The Listerdale Mystery: “Mrs. St. Vincent was adding up figures.”
Detective: None, as these are various tales of murder & suspense
Published: June 1934
Length: 192 pages
Setting: various
The Listerdale Mystery by Agatha Christie
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Category Archives: Short Stories
The Hound of Death and Other Stories by Agatha Christie
The Hound of Death: “It was from William P. Ryan, American newspaper correspondent, that I first heard of the affair.”
Detective: None, as these are tales of the supernatural
Published: October 1933
Length: 218 pages
Setting: various:
A compilation of 12 short stories, The Hound of Death and Other Stories are not mysteries, but instead are tales of the macabre, tales of the supernatural, tales that are linked to the scary unknown. The tales were as follows:
The Christmas Present by Richmal Crompton
“Mary Clay looked out of the window of the old farmhouse.”
I’ve deviating from my Everyman Christmas compilation with a Christmas story out of a collection of Librivox short stories. The Christmas Present was written by Richmal Crompton, an English woman author, and is a curious story in more ways than one. Let’s find out why …
Where Love Is, God Is by Leo Tolstoy
Where God Is, Love Is
Martin Avdéitch is an honest and hard-working shoemaker who lives in the basement of a building with only one window where he can gaze out on the street and see people’s feet passing by. Although his work keeps him busy with little time for socializing, he recognizes the people from seeing their boots as they pass. His wife, poor dear, is dead, as are his many children, however one little boy is still with him and while he thinks of sending him to live with relatives, he decides to keep him with him for company. Yet, alas, his son passes away from an illness and Martin is left all alone.
Christmas at Thompson Hall by Anthony Trollope
Christmas at Thompson Hall
Those of you who have read Anthony Trollope’s novels know that he is a master of the art of character creation. Each of the people who populate his novels have distinct personalities that bring them alive to the reader and draw them into his world. With a short story, however, I wondered if Trollope’s fine skills would hold up using a smaller palette. And so I began to read Christmas at Thompson Hall with a somewhat apprehensive curiosity.
The Blue Carbuncle by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Blue Carbuncle
Two days after Christmas, Watson calls on Sherlock Holmes only to find him scrutinizing an old battered hat. Holmes reveals that Peterson, a commissionaire, saw a man with a goose over his shoulder being assaulted by some ruffians. The man raised his cane to defend himself and broke a window behind him; when he saw Peterson running towards him, he hastily fled, leaving his hat and the goose behind. Peterson sought Holmes for help finding the owner of these treasures, but the only physical clues they discover are a tag on the goose, reading, “For Mrs. Henry Baker” and the initials H.B. inscribed on the inside of the hat.
The Night Before Christmas by Nikolai Gogol
Does the title of this short Christmas story inspire visions of Jolly Ol’ Saint Nick, sugar plums, presents and little children? Or perhaps you imagine the comfort of a good night’s sleep and the joy of Christmas morning? Well, wipe those thoughts right out of your mind. Gogol’s The Night Before Christmas is as far from the favourite poem of my childhood as I could imagine. He tells of adultery, the devil, thievery and unrequited love in a way that’s rather odd but extremely amusing. It’s certainly a different perspective on a very important evening.
The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton by Charles Dickens
I’m trying to read some Christmas stories to get in the mood for the season and I’ve had this book, aptly titled Christmas Stories, waiting for me since I saw O’s postings last year, and I decided to order it immediately. It’s a lovely collection of stories, mostly from classic authors like Dickens, Gogol, Trollope, Tolstoy, Cather, etc. The Story of the Goblins Who Stole the Sexton is the first story in the collection and it goes like this …
Excellent People by Anton Chekhov
“Once upon a time there lived in Moscow a man called Vladimir Semyonitch Liadovsky.”
Wow, Chekhov was in fine form with this short story! A narrator relates a story of a literary man trained at law, Vladimir Semyonitch Liadovsky, and his sister, Vera Semyonovna, a listless woman who has been disappointed in life. At the start of the story, Vladimir has compassion and love for his sister, who had her new husband die, survived a suicide attempt, and now is living with him, quietly revering his talents.
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
(Warning: There are spoilers galore in this review, but the story itself is quite obvious, not to mention the title, so I spoiled away!)
A few decades ago, I read this short story as an elementary school student. From what I can remember from a fuzzy recollection is that the tale creeped me completely out and the image of a beating heart under the floorboards thumped around in my consciousness for weeks after. However, for some reason I remembered the heart being in a box, which is not in the story. Why, I wonder? Was it some illustration I’d seen that had left that impression or simply my mind supplying details?
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| The Tell Tale Heart (1919) Harry Clarke source Wikipedia |
In any case, The Tell Tale Heart was first published in the literary journal, The Pioneer, in 1843. It is told in a first person narrative, with the narrator describing a helpless old man whose rheumy blue eye drives him to contemplate the murder of this vulnerable creature. Although he claims to love the man and have nothing personal against him, the filmy eye is his main focus. Each night at midnight, he attempts to shine a light on the eye, but each night it does not open and therefore, he claims, he cannot complete his homicidal deed. Every day, he is kinder to the old man, but on the eighth night, the man calls out before the narrator is able to shine the light, however with patience our murder awaits our terrified victim and when he is able light up the eye, a sense of rage grows within him and he snuffs out the man’s life. Dismembering him, he hides the body parts beneath the floorboards. Soon after, a knocking is heard and the narrator opens the door to the police who have heard reports of a shriek and have come to investigate. Elated with his perceived clever deed, the narrator invites them in and they converse right in the room where the murder occurred, the evildoer supposing the police will never discover his crime. However ……. ka-thump, ka-thump, ka-thump …… a noise begins ….. a noise that comes from directly under the floorboards. The tell tale heart ……. The pounding echoes the pounding in the murder’s head until he is convinced that the police now know all, and bleats out a wild cry: “Villains! Dissemble no more! I admit the deed! —- tear up the planks! —- here, here! — it is the beating of his hideous heart!”
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| The Veiled Heart (1932) Salvador Dali source Wikiart |
Well, well! And so I reveal the whole story. Why? Well, because at first, honestly, it was a huge disappointment. It’s an interesting story, certainly, but a classic? Bah! It’s simply an implied scary story that is mildly shivery, and then soon forgotten. What a disappointment! But not trusting my own judgement, I looked around to see what others had made of it. It seemed like no one could draw any sort of deeper meaning from the tale. There is talk of the unreliable narrator, who is obviously paranoid and psychotic right from the beginning. There is no explanation of the relationship of the narrator to the old man, or really even why he loves him but hates his eye. So I let the story sit with me a day or two. When I returned, I had a vague idea ……….. in the beginning the narrator is fixated on the eye of the man; we never are told why but it absorbs all his thoughts until it becomes an obsession. He murders the old man because he’s convinced that he hates it. Yet in the end, it is the heart of the man that gives the murderer away. Could it be a commentary on the outside appearance of a person vs. their inner nature, the eye versus the heart? We see and react to what is seen on the surface, yet is the heart of a person that is their true character, what will eventually “give them away” so to speak.
My conclusion still seems rather elusive and I’m grasping at a possible meaning that is still out of my reach. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this or any other interpretations that you’ve discovered? If so I’d love to hear them!
There is also the theme of the psychosis of the murder, which is rather fascinating. He continually emphasizes the fact he is NOT crazy, and incessantly accentuates his clever machinations. And notice in his final words, he calls the police, “villains”. Everything is backwards in his twisted mind.
My next Deal Me In Challenge choice will be the essay, Doodles in the Dictionary by Aldous Huxley.
Week 9 – Deal Me In Challenge – Five of Clubs
