leaving consequences behind. The story unfolds almost like an interior monologue disguised as fiction, where silence speaks louder than event, and meaning emerges not from what happens but from how consciousness processes what might happen, creating a tension that is psychological rather than dramatic. Reading it now, in a world obsessed with instant reaction and emotional velocity, the story feels eerily contemporary, as if Aiken anticipated the modern condition of restless minds and unstable selves, where every decision contains a shadow of its opposite. There is also a subtle existential loneliness running through the text, a sense that the individual stands isolated within their own mind, unable to fully trust or understand the impulses that shape their actions, and this quiet unease lingers long after the story ends. Personally, this rereading felt like confronting the unpredictable machinery of thought itself, watching how easily certainty fractures into ambiguity and how swiftly impulse challenges order, and I found myself reflecting not so much on the character as on the uneasy recognition of similar currents within my own mind. In the end, ‘Impulse’ remains less a story than an atmosphere, a psychological whisper reminding us that beneath the calm surface of reason, something restless is always waiting to rise.
Returning to this short story feels like stepping into a dim psychological chamber where thought itself becomes plot, and what fascinates me now, more than during my first encounter, is how the story dissolves the boundary between action and interiority, transforming a seemingly simple narrative moment into an excavation of consciousness.
Most recommended.
Here, Aiken does not merely tell a story; he orchestrates a mood, a trembling hesitation between decision and doubt, where the mind circles its own shadows, questioning motive, morality, and the strange unpredictability of human desire, and reading it today I felt less like an observer and more like an accomplice inside the protagonist’s restless awareness. The “impulse” of the title is never just an action—it is a disturbance, a ripple in the still surface of rationality, suggesting how fragile the illusion of control truly is and how quickly civility can give way to darker undercurrents, and Aiken captures this with a prose that feels simultaneously precise and dreamlike, as though logic itself were dissolving under emotional pressure. What struck me most on rereading is the modernist pulse beneath the narrative: the fragmentation of certainty, the distrust of stable identity, and the quiet suggestion that human beings are less governed by reason than by fleeting, irrational surges that arrive unannounced and depart without explanation, leaving consequences behind. The story unfolds almost like an interior monologue disguised as fiction, where silence speaks louder than event, and meaning emerges not from what happens but from how consciousness processes what might happen, creating a tension that is psychological rather than dramatic. Reading it now, in a world obsessed with instant reaction and emotional velocity, the story feels eerily contemporary, as if Aiken anticipated the modern condition of restless minds and unstable selves, where every decision contains a shadow of its opposite. There is also a subtle existential loneliness running through the text, a sense that the individual stands isolated within their own mind, unable to fully trust or understand the impulses that shape their actions, and this quiet unease lingers long after the story ends. Personally, this rereading felt like confronting the unpredictable machinery of thought itself, watching how easily certainty fractures into ambiguity and how swiftly impulse challenges order, and I found myself reflecting not so much on the character as on the uneasy recognition of similar currents within my own mind. In the end, ‘Impulse’ remains less a story than an atmosphere, a psychological whisper reminding us that beneath the calm surface of reason, something restless is always waiting to rise.
Returning to this short story feels like stepping into a dim psychological chamber where thought itself becomes plot, and what fascinates me now, more than during my first encounter, is how the story dissolves the boundary between action and interiority, transforming a seemingly simple narrative moment into an excavation of consciousness.
Most recommended.
September 12, 2022
This is such a great short story/novella.
Conrad Aiken is a master of human psychology. His writing is modern, lively, vivid and filled with suspense. This is a tale of a man making the mistake of thinking that "everyone" does a certain bad thing, after a drink-fueled night with his friends.
What he does isn't the stuff of true crime. He was never likable, but will he redeem himself? Why should he be?
Psychologically speaking, the main character's mind is completely revealed to us and it's possible that there's not much in it to redeem. He's an ordinary man, after all, foolish and irresponsible. It is very interesting to peer inside this troubled mind as he drifts closer to the bottom of society.
Conrad Aiken is a master of human psychology. His writing is modern, lively, vivid and filled with suspense. This is a tale of a man making the mistake of thinking that "everyone" does a certain bad thing, after a drink-fueled night with his friends.
What he does isn't the stuff of true crime. He was never likable, but will he redeem himself? Why should he be?
Psychologically speaking, the main character's mind is completely revealed to us and it's possible that there's not much in it to redeem. He's an ordinary man, after all, foolish and irresponsible. It is very interesting to peer inside this troubled mind as he drifts closer to the bottom of society.
June 4, 2023
Great story to focus on psychological mind set.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews