40 Masterpieces of Short Fiction

'The Cop and the Anthem', by O. Henry

'Letter to a Young Lady in Paris', by Julio Cortázar

'The Fiddler', by Herman Melville

'The Sire de Maletroit's Door', by Robert Louis Stevenson

'Wakefield', by Nathaniel Hawthorne

'The Nose', by Nikolai Gogol

'Undr', by Jorge Luis Borges

'Believe in God', by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

'The Stranger', by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón

‘Mr. Higginbotham’s Catastrophe’, by Nathaniel Hawthorne

'Peter and Rosa', by Isak Dinesen

‘Misery’, by Anton Chekhov

'Mister Taylor', by Augusto Monterroso 

'The Fall of the House of Usher', by Edgar Allan Poe

'The Southern Highway', by Julio Cortázar

'Marriage à la Mode', by Katherine Mansfield

'The Raincoat', by Max Aub

‘The Buried Treasure’, by Erckmann-Chatrian 

'The Circular Ruins', by Jorge Luis Borges

'The Oval Portrait', by Edgar Allan Poe 

'The Drover's Wife', by Henry Lawson

'Drifting', by Horacio Quiroga

'Foot-prints on the Sea-shore', by Nathaniel Hawthorne

'Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius', by Jorge Luis Borges

‘The Third Person’, by Henry James

'The Overcoat', by Nikolai Gogol

'Leopoldo (his travails)' (Stories), by Augusto Monterroso

‘The Body Snatcher’, by Robert L. Stevenson

'Il Conde' (A Set of Six), by Joseph Conrad

‘The Necklace’, by Guy de Maupassant

‘Continuity of Parks’, by Julio Cortázar

'The Stars. The Tale of a Provencal Shepherd' (Letters from my Windmill), by Alphonse Daudet

'How I Got Rid of 500 Books', by Augusto Monterroso

'The Library of Babel', by Jorge Luis Borges 

'Wights Mountain', by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

'The Nail' (And Other Stories of Mystery and Crime), by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón

'The Arlesian Girl' (Letters from my Windmill), by Alphonse Daudet

'Journey Back to the Source' (War of Time), by Alejo Carpentier

'The Power of Childhood', by Leo Tolstoy

'Vint', by Anton Chekhov

The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr, by E.T.A. Hoffmann

Do not miss this masterpiece of experimental fiction (publ. 1819-1821). In the book you will find the funny autobiography of a self-taught cat: he was influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment, and he is able of writing brilliant works. This is a coming-of-age story and a satirical book, a parody of Bildungsroman; with still greater originality, it follows musical patterns, as the author was also a composer. The life of a bourgeoisified cat is intertwined with the confused story of musician Kreisler (an alter ego of the author). The pretext for the narrative experiment is completely original: the cat pulled a prank, as he used some pages from another biography, and they came out like blotting paper.

 

Although Kreisler is a Romantic musician, he has to deal with false courtiers; he draws on irony and humour to question the artist condition in society. On the other hand, the comfortable life of the materialistic cat is in great contrast with his erudition; writing poems in a high style does not stop him from pouncing on birds, or from partying on the roof. 

Although the central theme of the book is the conflict between life and art, there are other intertwined topics: creative power, ideal love, fear of insanity… The theme of doubles appears; there is an accentuated stylization of forms in the passage in which Kreisler sees his own reflection in the water; it is a nocturnal romantic landscape, with floating black clouds and thunder-peals. Suddenly, the face looks like Ettlinger's (the insane painter).

The reader has to fill in some narrative gaps. It is also a quite heterogeneous work; it includes parodies and the editor scolds the cat several times for plagiarizing. On the other hand, Master Abraham and Murr are alter egos of the author; Hoffmann really had a cat called Murr, and sometimes he signed off with the name of the cat. Moreover, there are some autobiographical episodes, as Kreisler’s birth and the cat’s childhood; the mention of Aunt Littlefeet refers to Charlotte Wilhelmine Doerffer, who encouraged Hoffmann to develop his abilities in music.

Some passages, such as the one in which the cat enters the awkard stage, or Murr’s speech on canine character and linguistic differences between cats and dogs will delight animal lovers. Additionally, it is a very interesting book for musicians, as various references to musical instrument makers can be found in it.The author fully realizes that his narrative experiment is ahead of his time, as Murr proudly states that his work “will be understood in a future age”. “I do not belong to these times. I am alone, as in the deepest desert.”

Stories of the Rhine, by Erckmann-Chatrian

Recently I have been reading Stories of the Rhine, jointly written by French authors Émile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian. Above its unforgettable romantic aesthetics, these stories are a jewel of prose in which the supernatural is present, and in which mysterious characters with cock feathers in their hats chat among wine and beer barrels, in the misty old cities on the Rhine.

In some tales, music is a central theme (“My illustrious friend, Selsam”, “The raven’s requiem”,“The song of the tun”), or has a major role (“Black and White”); similarly, painting acquires relevance in “The miraculous draught of fishes”. A treasure found by supernatural means, the treasure of Gontran the Miser, is the main topic of “The buried treasure”. “The child-stealer” is a peculiar crime tale, quite different from the other stories.

The first-person narrative is often used, as the witness narrator gets involved in the action. The prose combines - in an extraordinary way – agility and attention to detail. A richness of nuances pervades the brief descriptions, fully integrated in the narrative thread. Action is often linked to a thoughtful approach, to the musings of the characters (especially in “My illustrious friend Selsam”, a really notable flight of fantasy); sometimes action is linked to the philosophical (“Hans Wieland the cabalist”).

The stories are set in the late 18th century and in the 19^th century.  The preoccupation with the supernatural is similar to the one in Hoffmann’s Tales, but in Erckmann-Chatrian’s tales, the perfection of their prose makes characters unforgettable: Furbach the bookseller and Nicklausse the coachman; Doctor Adrien Selsam, professor of pathology; Andreusse Cappelmans, the seascape painter; the ghost of Van Marius; Hérode Van Gambrinus the innkeeper and Théodore Blitz the violinist. Certainly this treasure earned a place of honor on my bookshelf.

50 Books You Should Read

Le Grand Meaulnes (The Lost Domain) by Alain-Fournier

The Trial by Franz Kafka

The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil

Le Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac

Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

A Set of Six by Joseph Conrad

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Treasure Island by Robert L. Stevenson

Kidnapped & Catriona by Robert L. Stevenson

The Master of Ballantrae by Robert L. Stevenson

Shirley by Charlotte Brontë

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Emma by Jane Austen

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

Stories by Augusto Monterroso

Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa

Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges

Mister President by Miguel Ángel Asturias

War of Time by Alejo Carpentier

A World for Julius by Alfredo Bryce Echenique

Against the Grain by Joris-Karl Huysmans

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Letters from my Windmill by Alphonse Daudet

Odes by John Keats

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Childhood, Boyhood and Youth by Leo Tolstoy

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart by Chrétien de Troyes

Lais by Marie de France

The Heptameron by Marguerite of Navarre

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

Metamorphoses by Ovid

Life is a Dream by Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Disdain with Disdain by Agustín Moreto

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

The Odyssey by Homer

The Iliad by Homer

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

7 GREAT HISPANIC NOVELS

Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, Mario Vargas Llosa

The world of radio drama and an unusual loving relationship are two of the cornerstones of this novel. Its flexible structure is open to interpolated funny stories. Based on the author's real life experience, this novel combines a picture of Lima in the 1950s, and an examination of both the practical and creative aspects of writing.

The Vortex, José Eustasio Rivera

Trying to escape their problems, Arturo Cova and his mistress Alicia venture into the Colombian jungle. They start an initiation trip through the virgin rainforest, a hostile milieu masterfully depicted in the novel. The author had taken part in an expedition that denounced violence against Indians in rubber exploitation.

El señor Presidente (Mister President), Miguel Ángel Asturias

The echoes of the first European avant-garde can be seen in the narrative techniques employed in this novel, in which a dictatorship continues its grip on Guatemala through violence and cruelty.  A love story provides a counterweight to human degradation, while a whole country wonders what the next step is.

The Kingdom of this World, Alejo Carpentier

The slave rebellion in Haiti and mentalities in contrast are the subjects of this novel, whose baroque prose is one of the greatest achievements of the Latin American novel. The presence of Voodoo and the circularity of time help shape this narrative.

Pedro Páramo, Juan Rulfo

At the beginning of this book, two characters move along a dreamlike landscape. It is a symbolic, invented place, a peculiar hell where shadows of the dead feed on old feelings and hate. Later the reader realizes that they are only some of the sleepless ghosts that live in Comala.

Broad and Alien is the World, Ciro Alegría

Peruvian Indian groups are deprived of their lands and natural wealth, with the acquiescence of the authorities and the passivity and idleness of a local scholar. Classical narrative techniques are used in this book that focuses on the dehumanization of life.

A World for Julius, Alfredo Bryce Echenique

The lives and doings of an influential, aristocratic Peruvian family are the starting point of a novel of satire and social criticism. The author shows Julius’s expanding world and the decline of his family. A warm, tender and incisive portrait.