Tag: shortstories

#BookReview The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings by Dan Jones

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The Tale of the TailorAbout the Book

One winter, in the dark days of King Richard II, a tailor was riding home on the road from Gilling to Ampleforth. It was dank, wet and gloomy; he couldn’t wait to get home and sit in front of a blazing fire.

Then, out of nowhere, the tailor is knocked off his horse by a raven, who then transforms into a hideous dog, his mouth writhing with its own innards. The dog issues the tailor with a warning: he must go to a priest and ask for absolution and return to the road, or else there will be consequences…

Format: Hardcover (96 pages)             Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 14th October 2021   Genre: Short Story

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My Review

The medieval ghost story on which The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings is based was first recorded in the early fifteenth century by an unknown monk and transcribed from the Latin by the great medievalist and author, M.R. James in 1922.  The book is Dan Jones’ own retelling of the story.

I confess I found this a curious little book not least because the actual story takes up only a small part of it. The rest of the book is made up of an introduction, in which Dan Jones relates how he first became aware of the story and M.R. James’ transcription of it, and a historical note about Byland Abbey where the story was first recorded.  Most strangely, the book also contains the text of the original story – in Latin. I suspect only Latin scholars will find this of much interest, although the inclusion of M.R. James’s annotations on the text (in English) is an interesting feature.

It was the mention of M.R. James that first drew me to the book as, like Dan Jones, watching one of the BBC adaptations of his ghost stories was a Christmas tradition in our house. Without having access to M.R. James’s original transcription of the story it’s quite hard to judge what Dan Jones has changed or added to his version. It certainly has some vivid images, such as Snowball the tailor’s encounter with a great dog, described as smelling of ‘pure and ceaseless death and of the scuttling things that live in the permanent dark’. This demonic figure brought to mind Night of the Demon, the film version of the M.R. James story ‘Casting The Runes’; the steps Snowball takes in order to protect himself whilst doing the spirit’s bidding made me think of certain scenes in Dennis Wheatley’s The Devil Rides Out.

Although The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings has some ghoulish moments, I wouldn’t say it was especially scary, certainly not as spine-tingling as some of M.R. James’s ghost stories such as ‘The Mezzotint’, ‘Oh, Whistle, And I’ll Come To You, My Lad’ or ‘The Ash-Tree’. Judging by the pictures I’ve seen, the hardcover edition of the book would make an attractive and unusual gift.

I received an advance copy courtesy of Head of Zeus via NetGalley.

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Dan JonesAbout the Author

Dan Jones is a historian, broadcaster and award-winning journalist. His books, including The Plantagenets, Magna Carta, The Templars and The Colour of Time, have sold more than one million copies worldwide. He has written and hosted dozens of TV shows including the acclaimed Netflix/Channel 5 series ‘Secrets of Great British Castles’. For ten years Dan wrote a weekly column for the London Evening Standard and his writing has also appeared in newspapers and magazines including The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian, GQ and The Spectator.

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#BookReview The Penguin Book of Spanish Short Stories edited by Margaret Jull Costa @PenguinUKBooks

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The Penguin Book of Spanish Short StoriesAbout the Book

This exciting new collection celebrates the Spanish short story, from its modern origins in the nineteenth century to the remarkable work being written today. Featuring over fifty stories selected by revered translator Margaret Jull Costa, it blends hidden gems and old favourites, surprising new voices and giants of Spain’s literary culture, from Emilia Pardo Bazán and Leopoldo Alas, through Mercè Rodoreda and Manuel Rivas, to Javier Marías. Brimming with romance, horror, history and farce, and showcasing alluring hairdressers, war defectors, vampiric mothers, and talismanic mandrake roots, the daring and entertaining assortment of tales in The Penguin Book of Spanish Short Stories will be a treasure trove for readers.

Format: Hardcover (416 pages)    Publisher: Penguin Classics
Publication date: 24th June 2021 Genre: Short Stories, Literature in Translation

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My Review

I cannot recall having read much literature by Spanish writers and, to be completely honest,  all the authors whose stories are included in this collection were previously unknown to me. I also learned it’s too simplistic to say the stories are translated from Spanish because, as the book’s editor Margaret Jull Costa explains in her introduction, they were originally written in one of Spain’s four languages – Basque (euskara), Castilian Spanish (castellano), Catalan (català) and Galician (gallego). Each story is accompanied by a brief biographical note about the author.

The stories are arranged in chronological order of the author’s birth, the earliest being 1843. I was struck by how much of an impact the Spanish Civil War had, either on the lives of the authors themselves – many of whom were forced into exile – or on the subject matter of the stories, especially in the case of the authors featured in the first half of the book.

In her introduction, Costa offers the advice not to read one story after the other but to treat the collection like a box of Belgian chocolates, savouring and pondering the stories ‘one or, at most, two at a time’. I did my best to follow this advice even if it meant showing considerably more restraint than I would if presented with an actual box of Belgian chocolates!

Margaret Jull Costa argues that a short story is not a truncated novel but is more akin to poetry and that ‘the best short stories create a world in just a few pages’. Indeed, many of the stories in the book are very short, just a few pages in length. As is often the case with short story collections, I enjoyed some more than others. Quite a few in the collection had a fantasy or supernatural element which is not really to my reading taste, although I can see them appealing to other readers. I’ve picked out some below that I particularly enjoyed.

The Novel on the Tram by Benito Pérez Galdós – one for anyone who’s ever eavesdropped on others’ conversations while travelling by train or bus, or wondered about the lives of their fellow passengers

The Talisman by Emilia Pardo Bazán – reminiscent of M. R. James’ story ‘Casting The Runes’

Duet for Two Coughs by Leopoldo Alas/Clarín– the imaginings of two strangers sharing the same malady

The Reverse Side of the Tapestry by Azorín– in which a poet weaves a story whilst at the same Fate is weaving his

The Boy by Ramón J. Sender– the brutality and senseless nature of war captured in just a few pages

Come Twelve o’ Clock by Ignacio Aldecoa – a mother’s warning to her son turned on its head

Summer Orchestra by Esther Tusquets – a poignant story of a young girl’s growing awareness of the complexities of the adult world

The Fullness of Summer by Quim Monzó – I read this after returning from a family lunch out but we couldn’t compete on the kissing and photographs front, although the author’s characters did have the advantage of being pre-pandemic

The Butterfly’s Tongue by Manuel Rivas – the story of an inspirational teacher that has a sting in its tail

And Shortly After That, There Was Now by Eider Rodríguez – the tale of a journey into the past that has an elegiac quality

My thanks to Matt Hutchinson at Penguin Books for my advance reading copy.

In three words: Imaginative, varied, insightful

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About the Editor

Margaret Jull Costa has translated the works of many Spanish and Portuguese writers, among them novelists: Javier Marías, José Saramago and Eça de Queiroz, and poets: Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Mário de Sá-Carneiro and Ana Luísa Amaral. Her work has brought her numerous prizes, most recently, the 2018 Premio Valle-Inclán for On the Edge by Rafael Chirbes. In 2014, she was awarded an OBE for services to literature.