The Higgler

The Higgler: Short story by A. E. CoppardIn this story by A. E. Coppard, a higgler (peddler) faces a difficult choice. Although not formally engaged, he has been “keeping company” with a girl everyone expects him to marry. Life gets complicated when one of his suppliers, a wealthy widow in poor health, asks him to marry her beautiful, well-educated daughter. Though strongly attracted to the girl, she has shown little interest in him. He makes his decision thinking the mother’s offer must have a hidden catch. When she dies, he learns something that may have changed his mind. Themes include struggle, choices and consequences, suspicion, unconsummated love.

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Dusky Ruth

Dusky Ruth: Short story by A. E. CoppardIn addition to writing fantasy and horror stories, A. E. Coppard had a wonderful talent for describing nature and human nature through his tales of life and love in the English countryside. Here, a hiker exploring the Cotswolds stops for the night at a village inn. The only lodger, he shares passionate embraces with a dusky serving girl in a downstairs sitting room. Later that night, she invites him to her bedroom where, as she lays naked and crying beside him, he proves to be a perfect English gentleman. Themes include the beauty of nature, isolation, loneliness, sexuality, desire, restraint.

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Ahoy, Sailor Boy!

Ahoy, Sailor Boy!: Short story by A. E. CoppardThis story by A. E. Coppard takes a light-hearted look at death and what comes after. Following a discussion in an English pub about death and divine retribution, an off-duty sailor unsuccessfully tries to solicit an attractive ghost in a park. The woman’s sin was vanity, as represented by a huge collection of expensive clothing. In order to obtain redemption, she must re-wear and discard every item in the collection. She is wearing the last outfit, and the sailor eagerly watches as she undresses for the last time. Themes include death and the afterlife, vanity, sexuality, kindness, redemption, the supernatural.

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Adam and Eve and Pinch Me

Adam and Eve and Pinch Me: Short story by A. E. CoppardIn one of A. E. Coppard’s more enigmatic stories, a confused man finds himself unable to open the doors in his house or communicate with his three children or servants. The inference is that he is dead and doesn’t know it. Relief comes when he awakens from a daydream with his wife beside him. However, he has a different identity and the third child featured in the dream, who had special powers, has not yet been born. Themes include the convergence of reality and fantasy, death, family, frustration, anger, precognition, identity.

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Arabesque: The Mouse

Arabesque: The Mouse: Short story by A. E. CoppardIn this psychological horror story by A. E. Coppard, an idealistic man who has withdrawn from society due to constant rebuff sits alone in a mouse-infested garret. As he watches the antics of a mouse in front of his fireplace, his mind wanders to the death of his mother and loss of the only woman he ever loved. When he comes back to reality, the mouse is sitting before a trap with its forepaws torn off. Association of this with his mother’s grisly death sends him to the brink of madness. Themes include mother-child relationships, loss, depression, despair, shame, insanity.

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