In this story from Stephen King, people are cheered by the sight of a well-dressed young man walking down a New York City street one spring evening. He has the appearance of a man in love, which is confirmed when he buys a bouquet of flowers for his girlfriend Norma. The twist comes when he hands the flowers to a young woman and savagely beats her to death when she says her name is not Norma. Norma is long dead, but the obsessed former admirer is still looking for her. Themes include appearance vs. reality, love, obsession, denial, madness, murder. More…
The Red-Headed League
A common theme in most detective stories is superior observation skills and deductive reasoning. A defining feature of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Red-Headed League is the way the facts presented by the gullible Wilson appear so bizarre to Watson as to defy interpretation. This prompts Holmes’s to quip: Omne ignotum pro magnifico [we exaggerate the importance of the unknown]. Once he dismisses the Red-Headed League as a distraction, identifying the crime in progress becomes a straightforward matter for the great detective. Other themes include deception (appearance vs. reality), gullibility, greed (of both the criminals and Wilson), crime and justice. More…
The Secret Sharer
The term secret sharer in this Joseph Conrad adventure could apply to both the protagonist (a young ship’s captain preparing for his first sea command) and his fugitive cabin guest. The similarities between them in terms of age, appearance and background suggest that Conrad is using the guest as a foil to highlight the captain’s strengths and weaknesses. Unlike the guest, the captain is unsure of himself and does not project the self-confidence and authority needed to gain the respect of his older, more experienced officers. Themes include leadership, isolation, identity, duality, self-awareness, self-mastery, and the power of the sea. More…
A Passion in the Desert
This story by Honoré de Balzac recounts the adventures of a French soldier lost in the Egyptian desert during the Napoleonic conquests. He finds a small oasis, but soon realizes that it is already occupied… by a leopard! He befriends the beast and the two manage to co-exist, with the leopard becoming more and more trusting and playful. Although he describes the (female) leopard in increasingly sensual terms, he later learns that the desert holds other passions: (In the desert there is everything and nothing… it is God without mankind.) Themes: isolation, animal/human bonding, distrust, betrayal, finding God in nature. More…
The Custodian
In this story by Deborah Eisenberg, two childhood friends from families of different financial means drift apart when the older girl goes to high school. However, they still share a common bond through child-minding jobs for a young woman and her “touchy-feely” college professor husband who live in “their” stone cottage. The story has an unusual structure: beginning at the end, returning to the beginning, then allowing readers to reach their own conclusion as to why the older girl’s family mysteriously whisks her out of town. Themes include friendship, social class, isolation, regret, infatuation, sexual predation/grooming. More…