Tales of Desire

by Tennessee Williams

“I cannot write any sort of story,” said Tennessee [to Gore Vidal] “unless there is at least one character in it for whom I have physical desire.” These transgressive Tales of Desire, including “One Arm,” “Desire and the Black Masseur,” “Hard Candy,” and “The Killer Chicken and the Closet Queen,” show the iconic playwright at his outrageous best.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, American, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Ebooks, LGBT

104 pages, Paperback

First published February 24, 2010

About the author

Thomas Lanier Williams III, better known by the nickname Tennessee Williams, was a major American playwright of the twentieth century who received many of the top theatrical awards for his work. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee," the state of his father's birth.

Raised in St. Louis, Missouri, after years of obscurity, at age 33 he became famous with the success of The Glass Menagerie (1944) in New York City. This play closely reflected his own unhappy family background. It was the first of a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1961). With his later work, he attempted a new style that did not appeal to audiences. His drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often numbered on short lists of the finest American plays of the 20th century, alongside Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.

Much of Williams' most acclaimed work has been adapted for the cinema. He also wrote short stories, poetry, essays and a volume of memoirs. In 1979, four years before his death, Williams was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Paul Ataua · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are certain pursuits in which even the most cautious man must depart from absolute caution if he intends at all to enjoy them in Hard Candy

Desire is what is left when needs are satisfied. Tales of Desire is a collection of short stories in which the author dives deep into desire, into the jouissance that is found in sleaze and those acts that society censures. I came here after reading The Mysteries of the Joy Rio and was amazed by the power of the stories. It is a should read for any of us who are looking to understand the whole concept of desire.

The nature of man is full of such makeshift arrangements, devised by himself to cover his incompletion. in Desire and the Black Masseur

[Evan Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just erotic enough to be titillating, just strange enough to be creepy, just high brow enough to take on the subway.

[Sam Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

One Arm was still the best one, but The Killer Chicken and the Closet Queen or Desire and the Black Masseur were both hilariously bizarre close seconds. Never seen so many poetic renderings of people touching themselves or of a cannibalistic submission fetish, but Williams’ southern charm just makes the creepiness of these stories feel somehow timeless and elegant enough to simply feel beautifully erotic and chillingly painful. Need more irreverent gorgeous literature like this in my life. Where is the Tennessee Williams of today?! Please reveal yourself 🚨🚨

[Raimondo Lagioia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dreams and desire and despair and derangement and death. Williams spins stories that are hypnotic forays into a twilit world were personal allure serves as a powerful bartering coin, and where lonely fates meld in a frenzied alchemic dance - of ecstasy, brutality, and occasionally, of mortality.

In its whispering, shaded streets we encounter a dark, willowy youth who declines into the very mirror of his long-dead benefactor; an amputee hustler whose penchant for destruction and salvation only heightens his deadly glamour; a wallflower whose yearning for expiation leads him into its most savage instrument; a frail lecher who is granted one last sweet indulgence; and a young law partner whose rising star is crushed by the arrival of a manipulative punk.

With prose that drips beauty and haunting dreaminess in equal measure, it's no wonder that Williams is considered one of the prime American writers of the previous century.

These morsels are but tantalizing teasers to his complete Collected Stories. I already secured my copy of that book. I'll be reading it once the familiar restlessness hits again.

8.5/10; 4 stars.

[Lemma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes you will have it and sometimes you won't have it, so don't be anxious about it. You must always be able to go home without it.

Here we have a slim, handsome volume (I read the "New Directions Pearls" edition of Mishima's Patriotism a few years back- the aesthetic elegance is a major part of why I reached for it and ToD) showcasing five apparently obscure short stories from a big-name writer. All the fat is trimmed; these stories are tight and competent and thematically harmonious, all of them centering on the excitement and danger of the gay underground in mid-20th century America. Some of them, especially Desire and the Black Masseur, remain genuinely shocking. My favorite is the first story, The Mysteries of the Joy Rio, a very simple and sad little study of the loneliness that is aging as a queer. Straight readers might not get the full emotional hit out of this, but can appreciate the pleasing style, the comic darkness, and the impressive economy of words.

[Alex Christensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.

These stories were a wild, wild ride. Williams writes of heady, overpowering states of desire, at times transgressive (especially for the time), yet reliably captivating. I am now very curious to explore his theatre!

[Kyle Likens · Rating 5 out of 5]

if I could give this collection of five astonishingly written stories six stars, I would. *further review to come*

[Trin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whoa! Unexpected cannibalism is unexpected! I mean, I guess on the one hand, it shouldn’t be—this is Tennessee Williams, after all; I’ve read Suddenly Last Summer. But still. That’ll make sure you’re paying attention.

These short stories veered wildly between being sort of tragic and awesome, and being kind of ridiculously OTT and bad. The earlier ones were my favorites; by the time I reached the last story, which was written in the ’70s, I felt like I was reading C-level Armistead Maupin shenanigans. The whole collection has left me feeling confused, but not entirely in a bad way? I don’t know. It’s also possible that my brain simply never recovered from the SURPRISE CANNIBALISM.

[Robert Hubbard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have only a word to ad regarding this collection of short stories. In regards of 'Desire and the Black Massuer', it isn't for the faint of heart. It is for those who seek to understand perfection. The story certainly concerns sadomasochism but it is about perfection most of all. The other stories in the collection are equally well written but 'Desire' stands out.

[Toad Soup · Rating 4 out of 5]

This man was certainly going through something with this

[jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

better known for his many works of drama (including the glass menagerie, a streetcar named desire, and cat on a hot tin roof), tennessee williams also wrote dozens of short stories. as his playwriting is widely celebrated (having won nearly all the awards there is to win), it seems his short stories are often overlooked. the five stories collected in tales of desire were all previously published elsewhere, yet form a nice introduction to his work. of the five, i think "the mysteries of the joy rio" is the strongest. "hard candy," the fourth story, is actually a later version of "joy rio," yet nearly an altogether different one. parts of these stories are quite funny, and many are very tender, but perhaps the most noteworthy quality is their sexual frankness. williams incorporated rather overt homosexual themes into many of his works, and to have done so in the period in which he was active surely would have taken great courage. while the stories in tales of desire aren't necessarily indicative of williams' best work, they do show that he was a talented writer capable in many different formats.

it was his theory, the theory of most immoralists, that the soul becomes intolerably burdened with lies that have to be told to the world in order to be permitted to live in the world, and that unless this burden is relieved by entire honesty with some one person, who is trusted and adored, the soul will finally collapse beneath its weight of falsity.

~from "the mysteries of the joy rio"

[AC · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of 5 short stories, written with delicacy, but fully authorial control, of the lonely life of gay “cottaging” in Williams’ day.

[Alaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

“There comes a time when you look into the mirror and you realize that what you see is all that you will ever be. And then you accept it. Or you kill yourself. Or you stop looking in mirrors."

For so long I have been looking for an author whose writing style resembles that or Carson McCullers's. I think I found it today.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spectacular

[Andrew Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow - subversive and delicious. I have to get the rest of his short stories.

[Doug Wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first time reading an unknown (to me) title by Williams. His prose is pointed, and the stories are short and completely engrossing.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was one of those wandering around the library, sorta caught my eye books. It was small enough to fit in my purse, it was written by Tennessee Williams, and "desire" was in the title. Although extremely readable, not one of my favorites. All the stories were about closeted gay men, seeking their desires, which they are ashamed of elsewhere, or giving into their secret longings, and then paying a terrible price for doing so.
Out of all of the "One Arm" was my favorite, but in all of the stories, he revisits past themes. The first story is about the Joy Rio, and then we hear about it again in Hard Candy. Nausea happens when one of the characters realizes what his desires mean. All of them are hiding. So in that sense, all of these stories are a little sad. Hiding who you are, and believing yourself to be a vagrant because of what you find pleasurable.. And all of these stories, I was surprised to see, were published as early as the 40's to the mid 70s.. A brave move for Mr. Williams.
I'm only giving this one 2 stars, because I really didn't love it. And the last story, I don't think I liked at all. But the writing was beautiful, and I enjoyed the act of reading it, even if, for me, it was not a particularly memorable read.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories made me feel uncomfortably depressed. There's a particular horror gay men try not to face in themselves--the sum picture of what the culture says they are, something monstrous and parasitic and so revolting as to be unlovable. Williams taps into these feelings and dances through them, which is hard. There's a power in these stories that makes me not want to read them again. I can't articulate it much better than that. The displeasure is art, but it is acute and unrelenting. So, accomplished but discomfiting.

[Luis Correa · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories are strange given the time they were published. Although sexually genuine, sometimes the writing feels too manufactured, as if he were stuck writing stage direction. Since the five stories are ordered by the time they were written, it's easy to see his progress with the form, an ease, especially with "Hard Candy." However, I've always been a fan of small, weird things: they're easier to carry.

[Justin Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are all familiar with Williams' plays and films, but here you'll find a short juicy and shadowy collection of a few of his more transgressive little vignettes. His writing in the 40s and 50s are especially good. This collection reminded me so much of reading Carson McCullers.

[Thy Mai · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must-read. There's so much story in this little book. You get to hear from the lonelier parts of life and isolated people. The human aspect is never amiss despite the shocking and dark circumstances of the characters.

[Loren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five dangerous and sexual tales. This is a book I will read again and again.

[Graham Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since there's only 5 stories, quick individual ratings:

Joy Rio - 3
One Arm - 5
Black Masseur - 4
Hard Candy - 4
Killer Chicken - 2

[Emily Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written and intriguing. Just not my favorite.

[Lawrence · Rating 2 out of 5]

Love him, but these just didn't really do it for me.

[A L e X a N D e R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each story is genuinely moving.

[Kristianne]

I picked up this slender collection of short fiction at Faulkner House Books in New Orleans. I'd only been familiar with Williams' theatre. The short pieces dealt with love, secrets, aging and isolation. Beautiful and some times eerie.