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Dusky Ruth and Other Stories
- GenresShort StoriesLiterature
256 pages, Paperback
First published November 28, 1974
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About the author
A.E. Coppard
148 books26 followersAlfred Edgar Coppard was an English writer, noted for his influence on the short story form, and poet.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._E._Co...
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._E._Co...
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 9, 2020
I know the name of A.E Coppard because, in amongst his straight writing, he wrote the occasional ghost story or folklore tale or just plain dark story. The majority of these were collected by Arkham House back in the day (the 50's) and, although I haven't read that collection, I have read a few of his tales. This compendium though, a sampler from most of his previous collections, is the non-specific Coppard, the Coppard as writer - and what a writer he was, as it turns out.
Writing between the wars, A.E. Coppard, from the evidence here, excelled at the simple tale, the prosaic lives of rustic folk or the small town inhabitants. Class (strongly evident in most British writers of the time) and the dynamics of love and relations between the sexes were his primary concern. And the majority of these stories are beautiful variations on those themes, with just the occasional ghost or bit of folklore thrown in to keep things lively.
Delicate, tender stories like "The Cherry Tree" (in which some children buy their mother a memorable present), and the titular tale (in which a traveler and a serving girl feel a natural attraction, but the situation gets in the way) are so heartfelt, without being maudlin, they're almost painful to read. How people do (or do not) engage in courting, and how societal expectations of class and gender roles get in the way, underlay such fine tales as "The Higgler" (in which pragmatism and what is not said scotch what, only in retrospect, is discovered to be a strong connection) and "The Man From The Caravan" (in which two sisters fight for the attention of a gadabout young author). "The Black Dog", which strongly mixes class into the equation, is particularly sharp and sad, as a reunion between estranged father and daughter does not bode well for the father's new love interest, nor for the narrator's relationship to the daughter.
How marriages carry on even after they end (by death or divorce) are examined in both "The Wife of Ted Wickham" (in which a wife keeps her promise to her husband after his death, despite the fact that she didn't like him very much) and "The Funnel" (in which a divorced man continues to send money to his ex-wife, despite her protests). The psychology of the characters sketched in these tales (to be honest, throughout the book) are quite interesting.
Love even works its way into the more fantastic tales - the classic "Adam & Eve & Pinch Me" is a story about a dream of children yet unborn, "The Princess of Kingdom Gone" a charming fable set in modern times about love and loss, and "Polly Morgan" is a delicate ghost story (or is it really?) about how reality can destroy the tenuous bonds of love. The exceedingly dark, non-fantastic, "The Tiger" explores a seedy, traveling circus setting and the violent resolution of a love triangle that occurs when a new tiger is purchased for the show. "The Bogeyman" is a simple fable about a girl who steals a little box owned by an imp named Shiloh, and the problems that result.
Sometimes the focus is details of rural life: "The Truant Hart" concerns a deer that is causing problems in a garden and what occurs after it is killed, "The Field of Mustard" is an earthy and honest moment in the lives of some hard-working peasant women as they stop to rest and chat about marriages, adultery and disappointments. Sometimes, the working life isn't rural, as Coppard's own childhood working for Jewish tailors in Victorian London (at the time of the Jack The Ripper murders, no less) informs "The Presser", about a young boy's grinding, grim existence and the simple pleasures that consideration or a touch of kindness can supply for old and young alike (this story is astonishingly authentic!).
Rural peasant life rears its head again in "Mordecai and Cocking", but the focus here is on a wry examination of class distinctions, a thread picked up again in the absolutely wonderful "Tribute", in which the histories of two friends and their families is traced as they diverge into white-collar success and blue-collar drudgery, with WWI complicating thing unexpectedly (the last line is a killer!). To finish this rather wry view of things, the book opens with "Communion" in which a boy is locked in the church overnight and learns the unfortunate limits of religious tolerance.
A last comment must be made about Coppard's skill at descriptions of nature: "The Black Dog" (a carriage ride to the train station), "The Higgler" (the lonely, desolate, upland moor country) and "The Field Of Mustard" (forests and meadows) contain absolutely stunning evocations of natural surroundings in such simple, uncluttered prose that most people who consider themselves writers should just sit and take notes.
A.E. Coppard: a writer of simple human emotions and the vast, teeming world. Worth giving a second look.
Writing between the wars, A.E. Coppard, from the evidence here, excelled at the simple tale, the prosaic lives of rustic folk or the small town inhabitants. Class (strongly evident in most British writers of the time) and the dynamics of love and relations between the sexes were his primary concern. And the majority of these stories are beautiful variations on those themes, with just the occasional ghost or bit of folklore thrown in to keep things lively.
Delicate, tender stories like "The Cherry Tree" (in which some children buy their mother a memorable present), and the titular tale (in which a traveler and a serving girl feel a natural attraction, but the situation gets in the way) are so heartfelt, without being maudlin, they're almost painful to read. How people do (or do not) engage in courting, and how societal expectations of class and gender roles get in the way, underlay such fine tales as "The Higgler" (in which pragmatism and what is not said scotch what, only in retrospect, is discovered to be a strong connection) and "The Man From The Caravan" (in which two sisters fight for the attention of a gadabout young author). "The Black Dog", which strongly mixes class into the equation, is particularly sharp and sad, as a reunion between estranged father and daughter does not bode well for the father's new love interest, nor for the narrator's relationship to the daughter.
How marriages carry on even after they end (by death or divorce) are examined in both "The Wife of Ted Wickham" (in which a wife keeps her promise to her husband after his death, despite the fact that she didn't like him very much) and "The Funnel" (in which a divorced man continues to send money to his ex-wife, despite her protests). The psychology of the characters sketched in these tales (to be honest, throughout the book) are quite interesting.
Love even works its way into the more fantastic tales - the classic "Adam & Eve & Pinch Me" is a story about a dream of children yet unborn, "The Princess of Kingdom Gone" a charming fable set in modern times about love and loss, and "Polly Morgan" is a delicate ghost story (or is it really?) about how reality can destroy the tenuous bonds of love. The exceedingly dark, non-fantastic, "The Tiger" explores a seedy, traveling circus setting and the violent resolution of a love triangle that occurs when a new tiger is purchased for the show. "The Bogeyman" is a simple fable about a girl who steals a little box owned by an imp named Shiloh, and the problems that result.
Sometimes the focus is details of rural life: "The Truant Hart" concerns a deer that is causing problems in a garden and what occurs after it is killed, "The Field of Mustard" is an earthy and honest moment in the lives of some hard-working peasant women as they stop to rest and chat about marriages, adultery and disappointments. Sometimes, the working life isn't rural, as Coppard's own childhood working for Jewish tailors in Victorian London (at the time of the Jack The Ripper murders, no less) informs "The Presser", about a young boy's grinding, grim existence and the simple pleasures that consideration or a touch of kindness can supply for old and young alike (this story is astonishingly authentic!).
Rural peasant life rears its head again in "Mordecai and Cocking", but the focus here is on a wry examination of class distinctions, a thread picked up again in the absolutely wonderful "Tribute", in which the histories of two friends and their families is traced as they diverge into white-collar success and blue-collar drudgery, with WWI complicating thing unexpectedly (the last line is a killer!). To finish this rather wry view of things, the book opens with "Communion" in which a boy is locked in the church overnight and learns the unfortunate limits of religious tolerance.
A last comment must be made about Coppard's skill at descriptions of nature: "The Black Dog" (a carriage ride to the train station), "The Higgler" (the lonely, desolate, upland moor country) and "The Field Of Mustard" (forests and meadows) contain absolutely stunning evocations of natural surroundings in such simple, uncluttered prose that most people who consider themselves writers should just sit and take notes.
A.E. Coppard: a writer of simple human emotions and the vast, teeming world. Worth giving a second look.
October 20, 2015
The acclaimed charm of this story is lost on me.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews