Author: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Spanish, 1547 - 1616)
Published: 1613
Category: Tale
Text: Project Gutenberg
Summary:
A young nobleman falls in love with a young gypsy girl; pledging her two years of his life in exchange for her hand in marriage, he joins the gypsy band, abandoning his parents and his city but not his values.
Points of Interest:
More of a morality tale than a short story, it is full of negative comments on gypsies except for the young gypsy girl, Percosia, who is always described in glowing terms, as is her suitor. The reason becomes clear in the end, when we discover Percosia had been stolen away from her true parents when she was very young and was not really the old gypsy woman's granddaughter.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
The Story of An Hour
Author: Kate Chopin (American, 1850-1904)
Published: 1894
Category: Character Study
Text: VCU, Ann Woodlief's English Web
Summary:
Life, is it what you expect?
Analysis:
What do you expect from life? And who sets those expectations? You? Your family? Your friends? Your husband? Do your expectations shape your life? Can changing your expectations, change your life? For a few precious moments, Mrs. Mallard, the protagonist in Kate Chopins' "The Story of An Hour", discovered they do, and they can.
Mrs. Mallard's expectations of life were shaped by her husband, whose "kind intentions" masked a "powerful will" which sought, with "blind persistence", to force her life into a shape of his choosing; his loving looks "fixing" her in a "gray and dead...procession of years" the "thought" of which made her "shudder [,] that life might be long."
Young, she lived as a child in a "dream", presenting "a fair, calm face" to the world; locking up her troubled thoughts in a troubled heart. It was only on receiving news of her husband's death that she dared, for a moment, to release them.
Fearfully, at first, then wildly, with a powerless abandonment, she allowed her old expectations of a long and dreary life to be replaced with the expectation of a new life holding the promise of a freedom of both "body and soul"; and, to her surprise, she discovered that with the release of the old expectations, came the release of "a monstrous joy". A joy that refused to be locked away when her husband walked through the front door, alive and well.
There were signs that Mrs. Mallard knew her expectations of life were not her own; her "heart trouble" for one, the "physical exhaustion" that "haunted her soul"; her sense of "something coming to her" for which she had been "waiting". And there were signs that her sister, Josephine, and her husband's friend, Richard, colluded with her husband's expectations for her; both acted to shield her from the news of his death, to break it to her gently, with "veiled hints"; an implicit recognition that her life was not her own, but his.
When Mrs. Mallard, on hearing the news of her husband's death, locked herself up in her room her sister, ironically, implored her to "open the door", fearing she would make herself ill, when she had been ill her entire married life. And although it was Mrs. Mallard who had entered the room, it was Louise who came out, joyful, victorious, "clasping her sister's waist", giving, rather than needing, support; standing tall above Richard, a man, waiting below.
Joyful and victorious until the "latch-key" turned and the front door of her larger world opened, re-admitting her "stained" husband, who carried with him the "grip-sack" of her old expectations, and her death.
Published: 1894
Category: Character Study
Text: VCU, Ann Woodlief's English Web
Summary:
Life, is it what you expect?
Analysis:
What do you expect from life? And who sets those expectations? You? Your family? Your friends? Your husband? Do your expectations shape your life? Can changing your expectations, change your life? For a few precious moments, Mrs. Mallard, the protagonist in Kate Chopins' "The Story of An Hour", discovered they do, and they can.
Mrs. Mallard's expectations of life were shaped by her husband, whose "kind intentions" masked a "powerful will" which sought, with "blind persistence", to force her life into a shape of his choosing; his loving looks "fixing" her in a "gray and dead...procession of years" the "thought" of which made her "shudder [,] that life might be long."
Young, she lived as a child in a "dream", presenting "a fair, calm face" to the world; locking up her troubled thoughts in a troubled heart. It was only on receiving news of her husband's death that she dared, for a moment, to release them.
Fearfully, at first, then wildly, with a powerless abandonment, she allowed her old expectations of a long and dreary life to be replaced with the expectation of a new life holding the promise of a freedom of both "body and soul"; and, to her surprise, she discovered that with the release of the old expectations, came the release of "a monstrous joy". A joy that refused to be locked away when her husband walked through the front door, alive and well.
There were signs that Mrs. Mallard knew her expectations of life were not her own; her "heart trouble" for one, the "physical exhaustion" that "haunted her soul"; her sense of "something coming to her" for which she had been "waiting". And there were signs that her sister, Josephine, and her husband's friend, Richard, colluded with her husband's expectations for her; both acted to shield her from the news of his death, to break it to her gently, with "veiled hints"; an implicit recognition that her life was not her own, but his.
When Mrs. Mallard, on hearing the news of her husband's death, locked herself up in her room her sister, ironically, implored her to "open the door", fearing she would make herself ill, when she had been ill her entire married life. And although it was Mrs. Mallard who had entered the room, it was Louise who came out, joyful, victorious, "clasping her sister's waist", giving, rather than needing, support; standing tall above Richard, a man, waiting below.
Joyful and victorious until the "latch-key" turned and the front door of her larger world opened, re-admitting her "stained" husband, who carried with him the "grip-sack" of her old expectations, and her death.
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."
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:
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.
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.
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).
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).
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