A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens´A Christmas Carol is an obligatory reading, and a very fitting one for this time of the year. You can also listen to the story´s audio version here.

Merry Christmas and a Wonderful 2009!

Europeana

Have you heard about Europeana, Europe´s digital library? Well, the site was launched on 20 November, but due to its huge use - about 10 million hits an hour - the site was slowed down and closed until a more robust version can be launched. You can learn more about Europeana in this project website.

Shakespeare

I have just read this book about Shakespeare and it was quite enjoyable and accessible. But I love Bill Bryson´s books in general. And I love Shakespeare. So, perhaps I am being a bit biased here.

By the way, have you seen this site about Shakespeare? If you like The Bard, you must!

Also, check this site where you can listen to Shakespeare´s sonnets.

The British Library

The British Library has got a fantastic website. I´ve just found out about their literature section where you can read - and listen to - manuscripts by Lewis Carroll, Jane Austen, and other great writers. Also, do not forget to check the online gallery and the site Sounds Familiar. You can listen to different accents and dialects of the UK. This is almost as good as visiting the library in London.

What makes a good short story?

Is it the plot? The language? The resolution? If you want to know more about what makes a good short story, visit this site. You will be able to read "A Jury of Her Peers", by Susan Glaspell and also learn more about the elements of a good story.

Mark Twain

Have you ever tried to learn German? Well, I have. I love the sound of the language, and to learn it properly is one of my goals. I find this short essay by Mark Twain, The Awful German Language , very interesting. You can also listen to the text here.

Katherine Mansfield

Katherine Mansfield wrote so many wonderful stories that it was difficult to choose just one to post here. I hope you enjoy The Daughters of the Late Colonel.

Also you can watch this short documentary about her life. And if you want to know more about Katherine Mansfield, you can visit her Birthplace or read about her here.

Obama Fever!

It is neither a short story nor a fairy tale, but Barack Obama´s victory means so much to so many that it is impossible to ignore what is going on in the USA today.

The other day some of my colleagues were talking about the elections and Martin Luther King´s famous speech was mentioned. You can compare it with President Obama´s victory speech.

Also you can see Barack Obama´s flickr photos here.

Fairy Tales

When did you become a reader? Like most people, my first reading books were fairy tales. They were the beginning of a lifelong passion for stories.

I was happy to find these recordings of Hans Christian Andersen´s tales. Hope you enjoy listening to them.

A. S. Byatt

Dame Antonia Susan Byatt won the Booker Prize in 1990 with her unforgettable novel Possession. She found herself at the centre of a literary controversy when she gave her opinion about the Harry Porter books.

Raw Material is a real treat. Hope you enjoy reading it.

You can visit A.S. Byatt´s website.

You can also listen to A. S. Byatt here.

Kazuo Ishiguro

I am a huge fan of Kazuo Ishiguro´s books. He is one of the writers that best encompasses British current zeitgeist. His book A Pale View of Hills is one of my favourite books of all times. I have read - and loved - all his other novels, but not his short stories. Until now, I mean.

I hope you like A Family Supper.

You can listen to the story here.

You can read an inteview with Ishiguro here.

You can buy his books here.

You can watch Kazuo Ishiguro talking about Never Let me Go here.

And you can watch my favourite scene of The Remains of the Day here (This is what happens when you have the perfect story, the perfect director and perfect actors).

Graham Greene

Graham Greene managed to be, at the same time, very popular and greatly respected by literary critics. I Hope you enjoy the irony in The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen as much as I do.

If you want to know more about Greene, you can visit his Birthplace Trust or read about him here.

Also you can listen to his famous interview to the BBC here.

Jorge Luis Borges

To say that Borges was a literary master is an understatement. His stories remain with you long after they are read. I think that "The Gospel According to Mark" is a fitting story for an All Saints' Day. My translation students may find interesting to compare this version read by Paul Theroux with the English and Spanish texts here.

Trick or Treat!

As a Halloween treat, I am posting two stories today.




















The first one - The story of Baba Yaga - a Russian folk tale that may appeal to my younger students.

The second one - The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman - I thought might be interesting to more grown-up readers. You can listen to the story here, or, if you prefer, to a dramatised version of it.

Happy Halloween!

Poe...well, it is almost Halloween!

Here it is, The Cask of Amontillado. What a story! Even after all these years, I still think of Fortunato´s fate.

You can read the story here.

You can listen to the story here.

And (Wow!) you can watch a film with Vincent Price here.

Edgar Allan Poe

Poe is THE great story teller. His fantastic stories and gory tales are simply unforgettable for those who are daring enough to read them. I still remember my first story by Poe - The cask of Amontillado. I was 14, and for a long time could not forget that tale of revenge.

The story I chose for today´s post has a fairy tale feel about it. But make no mistake: it is still an Edgar Allan Poe story.

The Masque of the Red Death

You can read the story here.

You can listen to the story here.

You can learn more about Edgar Allan Poe here.

P.D. James

'All fiction is an attempt to create order out of disorder and to make sense of personal experience. But the classical detective story does this within its own established conventions; a central mystery which is usually but not necessarily a murder, a closed circle of suspects, a detective, either professional or amateur, who comes in like an avenging deity to solve the crime, and a final solution which the reader should be able to arrive at himself by logical deduction from the clues. This apparent formula writing is capable of accommodating a remarkable variety of books and talents. Within the formal constraints of the detective novel I try to say something true about men and women under the stress of the ultimate crime and about the society in which they live.'
(P.D.James)


There was a time in my life when all I wanted to read was a good P.D. James detective story. Years later, I was fortunate enough to attend a lecture given by her - the most adorable old lady I have ever seen! It was extremely hard to associate the lovely lady in front of me with all those stories I had read.

She wrote some short stories but she is better known for her crime novels.

You can have a go at writing your own mistery stories at her website.

You can listen to P.D. James talking about her work here.

Carol Shields

"...From June to August they choose to forget who they are, or at least what they look like, electing an annual season of non-reflectiveness in the same way other people put away their clocks for the summer or their computers or door keys or microwave ovens..."
(Carol Shields, Mirrors)


Although Carols Shields was born and brought up in the USA, she lived in Canada from 1957 until her death in 2003. She has been compared to Jane Austen, and she won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for her novel The Stone Diaries. I love her short stories and her book Unless.

Here she poses us this interesting question: how would you live without mirrors?


Mirrors

http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0997/shields/sstory.html

You can listen to a discussion about Carol Shields:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/openbook/openbook_20030817.shtml

And you can even watch Carol Shields talking about her novels:

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/shi1int-1

Roald Dahl and the fairy tales

You have probably heard of Roald Dahl´s Revolting Rhymes. They are an updated - and a tiny bit twisted - version of traditional fairy tales. I know, I know... the blog is about short stories, but I wanted to share with you this recording of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf with the man himself reading the poem. Wonderful!

http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=7428

Roald Dahl´s website:

http://www.roalddahl.com/

And if you want to buy Revolting Rhymes (I strongly recommend it!):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Revolting-Rhymes-Roald-Dahl/dp/0141501758

Kate Chopin

This is Kate Chopin´s most popular story: The story of an hour. A true classic written in 1894. I love the imagery in this story.

http://www.pbs.org/katechopin/library/storyofanhour.html

You can listen to The Story of an Hour below:

http://www.miettecast.com/authors/chopin-kate/

If you want to know more about Kate Chopin, visit the Kate Chopin Org. website.

http://www.katechopin.org/

Anton Chekhov

What would you do if you won the lottery? This story by Chekhov shows that loads of money could not necessarily bring you joy.


The Lottery Ticket:

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/chekhov/anton/c51wif/chap9.html

You can listen to the story below:

http://ia341037.us.archive.org/1/items/short_story_024_0803_librivox/shortstory024_10_lotteryticket_ajm_64kb.mp3

James Joyce

The book called Dubliners contains lots of powerful tales. I think this story, Eveline, is probably the most powerful one in the book. The theme of paralysis is present; although Eveline wants to leave Ireland, she is crippled by her fear and guilt.

Eveline

http://www.readprint.com/work-880/James-Joyce

If you want to know a bit more about James Joyce, why not visiting his centre?

http://www.jamesjoyce.ie/

You can listen to this story on the link below:

http://ia301133.us.archive.org/0/items/stories_004_librivox/eveline_joyce_wsc_64kb.mp3

Guy de Maupaussant

How could I not mention Guy de Maupassant? He was French and lived in the XIX century. He is very popular and is considered one of the fathers of the modern short story. I love this story´s atmosphere. One can almost taste the champagne and feel the girl´s dizziness.

Indiscretion by Guy de Maupaussant:

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/m/maupassant/guy/m45s/part21.html

Fay Weldon

I love reading Fay Weldon´s stories. They teach you a lot about the British middle class. Besides, she wrote one of my favourite books on literature: Letters to Alice. People have always regarded her as a feminist, but her plays, essays and stories reject pigeonholing.




Weekend:

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/files/teacheng/weekend_text.pdf

To listen to this story read by Fay Weldon:

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/resources/britlit/weekend

The Landlady by Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl is better known for his books for children. However, he wrote several stories for older people and they are all wonderfully told. Some of them are a bit spooky, but hey!... It is almost haloween time!

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/files/teacheng/landlady_text.pdf

You can listen to this story here:

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/resources/britlit/the-landlady

The history of the short story

The short story was invented as soon as human beings could talk. One day, one of the first hunter-gatherers went out and had a close encounter with a sabre-toothed tiger. When he came back he gave his family a lurid account of what had happened, no doubt with a little exaggeration thrown in. Later, his wife told the story to some of the other men’s wives while they were doing the cooking. And so on. In other words, the short story began as a tale told orally, often around the campfire.
(Michael Allen)

Have you ever wondered about the history of the short story? Well, some people have! Please, take a look at the links below:

http://grumpyoldbookman.blogspot.com/2005/03/official-history-of-short-story.html

http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/pdfarticle.php?id=7447

http://www.bradsreader.com/brads_reader/2008/08/history-of-the.html

A Rose for Emily

I read this story by William Faulkner, for the first time, when I was 18. It has made such an impact on me that I still place it as one of my favourite short stories. It is a classic and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
http://www.ariyam.com/docs/lit/wf_rose.html




A film based on the story can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt9i2QCp_lM

The Death of the Moth

I would like to begin the blog with this story by Virginia Woolf that is not even a story, but a short essay. I simply love the language, the figures of speech, and the rhythm of this text.

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91d/chap2.html