Afterward & The Withered Arm

[Captain Sir Roddy, R.N. (Ret.), Founder]

The short story group read will commence on October 31st (All Hallow's Eve) and run through November 5th (Samhain).

Here are the links to the two short stories that we will be reading--

Afterward by Edith Wharton can be found here: http://www.online-literature.com/whar...

The Withered Arm by Thomas Hardy can be found here: http://www.classicallibrary.org/hardy...

Have fun!

[Captain Sir Roddy, R.N. (Ret.), Founder]

Happy Hallow'een to All of You!

Let the discussions commence!

[Everyman]

The Withered Arm is the first short story I've ever seen with nine chapters! Just how short is short? [g]

[Loretta]

I read Afterward yesterday afternoon.

As should be expected, the prose was beautiful, but I found the story itself rather predictable. But horror/ghost stories tend to be, don't they?

[Linda2]

Maybe predictable by today's standards, but it was written in 1910.

Did you also notice that that Wharton created in Mary a totally dependent wife who is satisfied to know nothing about her husband's business? She takes interest only when his dealings come crashing down on them. The world that created such women is criticized in much of Wharton's work.

By comparison, I found the style of The Withered Arm clunky.

[Loretta]

Well, Rochelle, I figured as much when I was reading it--I'm sure that many of the ghost stories I've read over the years owe a lot to Wharton and the work of her contemporaries. That being said, it was still hard for me to immerse myself in it because, being a modern reader, rather than a contemporary of Wharton's, I felt like I'd read/seen a similar tale many times before.

But then, as I said, this is something that seems to happen more frequently with ghost stories than with other kinds of fiction (and I've never found classic fiction of other types predictable). I guess there are only so many twists on the basic ghost story, which is I think why it's not a genre I read frequently.

I haven't read The Whithered Arm yet, but might get to it later this week...

[Linda2]

I have no problem transposing myself into Wharton's time.

The skillful buildup of dread, the red herring of the legend at the beginning, the contrast between Elwell's first appearance and the garden, Wharton's implied criticism of the nouveau riche all make this story far above average. Wharton always has subtexts below the surface of her work, and she's not telling just a ghost story. It's greed that destroys her husband.

[Linda2]

I didn't care for it.

[Linda2]

And the style was clunky.

[Linda2]

Predictability is not an issue here. We know that Jane Austen's work always ends in marriage, but we keep reading her anyway. I don't see any of Wharton's other works in your book list. You might be underestimating her skill if you're not familiar with her work.

[MadgeUK]

Rochelle wrote: "By comparison, I found the style of The Withered Arm clunky.
..."

I don't think that Hardy's and Wharton's style of writing are comparable as they are from completely different eras.

I preferred Wharton's story because it contained more descriptive writing and less dialogue. (Although her calling Dorset Dorsetshire annoyed me!) However, I found The Withered Arm more gruesome and haunting, therefore a better Halloween story, despite Wharton's gothic touches in Afterward.

[Everyman]

I found the Withered Arm not quality Hardy. I don't think that short stories are his best genre. They don't give him the room to give the rural atmosphere which is of his strong points. The milking scene, for example, is only a shadow of the very similar scene in Tess.

I also found the plot banal and unpersuasive.

All in all, not, I think, a good representation of Hardy's work.

[MadgeUK]

Apparently Hardy was recalling a story told to him by his father about an actual event which made a deep impression upon him as a child:-

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/h...

The Withered Arm is yet another of Hardy's stories about a 'ruined maid', of which perhaps Tess is the greatest. Perhaps it was a practice run?

[Captain Sir Roddy, R.N. (Ret.), Founder]

Hmm, interesting comments from all of you. I actually loved both of these short stories. One thing I have come to realize is that one cannot, and should not, try to compare any short work to novel length works by the same author, or another author. It is simply a completely different genre of fiction.

I do agree that, for example, Hardy's The Withered Arm may have tested plotting concepts and character development, but I suggest that it is quite unfair to compare this short story to any of Hardy's great novels. I look at all of Hardy's and Wharton's work in its entirety, including their novels, poetry, and short stories. Personally, I think it shows the completeness and richness of their respective abilities that they were able to quite successfully write both short- and novel-length stories.

Hardy's use of the short story, I think, is more related to his ability and desire to record, for posterity's sake, the country rustic fables, parables, and salacious and gossipy tales that he heard among the peoples he grew up and lived with. All of his collected short stories are quite a treasure, in my opinion, among later Victorian literature. There really is nothing quite like them that I am aware of. Just my two cents though.

Having said all of this though, I really enjoyed reading both of these stories again, and I think they were wonderful representatives for the Hallow'een season. There was a sufficient level of tension and psycho-drama in both, and a good dose of the macabre. Nothing fancy, but just good solid writing with some interesting characters. Finally, I think the other thing that we should all bear in mind is that these stories were written for magazine subscribers and readers of the day. They were money-makers for their authors, and were solely intended to give the readers a few minutes of suspense and pleasure; and on that level I think both writers succeeded admirably.