Sunday, October 24, 2010

Il Conde

Author: Joseph Conrad (Polish-British, 1857 - 1924)
Published: 1908
Category: Concept
Text: Classic Reader


Summary:
A cultured gentleman who summers in Southern Italy for his health leaves the area forever after an unpleasant encounter.

Points of Interest:
Conrad appears to have gotten the idea for the story from a common Neopolitan phrase: "Vedi Napoli e poi mori." "See Naples and then die." One can imagine him dreaming up a scenario illustrating a belief in the phrase.

The character sketch he draws of Il Conde (The Count) is quite strong and convincing; one can easily visualize the man. I love the line "He was really much too well-bred to be a nuisance." 

Thursday, October 14, 2010

The Shoemaker and the Devil

Author: Anton Chekhov (Russian, 1860 - 1904)
Published: 1888
Category: Fantasy
Text: Classic Reader

Summary:
The devil fulfils a poor cobbler's wish to be a wealthy gentleman.

Points of interest:
There is a feeling of unrelieved grumpiness affecting all the characters, and the story itself. Not sure if this was what Chekov intended given his closing sentence:
"...and there was nothing in life for which one would give the devil even a tiny scrap of one's soul."
Haven't read enough of his work to get a feel for his religious opinions; in this story Fydor, the cobbler, notes, while in church, that "In church the same honor is done to rich and poor alike." He makes no comment on how the church deals with different states of the soul although it is implied that sinners go to hell. Or perhaps this is the whole point; there is nothing in life of equal value to the soul, nothing  worth the risk of an eternity in hell. Yet you get the definite sense, from the story, that this fact leaves everyone, rich and poor alike, dissatisfied with their situation in  life.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

To Build a Fire

Author: Jack London (American, 1876-1916)
Published: 1908
Category: Man and Nature
Text: Classic Reader

Summary:
A newcomer to the Yukon ventures out in -75 degree weather with one husky and no sled, only to freeze to death.

Points of Interest:
The story details a man's thoughts and actions as he blithely walks across a frozen and unforgiving landscape. While he makes a study of the world around him he has no real sense of his place within it; in the end, he pins his hope of survival on building a fire which nature quickly extinguishes. The dogs instinctive actions and musings are described in counterpoint.

The title To Build a Fire echoes the adage "It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness"; here, the protagonist is unaware that he is 'in the dark' and by the time he realizes he should 'build a fire' it is too late. We are left with a sense that lighting a candle is just as ineffective against the darkness, if one is blind.

The Girls in Their Summer Dresses

Author: Irwin Shaw (American, 1913-1984)
Published: 1939
Category: Modern, Psychological (?)
Text Available at: American Literature

Summary
A young man with a pretty wife can't help looking at every pretty girl he sees; a habit his wife finds dismaying.

Points of Interest:
The story is written as a dialogue between the couple as they take a Sunday stroll along 5th Avenue; eventually stopping for drinks where the attitude of their waiter acts as a counterpoint to their emotions.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Mademoiselle Fifi

Author: Guy de Maupassant (French, 1850-1893)
Published: 1882
Category: Valour
Text available on: Classic Reader

Summary:
A small group of Prussians occupy a French town, meeting with no resistance from the populace who consider the local priest's daily refusal to ring the church bells sufficient protest to the occupation; until  one day, a dandified, brutal Prussian officer, nicknamed Mademoiselle Fifi by his fellow officers, is murdered by Rachel, a Jewish French prostitute imported from a distant town.


Points of interest:
The title character's nickname came from his personal preference of dandified dress and his constant use of a French phrase 'fi, fi donc'; signifying disgust and a general aversion to his situation and everything around him.

The prostitute's name, Rachel, foreshadows she is not all she seems (see bibical story of Jacob, Rachel and Leah).

Boule de Soif

Author: Guy de Maupassant (French, 1850-1893)
Published: 1880
Category: Hypocrisy
Text available at: Classic Reader

Summary:
A woman of ill-repute generously sacrifices her lunch and her body for the comfort and convenience of nine fellow passengers only to be shunned by them when in need of comfort herself.


Points of interest:
The initial setting is the French town of Rouen as it is being occupied by the Prussian army. de Maupassant's description of the mood of the town and town's people both before and after the occupation paints very vivid pictures.
"But there was something in the air, a something strange and subtle, an intolerable foreign atmosphere like a penetrating odor--the odor of invasion. It permeated dwellings and places of public resort, changed the taste of food, made one imagine one's self in far-distant lands, amid dangerous, barbaric tribes."
The title of the piece, Boule de Soif, is a nickname (Tallow Ball) applied to the protagonist; we first meet her well into the story and she is the only character introduced in a sympathetic light, a clue, along with her name, to her importance to the story. While the protagonist is a courtesan and supposedly debased, 'tallow' is used to make soap and candles (light).

Maupassant does not think well of merchants
"Many a round-paunched citizen, emasculated by years devoted to business..."
the religious
"...sapped by that devouring faith which is the making of martyrs and visionaries." 
"Now, it fell out that many of these [Saints] had committed acts which would be crimes in our eyes, but the Church readily pardons such deeds when they are accomplished for the glory of God or the good of mankind."
or the powerful
"You see, sir, poor folk always help one another; it is the great ones of this world who make war."

The Necklace

Author: Guy de Maupassant (French, 1850-1893)
Published: 1885
Category: Ironic
Text available at: Classic Reader

Summary:
A young woman's longing for a higher place in society nets her, and her husband, a life of drudgery and debt.

Points of interest:
Maupassant gives the source and cause of Mathilde's (Mme. Loisel's) longing in one line:
"She had a friend, a former schoolmate at the convent, who was rich, and whom she did not like to go to see any more because she felt so sad when she came home."