Short stories 281-290

“The Silence of the Sea” by Vercors. A powerful story of shattered illusions during the German occupation of France during World War II. Recommended.

“The State of Grace” by Marcel Aymé. A funny satirical fantasy about the desire for conformity. Highly recommended.

“The Women” by Pierre Gascar. About life in a WWII work camp. Recommended.

“The Adulterous Woman” by Albert Camus. A strongly metaphorical tale about emotional estrangement and alienation. Recommended.

“The Secret Room” by Alain Robe-Grillet. An atmospheric description of a grotesque situation. Recommended.

And that concludes The Penguin Book of French Short Stories

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Since the gloominess of autumn/early winter is upon us and it is now dark outside when I wake up to go to work, I have been reading spooky stories I have found in the Web.

"The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall" by John Kendrick Bangs. Web. A humorous ghost story. Recommended.

"The Terror of Blue John Gap" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Web.A monster tale which is ruined somewhat by an attempt at scientific explanation.

"The Mass Of Shadows" by Anatole France. Web. Ghost story about a woman attends a spectral church service.

“The Tree”, by H.P. Lovecraft. A creepy paranormal story, one of his more subtle ones.

“The Mark of the Beast” by Rudyard Kipling. A story, rather sneering in tone, about the danger of disrespecting other people’s gods.

Comments

Book 40: The Martian by Andy Weir, audiobook read by Wil Wheaton

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Icelandic folk-tale: The Devil Takes a Wife

Stories of people who have made a deal with and then beaten the devil exist all over Christendom and even in literature. Here is a typical one: O nce upon a time there were a mother and daughter who lived together. They were rich and the daughter was considered a great catch and had many suitors, but she accepted no-one and it was the opinion of many that she intended to stay celebrate and serve God, being a very devout woman. The devil didn’t like this at all and took on the form of a young man and proposed to the girl, intending to seduce her over to his side little by little. He insinuated himself into her good graces and charmed her so thoroughly that she accepted his suit and they were betrothed and eventually married. But when the time came for him to enter the marriage bed the girl was so pure and innocent that he couldn’t go near her. He excused himself by saying that he couldn’t sleep and needed a bath in order to go to sleep. A bath was prepared for him and in he went...

List love: 10 recommended stories with cross-dressing characters

This trope is almost as old as literature, what with Achilles, Hercules and Athena all cross-dressing in the Greek myths, Thor and Odin disguising themselves as women in the Norse myths, and Arjuna doing the same in the Mahabaratha. In modern times it is most common in romance novels, especially historicals in which a heroine often spends part of the book disguised as a boy, the hero sometimes falling for her while thinking she is a boy. Occasionally a hero will cross-dress, using a female disguise to avoid recognition or to gain access to someplace where he would never be able to go as a man. However, the trope isn’t just found in romances, as may be seen in the list below, in which I recommend stories with a variety of cross-dressing characters. Unfortunately I was only able to dredge up from the depths of my memory two book-length stories I had read in which men cross-dress, so this is mostly a list of women dressed as men. Ghost Riders by Sharyn McCrumb. One of the interwove...

Reading in Reykjavík

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