June 2018 favorites

June 2018

The June stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘Bartleby, The Scrivener’ by Herman Melville
  2. ‘God Sees The Truth, But Waits’ by Leo Tolstoy
  3. ‘The Ingrate’ by Paul Laurence Dunbar
  4. ‘The Lady, Or The Tiger?’ by Frank Stockton
  5. ‘Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  6. ‘The Three Hermits’ by Leo Tolstoy
  7. ‘Jupiter Doke, Brigadier General’ by Ambrose Bierce
  8. ‘One Wicked Impulse!’ by Walt Whitman
  9. ‘Wisdom Of Children’ by Leo Tolstoy
  10. ‘The Angel Of The Odd’ by Edgar Allan Poe
  11. ‘The Sire de Maletroit’s Door’ by Robert Louis Stevenson
  12. ‘The Two Brothers And The Gold’ by Leo Tolstoy
  13. ‘The Dream Of A Ridiculous Man’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  14. ‘The Prize Lodger’ by George Gissing
  15. ‘The Coffee-House Of Surat’ by Leo Tolstoy

As always, join the conversation in the comments section below, on SSMT Facebook or on Twitter @ShortStoryMT.

Subscribe to the Short Story Magic Tricks Monthly Newsletter to get the latest short story news, contests and fun.

Advertisement

January 2017 favorites

january2017

January 2017

The January stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘The Promise’ by John Steinbeck
  2. ‘A Loaf Of Bread’ by James Alan McPherson
  3. ‘The Necklace’ by Guy de Maupassant
  4. ‘The Emerald Light In The Air’ by Donald Antrim
  5. ‘The Adventure Of The Empty House’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
  6. ‘Coach’ by Mary Robison
  7. ‘Smother’ by Joyce Carol Oates
  8. ‘Most Die Young’ by Camille Bordas
  9. ‘Permission To Enter’ by Zadie Smith
  10. ‘The Peasant Marey’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  11. ‘An Honest Thief’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  12. ‘Game Plan’ by Don DeLillo
  13. ‘Two Men Arrive In A Village’ by Zadie Smith
  14. ‘A Novel In Nine Letters’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  15. ‘The Crocodile’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  16. ‘One Officer, One Man’ by Ambrose Bierce
  17. ‘Escape From New York’ by Zadie Smith
  18. ‘Rest Stop’ by Stephen King
  19. ‘Moonlit Landscape With Bridge’ by Zadie Smith
  20. ‘Bobok’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  21. ‘Meet The President!’ by Zadie Smith

As always, join the conversation in the comments section below, on SSMT Facebook or on Twitter @ShortStoryMT.

Subscribe to the Short Story Magic Tricks Monthly Newsletter to get the latest short story news, contests and fun.

December 2014 favorites

december2014

December 2014

The December stories organized solely by my personal tastes.

  1. ‘Jeeves And The Yule-Tide Spirit’ by P.G. Wodehouse
  2. ‘The H Street Sledding Record’ by Ron Carlson
  3. ‘A Christmas Memory’ by Truman Capote
  4. ‘A Christmas Tree And A Wedding’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  5. ‘The Adventure Of The Blue Carbuncle’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
  6. ‘Christmas At Red Butte’ by Lucy Maud Montgomery
  7. ‘Christmas Eve’ by Maeve Brennan
  8. ‘One Christmas Eve’ by Langston Hughes
  9. ‘The Gift Of The Magi’ by O. Henry
  10. ‘Powder’ by Tobias Wolff
  11. ‘The Ledge’ by Lawrence Sargent Hall
  12. ‘A Child’s Christmas In Wales’ by Dylan Thomas
  13. ‘The Adventure Of The Christmas Pudding’ by Agatha Christie
  14. ‘The Christmas Wreck’ by Frank Stockton
  15. ‘At Christmas Time’ by Anton Chekhov
  16. ‘Christmas Day In The Morning’ by Pearl S. Buck
  17. ‘The Little Match Girl’ by Hans Christian Andersen
  18. ‘Markheim’ by Robert Louis Stevenson
  19. ‘Christmas Is A Sad Season For The Poor’ by John Cheever
  20. ‘The Burglar’s Christmas’ by Willa Cather
  21. ‘Papa Panov’s Special Christmas’ by Leo Tolstoy
  22. ‘The Beggar Boy At Christ’s Christmas Tree’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  23. ‘A New Year’s Gift’ by Guy de Maupassant
  24. ‘The Christmas Banquet’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  25. ‘The Best Christmas Ever’ by James Patrick Kelly
  26. ‘Christmas Eve’ by Guy de Maupassant

‘The Beggar Boy At Christ’s Christmas Tree’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor 1876

The Beggar Boy At Christ’s Christmas Tree by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1876

The magic trick:

The brief, first-person frame narration

It isn’t much. Two sentences at the start. Three sentences at the end. But it’s an interesting technique. Dostoyevsky eschews the standard third-person narration by inserting himself (or some unnamed writer) as the storyteller. This lends the story a bit more authority, a bit more truth somehow. As the story develops and the reader learns of the tragic subject matter, this “real-life” assertion in the frame further emphasizes the piece’s social conscience. And that’s quite a trick on Dostoyevsky’s part.

The selection:

I am a novelist, and I suppose I have made up this story. I write “I suppose,” though I know for a fact that I have made it up, but yet I keep fancying that it must have happened on Christmas Eve in some great town in a time of terrible frost.

READ THIS STORY ONLINE