Having a good short story anthology to look forward to each weekend is like having a favorite, comfy chair to settle into when reading. I think Fifty Great American Short Stories, edited by Milton Crane, is going to be just such a collection. It was a lucky find and glancing at the table of contents I see lots of familiar names (authors I've read and enjoyed before or have wanted to read) but not a single short story that I have read before. My only complaint, and I am sure it is a common one, is that there are far too few female authors represented. I always make up for that in the end, however, by tending to choose more books (and even story collections) by women then men.
It looks as though the stories are organized chronologically, and I think I will follow along and read in order and perhaps will see how the American short story has developed over time--and indeed the editor notes the stories progress in just such a way that they mirror the development of the genre in American literature. Unfortunately there is only a very brief introduction but there is a nice bibliography at the end of the book listing other works by each author. I'm always curious to know how an editor goes about selecting the stories to include and hope to learn something more about an author or simply something more about this genre that I so enjoy.
"It has frequently been observed that the modern short story is to a striking degree an American creation. Certainly the first important writers in this newest (and also, quite conceivably, oldest) form of fiction were Americans, and the critic who gained a worldwide reputation for his own stories, was the American Edgar Allen Poe."
I'll soon see the veracity of that statement with next week's story, which is by Poe. This week, however, Washington Irving's story "The Adventure of the German Student" opens the collection. Crane mentions in his introduction that he tried in this anthology to give the reader "a comprehensive and representative view of the ways in which Americans have written short stories from the days of Washington Irving to the present." And a variety of prose works (he doesn't try to argue a particular definition of just 'what is a short story') is included--some exactly as you would expect and others that you might not think would be part of a story collection. Happily Crane has chosen stories that are not often anthologized and in some cases have never been reprinted since they were first published.
I've read Washington Irving before, but on both occasions I've read the story most readers are likely best familiar with--"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", which I think is a brilliant and evocative story. "The Adventure of the German Student", while not as good as his classic, is quite atmospheric. This week's short stories are both in the "American Gothic" vein between Washington Irving and the New Yorker story, which is by Shirley Jackson. Actually I am not entirely sure Irving would be considered someone who wrote in that style, but of the few stories I've read by him they always are on the atmospheric side.
"The Adventure of the German Student" is set in the Paris of the Revolutionary years, specifically during the Reign of Terror. You might call what happened to the German student an adventure, but it's not the sort one looks forward to having. Rather it is closer to a misadventure and by story's end when you get to that Ah-Ha moment there is a decidedly creepy tone to poor Gottfried's story. He is a student from Germany, too intense and introspective all altogether too serious.
"He had been indulging in fanciful speculations on spiritual essences, until, like Swedenborg, he had an ideal world of his own around him. He took up a notion, I don not know from what cause, that there was an evil influence hanging over him; an evil genius or spirit seeking to ensnare him and ensure his perdition."
So, off to Paris his family sends him to divert his melancholy. But bad timing as he is sent off on his travels on the eve of the Revolution. Not so good for his "ardent" temperament. He begins having dreams of a young woman of "transcendent beauty". And then he finds a young woman sitting on the steps of the scaffold of M. Guillotine, and the strangest thing is her face is the same one he sees while sleeping. I'll leave the rest up to your imagination and will just say this is a story of the uncanny!
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And there is nothing like finding and reading an unpublished story by the inimitable Shirley Jackson. It has whetted my appetite to read more now! (Note to self, as soon as possible pull out those recent Penguin reissues you bought not so long ago). This week's New Yorker story is "The Man in the Woods" and has Shirley Jackson's trademark crystal prose with an unsettling meaning. There's lots of innuendo but not a lot of explication and it sounds as though she crafted her work very carefully that way. The story has mythological and fairy tale undertones.
In the story a young student walking in the woods comes upon a little cottage where two woman and a man live. They are an unusual group, buried so deep in the woods, wearing their long green robes tied at the waist. It's unclear why they're there, or what they are perhaps gaurding, but there is going to be a battle of sorts, the outcome unsure, but Jackson drops hints. It's quite spooky and I'm not sure what it all means, but she is always fascinating to read and ruminate on.
There is a wonderful Q&A with her son about the story. He has some interesting things to say about her:
"Shirley wrote in a wide variety of styles and voices. In “The Man in the Woods” she has created a story grounded in mythology, told like a fairy tale, with her typical hanging ending, though in this case the clues suggest pretty clearly how it will end. Shirley was very interested in mythology, and she was naturally drawn into the study of myth and ritual, which my father, Stanley Edgar Hyman, became so passionate about, refining his theories with Kenneth Burke and others at Bennington College, in the forties and fifties. In the midst of that, of course, Shirley wrote “The Lottery,” in 1948, bringing ancient ritual shockingly into the modern day."
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"Mythology and folklore were often part of the fabric of family conversation, along with just about everything else. Both of my parents knew a lot about many mythologies, and I can remember as a child being given books of Greek, Roman, Norse, and American-Indian myths. My parents read and wrote constantly, and we would often hear long, passionate literary discussions with guests in the evenings."
I've not read much about her but now I am keen to know more. She was the sort of writer who expected the reader to be an active participant in the work, bringing their knowledge along and not allowing them to be spoon fed. She leaves a lot up to the reader's imagination and interpretation and apparently didn't explain her stories, replying only that "it's only a story". Isn't she great? You can read the Q& A here. Happily, you can also read the story online, too.
Next week: Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown".