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| From Barnes and Noble website |
1.) The Little Frenchman and His Water Lots by George Pope Morris
I had never read anything by George Pope Morris and this was the first story in the book, so I quickly picked it to read. The story reminded me of a children's fable, with a bit of a moralizing tone.
The editor writes of this story in the introduction, "'The Little Frenchman and His Water Lots', the first story in the present volume, is selected not because Morris was especially prominent in the field of short story or humorous prose but because of this single story's representative character." I'm not sure I'd say this story is worthy of being in a book of best American humorous short stories. At best, the story was silly, at worst, flat-out racist and classist. Monsieur Poopoo (yes, that is his name) spends all his money that the saved from running a toyshop for years on a piece of property. He attains this property from a swindling man who sells him a piece of property that is now covered in water. At the end of the story, he stomps home to France, bankrupt because he spent all of his money. The opening quote says, "Look into those they call unfortunate, And closer view'd, you'll find they are unwise.-Young".
I went back and forth with this story for quite a while. Should I take this at face value, assuming that we are to laugh at the silly Frenchman (he does have the condescending "little" at the front of his name)? Or is Morris making a commentary about how French people were treated and the myth that all poor people are poor because they are incompetent? After read and thinking for awhile, I have come to the sad conclusion that we are to take this at face value. The story, I think, is meant to be a mild and silly story about a stupid Frenchman. One of the first things that tipped me off to this was the way the Frenchman's broken English was played up. Part of the reason that this was so difficult for me to analyze was that I don't know the author at all. Apparently he was best known as a publisher and poet and didn't do much short story writing. For instance, if this was written by Mark Twain, I would know in an instant that this story was sarcastic commentary.
For any of you who have read this, what did you think of it?
2.) The Angel of the Odd by Edgar Allen Poe
This story was actually really enjoyable. In the beginning, a pompous, very drunk man sits reading the paper. He reads of an odd mishap in which a man sucks a needle down his throat and dies. He scoffs at the idea of mishaps and strangely unlucky events, when, all of a sudden, the Angel of the Odd descends.
Yet again, we come across awful accents and broken English-this time German. But this time, I really wasn't offended by it. I'm not sure why. The Angel of the Odd is very offended that our nameless protagonist really does not believe in odd accidents. After an argument with this angel in which the angel becomes thoroughly angry, our protagonist is subjected to a semi-lucid night of mishaps, involving having his clothes stolen, being stuck in a hot air balloon that has had the balloon cut off, and falling off of a ladder, to name a few. At the end of the night, our protagonist acknowledges that odd mishaps and misfortunes really do happen.
This humor reminded me of P.G. Wodehouse in many ways-a strong sense of the ridiculous and silly, humor in the most ludicrous of situations, and a little bit of sarcasm. So fun to read after the not-so-wonderful previous short story. I laughed and laughed through this book and definitely want to look for some more of Poe's humorous short stories (apparently he wrote quite a few). This is a new side of Poe-and one I enjoyed reading!
So that was my short story reading for today. I'm really excited about this and look forward to hearing from my readers about their short story experiences. If there are any of you who would be interested in challenging yourselves to read more short stories, feel free to join in! I'll be reading and reviewing short stories all through the month of June.
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