Titles for the Month of July 2011

Short Story Reviews. RayS.
The title for July 1 is at the bottom of the list; the title for July 29 is at the top of the list.

"Jealousy"

"Madame D."

"Chenniang."

"Passion (Or The Western Room)"

"Chastity"

"The Jade Goddess."

"The Stranger''s Note."

"Asleep in the Lord."

"The White Monkey."

"Curley Beard."

Famous Chinese Short Stories: Introduction.

"The Salt Sea."

"Ashes for the Wind."

"Coyote 13."

"A Man of Character."

"I Puritani."

"The Prophecy."

"Two Cooing Doves."

"The Heart's Reason"

"The Cabbages of the Cemetery"

Titles of Story Summaries for June 2011

"The Old Ranch."

"Jealousy"

Author Unknown

Summary: Wu Hung was a bachelor who taught school in his own quarters. He needed a wife. He was approached by a matchmaker who told him about a beautiful young woman who would make him a good wife. Her name was Yonia. She played the flute and was quite talented. The matchmaker, for some reason, was sopping wet.

At first, the marriage went well. But there were certain signs that Yonia was clairvoyant, who seemed to know Wu’s wishes before he ever expressed them. Then another matchmaker told Wu about her daughter. Too late, said Wu. He was already married. When she asked to whom and he told her, she warned him that it was not a good match, but would say no more.

Well, it turns out that his first wife had been thrown out of her employer’s home for becoming angry and throwing another girl to her death. Not only that, but she had committed suicide with her unborn baby, In short, she was a ghost and the matchmaker had also been drowned, which explains the fact that she had been soaking wet. It also turned out that the second matchmaker and Yonia and her daughter were rival ghosts who taunted and attacked each other, and they did so regularly.

Wu decided that he needed to live somewhere else, away from the mayhem perpetrated by the rival ghosts.

Famous Chinese Short Stories. Re-told by Lin Yutang. New York: The Pocket Library. 1954.

"Madame D."

Lien Pu.

Summary: Madame D. had no peer. She was the most beautiful woman in the capital. She was married to a husband who was an official in the government, a government that beat up student protesters. Madame D. felt sorry for the protesters, one of whom had been her brother who had been killed during a protest. Because of her husband’s handling of the student protesters, Madame D. and her husband drifted apart in their marriage.

Madame D. loved beautiful pearls. When a student offered her a beautiful set of pearls, she agreed to meet him. That led to an affair that culminated in a pregnancy. When her husband’s suspicions were aroused by her growing condition, she said that he had impregnated her one night when he came home drunk.

The handsome young man who had given her the pearls was a student protester. He was caught in a protest, but escaped. Before he left the area, he saw her again, and she returned the pearls because she knew he needed money. He reluctantly accepted them and then disappeared. She raised their son,

When the present emperor died, another replaced him who was in favor of the reforms advocated by the student protesters. Madame D.’s husband, who had been responsible for the deaths of the student protestors, was tried and executed. The handsome young man who had given her the pearls became an official in the new government and he married Madame D.

You know the rest. Happily ever after.

Famous Chinese Short Stories. Re-told by Lin Yutang. New York: The Pocket Library. 1954.

"Chenniang."

Chen Hsuansu

Summary: Wang Chou as a baby had been betrothed to Chenniang as a baby by her mother and her brother, Wang Chou’s father. When Wang Chou’s father died, he told Wang Chou to go to his sister’s home far away and to remind his sister that he and Chenniang were to be married. When they were at last reunited, Wang Chou and Chenniang fell deeply in love.

However, the father of Chenniang wanted her to marry the son of a wealthy family. He was the authority in the family. Channiang became very sick over the impending separation from Wang Chou and her spirit fled from her body. She no longer knew her parents, she stared blankly out at the world and would not eat. When Wang Chou visited her to say that he was going away, her spirit returned to her body.

As he was sleeping on a moored boat, he heard Chenniang’s voice on the river bank. She had left her home, she said, to join him. Wang Chou wondered that, sick as she was, she was able to cover so much territory and in her bare feet. Overjoyed, they made their home in a rented room on a farm. They were very happy together, and Chenniang gave birth to a wonderful baby boy. But Channiang missed her mother. After the birth of the child, Wang Chou offered to take her home.

Wang Chou went to Chenniang's mother’s home separately to see whether the parents would welcome Chenniang. Of course, the father was incredulous, but the mother was happy or would have been happy if Chenniang were not lying in a coma in the next room where her body lay without her spirit. It was Chenniang’s spirit that had run away from home to join Wang Chou while her body remained inert in the sick room at home. When the body of Chenniang recognized Wang Chou, she rose, merged her spirit with the spirit of Chenniang who had married Wang Chou. Their spirits merged, and they lived happily to a ripe old age.

Famous Chinese Short Stories. Re-told by Lin Yutang. New York: The Pocket Library. 1954.

"Passion (Or The Western Room)"

Yuan Chen

Summary: An autobiographical story by a famous Chinese poet. A love story. I almost said a typical love story. Yuan meets a beautiful girl from a strict family who at first is unapproachable. By degrees, she grows to trust him and then succumbs to him. Her name is Inging, a woman who has enormous self-control.

He has to go away to a big city to complete his studies. She longs for him. He takes up with a girl from a wealthy family and considers his relationship with Inging just an affair. She stays true to him until he sends her a poem of farewell.

She marries another. Here’s the ending of the story:

“One day, Yuan came to her home and asked to see her, as a distant cousin. Inging refuses to see him, but as Juan was preparing to go away, she stepped out from behind the screen.

‘Why do you come to bother me? I waited for you and you didn’t return. There is nothing to be said between us. I have got over it, and you should too. Go away.’

Yuan left without a word, and Inging collapsed on the floor in a heap.”

The end.

Comment: An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser. RayS.

Famous Chinese Short Stories. Re-told by Lin Yutang. New York: The Pocket Library. 1954.

"Chastity"

Summary: Whatever you think the title of this short story means, you will be wrong. “Chastity” refers to the heroic effort of young widows to persevere as widows and not to marry again. Outside the village is a series of arches dedicated to local heroes like scholars and heroic young widows who had persisted as widows.

Mrs. Wen was told that she was going to be given an arch of chastity dedicated to her as a persevering young widow for many years. But widowhood had been difficult. She had had a daughter who was now mature and ready for marriage. When her daughter Meihua married the captain, she was now even more lonely than ever.

She had a faithful gardener, “Old” Chang who toiled steadily at his duties. In spite of his nickname, “Old” Chang was young. Mrs. Wen proceeded to seduce him into marrying her and adopting Mrs. Wen’s name to carry on the name of Wen. Although the rest of the clan was disappointed that she would not receive the arch of chastity, her daughter and the captain were very happy that Mrs. Wen and “Old” Change would be married. They were happy that she would at last fulfill herself as the young woman she was.

Comment: Lady Chatterley’s Lover. DH Lawrence. RayS.

Famous Chinese Short Stories. Re-told by Lin Yutang. New York: The Pocket Library. 1954.

"The Jade Goddess."

12th century. Author Unknown.

Summary: Chang Po was an artist in jade. He lived with the Commissioner and his wife and the Commissioner’s daughter, Meilan. Chang Po was Meilan’s cousin. Meilan and Chang Po grew to love each other, but because of the father’s objections, they could never be married. So they eloped. In the process, they were responsible for the death of an aged servant who hit his head on a jagged rock while trying to restrain the two from achieving their purposes. Now Chang Po was accused of murder and the manhunt was on.

With each shop he set up, Chang Po’s work in jade revealed who he was and the couple had to move on again. Finally, three soldiers came to return the couple, who now had a son, to the Commissioner many miles away. Meilan urged Chang Po to leave and she arranged it. His last look at Meilan waving goodbye remained with him in his memory. He disappeared and Meilan and their son were returned to her father.

One day the Governor told the Commissioner at dinner that he had secured a marvelous Goddess of Mercy, carved in Jade. When Meilan saw it, she recognized her gesture of final farewell and knew it had been carved by Chang Po—who, after he had created it for the Governor, again disappeared.

On hearing Meilan’s story, the Governor gave the jade statue to Meilan, who, after her son had died, took it to a convent, where she wrote prayers on paper and burned them before the jade Goddess of Mercy.

“Some twenty years after she joined the convent, Meilan died. And so the perishable Goddess of Mercy passed away and the jade Goddess remained.”

Famous Chinese Short Stories. Re-told by Lin Yutang. New York: The Pocket Library. 1954.

"The Stranger''s Note."

Author Unknown

Summary: A stranger has a note and some jewelry delivered to the wife of a palace officer. Only the Palace officer is home, takes the note and the jewelry and cruelly accuses his wife of infidelity. She protests her innocence. To no avail. The husband demands a divorce, which is granted.

Divorced, Chunmei (the now ex-wife) attempts suicide, but is pulled back from the river by an old woman. Chunmei goes to live with the old woman who restores her spirits. A stranger, a businessman, asks the old woman to act as his agent in selling goods. He notices Chunmei and charms her into marrying him. The stranger was the same stranger who wrote the note that resulted in Chunmei’s divorce from her first husband.

When Chunmei meets her ex-husband, he is an altered man, now regretting the divorce and his cruelty to Chunmei. He begs her to return home with him, but she turns away, rejoins her new husband and exacts her revenge by rejecting her ex-husband’s request.

Famous Chinese Short Stories. Re-told by Lin Yutang. New York: The Pocket Library. 1954.

"Asleep in the Lord."

Jeffrey Eugenides.
The New Yorker, (June 17 & 20, 2011), pp. 87-99.

Summary: The setting is Mother Theresa’s Hospital in Calcutta, India. Populated by derelicts and the dying. Mitchell is a volunteer. The story renders a portrait of the culture of modern India. And of the hospital. The reader experiences in vivid detail what it is like to help people with disgusting diseases and injuries. I’m not quite sure what the point of all this is. There is also the usual dirty language—“fuck” and “asshole,” etc.

Mitchell seems to be trying to find out his reason for living. In the end, he does seem to have decided his reason for living, because he leaves. Oh, and he has learned to pray by repeating a litany of: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Put it all together and I’m still guessing what it means, which, I suppose, is part of the author’s point.

Comment: Seems that all New Yorker stories are depressing. The characters are depressed, tired of life. The stories are not tragedies in the traditional sense, in which the victims have a vivid sense of living. They’re just stories with unhappy endings. I’ll include the New Yorker stories in my summaries if there is a reason for reading them. In this case, the cultures of the hospital and of modern India make the story worthwhile. However, I warn you that the first “shit” in future stories and I’ll probably stop reading. The language may be true to life, but I’m tired of hearing and reading it. It’s lost its value. I believe that literature should convey a sense of experience and should make the reader aware of the nature and value of life, even if the life is one of failure and unhappiness. RayS.

"The White Monkey."

Author Unknown

Summary: The White Monkey was an ugly chieftain. He and his people, who lived in a desolate land, took their wives by kidnapping. And what they took, they would never give back. General Ouyang’s young, pretty wife was taken by the White Monkey.

After many efforts to recover his wife, Gen. Ouyang and his band of soldiers came to the White Monkey’s land. The White Monkey treated the general and his men as honored guests. But Gen. Ouyang’s wife broke free and ran to the general. The White Monkey challenged the general to a lover’s contest—an archery contest. The General lost. The White Monkey said if Gen. Ouyang’s wife did not bear him a baby by the next year, he would give her back to the general.

When the general came to claim her, she had borne the White Monkey a son and she now refused to return with the general. “Thereafter [General Ouyang] was a broken man.”

Famous Chinese Short Stories. Re-told by Lin Yutang. New York: The Pocket Library. 1954.

"Curley Beard."

Probably written by Tu Kwang-t’ing (A.D. 850-933).

Summary: It was a time of a crumbling dynasty in China. Young warriors crossed the land looking for leaders with whom to join. Li Tsing was one of those young warriors.

Curley-beard was ambitious to become a leader. He was a coarse man, but intelligent. When Li Tsing told Curley Beard that he might have found the real Dragon, Curley-Beard asked to see him. When they met, the man who was the real Dragon was playing chess. Curley-beard never said a word. He recognized that the man was truly the real Dragon, the real leader of China.

Therefore, Curley-beard gave fine gifts to Li Tsing and his wife and went away to achieve his ambition in another country. He could not play second fiddle to any man. He predicted to Li Tsing that one day in the future, Li Tsing and his wife would hear of Curley-beard’s exploits. He asked Li Tsing and his wife to offer a toast to him at that time. Li Tsing went on to serve the real Dragon for many years, and Curley-beard did as he said he would. He conquered a smaller country. And Li Tsing and his wife offered a toast to their friend Curley-beard from afar.

Comment: A selfless leader who recognized a genuine leader. RayS.

Famous Chinese Short Stories. Re-told by Lin Yutang. New York: The Pocket Library. 1954.

Famous Chinese Short Stories: Introduction.

Famous Chinese Short Stories. Re-told by Lin Yutang. New York: The Pocket Library. 1954.


Introduction

“The purpose of a short story is, I believe, that the reader shall come away with the satisfactory feeling that a particular insight into human character has been gained, or that his knowledge of life has been deepened, or that pity, love, or sympathy for a human being has been awakened. Xi.

“The instinct to listen to a good story is as old as humanity itself.” Xi.

“…vivid descriptions of human character and immediate scenes of human conflicts.” Xii.

“Love and the supernatural seem to dominate the rest of the stories. There are few stories, crime, adventure, and the supernatural included, which do not have a love element in them, which merely shows that, East or West, the surest way to hold the reader’s interest and have his pulse beat a little faster is to tell of love between a man and woman.” Xiv.

Lin Yutang.

"The Salt Sea."

Benjamin Subercaseaux.

Summary: The Captain of the cargo ship hates stowaways. He has them burned in the ship’s boiler room—alive. Andromilio says that the smoke stack emits black smoke when the normal fuel is used, but when the fire is fed with a stowaway—alive—the smoke turns blue.

China Boy is a stowaway caught in the cargo hold. The narrator tries to keep him in his room with Andromilio’s help. But China Boy leaves the room, is caught and accepts his fate. Infuriated, the narrator sees the blue smoke. The captain’s tasty morsel.

The narrator tries to desert the ship but the captain is there. The narrator turns, furiously, on the captain but is restrained by Andromilio, knocked unconscious and tumbles down the gangplank. Then Andromilio tosses his clothes at the captain and he joins the narrator in leaving the ship.

The setting of the cargo ship and the sea is vividly depicted, matching the mood of the narrator. The reader is there. Pp. 260-258.

Spanish Stories and Tales. Ed. By Harriet de Onís. The Pocket Library, 1956.

"Ashes for the Wind."

Hernando Télles.

Summary: The morning was sultry and threatening. So was the visitor, giving Juan warning to clear out of his property before it was too late. Reminds of Kafka. You know the threat is there, but you don’t know why. The merchants in the town are unfriendly and uncooperative. And the policeman has a whip.

Later, the Mayor of the town asks if Juan had left his land. “No,” was the answer. Instead, he retreated into his house and locked the door. Then the house was burned to the ground with Juan,  his wife and baby included.

A true horror story. “Ashes for the Wind.”

Spanish Stories and Tales. Ed. By Harriet de Onís. The Pocket Library, 1956.

"Coyote 13."

Arturo Souto Alabarce

Summary: Herder Juan roamed the desert looking for his cattle. He branded the calves. His enemies were coyotes who killed and ate the calves. One coyote in particular, Coyote 13, who bayed the moon as if daring Juan the Herder to try to come and get him.

One day, Juan the Herder found Coyote 13. Parched, dying of thirst. But defiant as ever. Juan the Herder raised his rifle. And then in spite of his hatred of Coyote 13, he fired the rifle into the air, went to collect some water for the thirsty animal, left it when it would not drink in the presence of its enemy and Coyote 13 lived and killed cattle for many more years.

Juan the Herder was like Captain Ahab and Moby Dick, single-minded. But Juan the Herder realized that with his enemy dead, his purpose in life was ended. So he let his enemy live. The setting of the desert waste is vividly depicted.

Spanish Stories and Tales. Ed. By Harriet de Onís. The Pocket Library, 1956.

"A Man of Character."

Rómulo Gallegos.

Summary: The title is ironic. Martín’s younger sister has run off with a ne-er-do-well and Martín is in disgrace because of it. He can no longer show his face in public. His mother comes in while he is shaving. At first, he says to his mother, “I’ll kill the ne-er-do-well.” She pleads with him not to do so. That will only add to her misery.

Then he thinks better of that decision. “No, I’ll kill myself.” His mother pleads with him not to do so. She and his sick father have discussed what to do—in spite of the fact that they do not have the money. They will pay to send him to Europe.

To Martin, that sounded pretty good. And he resumes shaving. A man of “character.”

Spanish Stories and Tales. Ed. By Harriet de Onís. The Pocket Library, 1956.

"I Puritani."

Armando Palacio Valdés. Pp. 2224-239.

Summary: A young married man of 29. Visiting Madrid. He walks under a balcony and is hit by a doll thrown at him by a thirteen-year-old girl. For some reason, he is attracted to her. They get to know each other. He always walks by her balcony. She always watches for him.

One night, she fools her caretaker and joins him in the street. They walk arm-in-arm and hand-in-hand through the streets. She chatters her girlish chatter. They enter a theater where an opera is playing. “I Puritani” is sung.

They leave the theater. She makes him promise to be at her balcony the next day at 2:00 P.M. He assures her that he will. He doesn’t show up. He has left town to go back to his wife and home town.

He has never forgotten that thirteen-year-old girl, her girlish chatter, their flirtatious behavior on their only “date.”

Comment. “Lolita.” RayS.

Spanish Stories and Tales. Ed. By Harriet de Onís. The Pocket Library, 1956.

"The Prophecy."

Pedro Antonio de Alarcón.

Summary: Parron was a robber who always killed his victims in order to avoid their identifying him. The cruelest of the cruel. One day he robbed a gypsy, but the gypsy managed to get away. No one had ever lived to identify Parron. The gypsy went to the commandant and claimed the reward for Parron.

He described Parron, who was living among the soldiers looking for the robber, Parron. The gypsy happened to be passing the company of soldiers looking for Parron, under the name of Manuel, who saw the gypsy passing and tried to shoot him. His aim was deflected by the other soldiers, and the gypsy identified Parron. Parron lamented that he knew in letting the gypsy get away alive, he deserved to pay the price. And so, Parron was finally discovered and executed.

Spanish Stories and Tales. Ed. By Harriet de Onís. The Pocket Library, 1956.

"Two Cooing Doves."

Ricardo Palma.

Summary: Doña Catalina was a widow, beautiful, wealthy and owner of houses and land. Doña Francisca was the beautiful daughter of a wealthy miner. Doña Catalina was a blonde and Doña Francisca, a brunette.

From the start the two beautiful women hated each other. The insults flew. Doña Francisca said of Doña Catalina that blondes descended from Judas and therefore blondes were treacherous. Doña Catalina said that Doña Francisca was descended from Jews who crucified Christ and that was why she was a half-breed and why she was dark-skinned.

Their animosity led to violence. Doña Francisca wielded her high heels, lifted the skirt of Doña Catalina and beat her about the legs with her high heels, leaving welts and bruises. Later, as the partisans of both women clashed, a partisan of Doña Catalina raised his sword and dealt Doña Francisca a deep “Z” on her now disfigured face.

The author concludes with irony that the feuding ladies were “two cooing doves.”

Comment: The feud became the stuff of legend. RayS.

Spanish Stories and Tales. Ed. By Harriet de Onís. The Pocket Library, 1956.

"The Heart's Reason"

Eduardo Malloa. 188-208.

Summary: The story opens with the protagonist, Montuvio, a successful insurance agent, taking a bus to work. He is completely contented. After a few more mortgage payments, the house will belong to him and his wife Alicia.

He has a beautiful wife. They disagree about what they read. She’s an intellectual, who loves art and novels. He’s a businessman who loves to read books about economics. Otherwise, they are quite compatible. He has one weakness. He allows his imagination to run away with him.

He and his wife have an open house every Sunday. One Sunday he invites a young, handsome man to join the gathering. The young man and Alicia, Montuvio' get along well together. They seem to have similar interests. Montuvio watches them interact, still contented. At first, Montuvio thinks nothing of his wife’s relationship with the handsome young man. Then the seed of jealousy sprouts. He dwells on a suspicion that his wife and the young man are having an affair. He imagines his wife’s coming out of the handsome young man’s house.

From imagining the affair he resorts to spying on the house to see if Alicia comes out.

A young woman does come out of the house—but it is not Alicia. Montuvio is sure of that. Until he dwells on it and he begins to think that maybe it was Alicia.

The story comes to a conclusion with Montuvio torn to shreds by his suspicions that the woman he saw, though she does not look like Alicia, or is dressed like her, was Alicia. A completely contented gentleman in the beginning of the story is now tortured by doubts.

Comment: I thought of Shakespeare’s Othello, only there is no Iago to goad the protagonist. Montuvio does not need an Iago. All he needs is his own suspicious nature with a diseased consciousness to convince himself that his wife is unfaithful. RayS.

Spanish Stories and Tales. Ed. By Harriet de Onís. The Pocket Library, 1956.

"The Cabbages of the Cemetery"

Pío Baroja.

Summary: On the outskirts of town there is a little tavern. The owner dies of near-drowning and pneumonia. His wife, with seven children, and another on the way, carries on. A former member of the community, Pachi, returns from America and becomes the central attraction in the tavern. He owns the land on which the town’s cemetery is located, deeds the land to the town on condition that he can become the grave digger and build a house on the grounds where he can live.

The wife of the tavern owner dies after childbirth. Pachi gathers up the children and rears them. In the cemetery plot, he has also planted cabbages and artichokes. He sells them to the towns people, and they are delicious, having been nourished by their forebears in the cemetery.

Comment: Well, it’s a story. RayS.

Spanish Stories and Tales. Ed. By Harriet de Onís. The Pocket Library, 1956.

Titles of Story Summaries for June 2011

• Titles of Story Summaries for June 2011. To read a review, type the title in the search box at the top of the page.


 "The Dark Night of Ramon Yendia."

 "The Man Who Married an Ill-Tempered Wife."

 "The Fatherland."

 "Life and Death of a Hero."

 "The Tattle-Tale Parrot."

 "Sister Aparicion."

 "The Honor of His House"

 "The Thief and the Ladder of Moonbeams."

 "Saint Manuel Bueno, Martyr." Miguel de Unamuno.

 "The Call of the Blood." Miguel de Cervantes.

 "The Secret Miracle." Jorge Luis Borges.

"My Sister Antonia." Ramon del Vade-Inclan

"The Old Ranch."

Ricardo Guiraldes. Pp. 176-181.

Summary: An implacable drought. Three months of it. The owner of the ranch, Don Rufino, takes a statue of the virgin, ties it up on a post in the dry fields and intends to leave it there until the drought is broken. He is angry at the Virgin for allowing the suffering of the animals and the people.

And then the storm comes. When it is at its height Don Rufino and his family in their ranch house say the rosary in thanks to the Virgin who is once again superior to all the other saints who had been prayed to to end the drought.

Comment: Of course, this was at a time and among a people who saw the images of saints and the Virgin and Christ as real presences in the lives of the impoverished people. RayS.

Spanish Stories and Tales. Ed. By Harriet de Onís. The Pocket Library, 1956.