A Horse in the Moon

A Horse in the Moon: Short story by Luigi PirandelloThis story by Luigi Pirandello opens with a wedding feast in which guests are concerned for the innocent, vivacious Italian bride. Although wealthy, the Sicilian groom appears physically and mentally ill. After seeing the guests off, the groom tries to hurry his new wife inside. She objects and, while heading towards the nearby village, they come across a dying horse. On seeing his reaction, she realizes the marriage was a mistake. A medical episode and vision he has as the moon rises behind the horse solves the problem for her. Themes include naivety, marriage, madness, suffering, compassion, death, culture clash.

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First Love

First Love: Short story by Samuel BeckettMany readers have difficulty with Samuel Beckett’s post-World War 2 stories such as this one because of their stream-of-consciousness narrative approach. In this darkly comic dramatic monologue a reclusive, indolent man recalls how, after being evicted from the family home following his father’s death, he became infatuated with a prostitute he met on a canal-side bench. The more he tried to break away the closer they became until, after moving into her apartment, she gave him cause to leave her for good… a baby. Themes include misanthrope, self-obsession, love, misogyny, sexuality, the emptiness and futility of life.

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Signs and Symbols

Signs and Symbols: Short story by Vladimir NabokovVladimir Nabokov once indicated that Signs and Symbols contains a second story hidden behind various textual clues. The frame story, which involves an elderly couple’s dilemma about how to deal with their institutionalized mentally ill son, is a moving piece of dramatic prose in its own right. The supposed inner story has been the subject of much speculation. So far, nobody has convincingly decoded it. Perhaps there is none, Nabokov’s intention being to encourage readers to pay more attention to the signs and symbols in their own lives. Themes include mental illness, alienation, misfortune, suffering, poverty, death, parental love, hope.

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Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime

Lord Arthur Savile's Crime: Short story by Oscar WildeThis dark comedy from Oscar Wilde involves a gullible young aristocrat who believes a palm-reader’s prediction that he will commit a murder. Out of consideration for his fiancé, he decides that he should postpone their marriage until he can get the deed out of the way. Convinced that he is merely fulfilling his destiny, the young man feels no guilt in planning and preparing for murder, or indeed remorse afterwards. When he later learns that the palm-reader was a charlatan, he still has no regrets. Themes: the shallowness and hypocrisy of the Victorian upper class, destiny, murder, morals, karma.

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The Storyteller

The Storyteller: Short story by H. H. Munro (aka Saki)This story by Saki satirizes the way many traditional children’s stories had become so “sanitized” during the prudish Victorian period that they lost much of their original appeal. A major theme of the story is pride. The outer or “frame” story highlights the Aunt’s false pride in thinking that a bachelor couldn’t possibly tell a better children’s story than she could. The inner story illustrates the meaning of the English idiom Pride comes before a fall. Other themes include childhood, curiosity, control, “goodness” vs. reality (not all good people/things in life end happily!)

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The Totara Tree

The Totara Tree: Short story by Roderick FinlaysonThis light-hearted story from Roderick Finlayson is set in 1930’s New Zealand. A small Maori community is in conflict with the Pakeha (white European) authorities who plan to cut down a sacred tree to build new power lines. An old woman climbs the tree and refuses to come down. After an initial confrontation, the authorities depart for the night. This leads to a drunken celebration, which causes a house-fire that threatens the tree. When rescuers discover that the old woman in the tree has died, one of them comes up with a foolproof plan to save the tree.

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All Over the World

All Over the World: Short story by Vicente Rivera Jr.This story by Vicente Rivera Jr. is set in Intramuros, the walled city within Manilla, shortly before the Japanese invasion of World War 2. It deals with an often-overlooked aspect of forced evacuation during war: the severing of personal relationships as families flee a conflict. A budding friendship between a protective young man and lonely eleven-year-old girl is put on hold as they go their separate ways. The friendship is clearly important to both, and their parting is especially bitter as neither has a chance to say goodbye. Themes include loneliness, friendship, war, displacement, regret.

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Circular Ruins

Circular Ruins: Short story by Jorge BorgesIn this story by Jorge Borges, a mystic arrives at the overgrown, burnt-out ruins of an ancient temple. Living as an ascetic, his purpose is to “dream” a man into existence, initiate him into the riddles of the universe, and send him to inhabit another temple. Before they part, he manipulates his creation’s memory so neither he nor anyone else will know he is a spirit. Later, on the point of death, the mystic learns that he, too, is the product of a dream. Themes include philosophical idealism, dreams vs. reality, the circle of life, creation, religion and spirituality.

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