The Trunk of Ganesha -Jayanata Mahapatra

 Introduction :-

The Trunk of Ganesha” is a story written by Jayanta Mahapatra. The story is of one skilled idol maker named Govinda. He makes idol of all gods and goddesses. He is a married man and his wife’s name is Sulochana. He has three sons but only the youngest one Ranju was interested in making idols and he was learning this art.

About the Writer :-

Jayanta Mahapatra (born 22 October 1928) is an Indian English poet. He is the first Indian poet to win a Sahitya Akademi award for English poetry. He is the author of poems such as "Indian Summer" and "Hunger", which are regarded as classics in modern Indian English literature. He was awarded a Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour in India in 2009. He returned the award in 2015 to protest against rising intolerance in India. His Notable work is Relationship (1980).

Summary of the Story :-

The trunk of Ganesha is a short story by an Indian writer Jayant Mahapatra. It is a story of an idol maker who finds himself in trouble in completing idol of Ganesha. Because strangely trunk was breaking every time. In the end mystery is solved.

Govinda is a skilled idol maker. He had learned this skill from his father who has learned from his father. He was living with his wife Sulochana and three son. Two of his sons were not interested in idol making but his younger son Ranju was learning this skill from his father. Govinda was happy for that.

Govinda was best idol maker in his valley and so Sulochana was proud for her husband. But now one strange thing had started happening. Govinda was working on idol of lord Ganesha but could not complete it because for some reason its trunk was breaking every time. He finish it at day but when night passes, in the morning they find the trunk broken. They couldn't find out why? Govinda starts to think about possible reasons. He thinks about clay, it's weight but all was right. Then he thinks that God must have angry with him. He has been making idols eye catching. He had started making figures of goddesses slim. He thought because of this God maybe was angry on him. He also thinks about price. He may be taking more cost for his idols.

And one day he determines to find out truth behind this mystery. He and his son decided to hide themselves in corner of the room where idol of Ganesha is. After finishing idol, they hided themselves. They wait for so long but nothing has happened. Ranju falls asleep. Suddenly Govinda sees one dark shadow in the window. It moves and jumps on the trunk of Ganesha. It was cat who at the night used to slide over the Ganesha's trunk and break it. Govinda feels great relief.

So, the story ends in witty way.

Conclusion :-

The end of the story is very interesting and witty. We can not even think after all these tension through out the story that, this simple thing can also be reason.

The Black Cat -Edgar Allan Poe

 Introduction :-

The Black Cat' is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe was born in 1809, died at the age of 40 in 1849, and was an important contributor to the American Romantic movement. His work has also been described as mystery, macabre, and Gothic.

The Black Cat" is a famous short story from horror-master Edgar Allan Poe. It was first printed on August 19, 1843, in the Philadelphia edition of a newspaper called the United States Saturday Post. We think a newspaper is a perfect place for it. This lurid tale reads like something right out of the headlines – bizarre headlines to be sure. Gruesome news items were just as popular in Poe's time as they are in ours.

Like many news stories, "The Black Cat" can be a downer. Stripped to bare bones, it's a story about domestic violence and brutal murder. It's the death-row confession of nameless man who destroys himself, his wife, and his pets. As is often the case with real life murderers, we can't pinpoint exactly why he went out of control. This mystery is part of what has kept "The Black Cat" in circulation for over a 160 years.

About the Writer :-

The Black Cat' is one of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous short stories. Poe also wrote the poem, 'The Raven,' and the short story, 'The Tell-Tale Heart.' He was an American author and part of the American Romantic movement. His writing is also considered Gothic, due to its themes of the supernatural, guilt, and transformation.

Edgar Allan Poe  was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States, and of American literature. He was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story, and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre, as well as a significant contributor to the emerging genre of science fiction.He is the first well-known American writer to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

Summary of the Story :-

'The Black Cat' is told from the perspective of a narrator who, in his own words, does not expect the reader to believe him. He tells the reader up front that he is scheduled to die the following day, but the reader doesn't find out why until the end of the story.

After setting up his story from this perspective, the man tells the reader about a cat named Pluto he used to have as a pet. He describes Pluto as a remarkably large, beautiful animal, entirely black. The narrator's wife jokes that the cat might be a witch in disguise, given its unusual intelligence. The narrator and Pluto have a close bond. He takes care of Pluto, and Pluto follows him everywhere around the house. It is a very tender relationship.

Then, everything goes wrong. The narrator, an alcoholic, starts getting angry at everyone. He mistreats his wife and their other animals, but he never hurts Pluto. But one night, the narrator comes home drunk and thinks Pluto is avoiding him. He grabs the cat, who bites him. In retaliation, the narrator cuts out one of the cat's eyes.

After he sleeps off his drunken state, the narrator is horrified about his actions. It is not enough to get him to stop drinking, though. The cat's eye socket heals, but Pluto and the narrator no longer have a good relationship. Pluto starts to avoid the narrator all the time. Instead of feeling remorseful, the narrator just feels irritated at the cat's behaviour.

Themes :-

1. Guilt

The exploration of how guilt affects people is a common theme in Poe's short stories, and 'The Black Cat' is no exception. The narrator is consumed by guilt about what he's done. He does not seem to fully realise the amount of his guilt, insisting that he is not bothered by what he has done, but his guilt manifests in subconscious ways. He sees a vision of a cat in a noose in the ruined remains of his burned down house.

Guilt also causes him to knock on the exact part of the wall that he buried his wife behind, which causes the trapped cat to cry out and alert the police to the presence of the narrator's wife's corpse. If the narrator was not feeling guilty about murdering his wife, he would have kept his cool when the police were searching his house and possibly gotten away with her murder.

2. Transformation

There are multiple transformations that occur in this short story. The biggest one is the narrator's transformation via alcohol from a family man who loves his wife and pets to a moody unstable person who cuts out his cat's eye, hangs his cat, and eventually murders his wife. This transformation is psychological and the result of the narrator's addiction to alcohol.

3. Justice and truth:

 The narrator tries to hide the truth by walling up his wife's body but the voice of the black cat helps bring him to justice.

4. Superstition:

 The black cat is an omen of bad luck, a theme that runs throughout literature. 

5. Murder and death: 

Death is the central focus of the entire story. The question is what causes the narrator to become a killer.

Illusion versus reality: Does the alcohol release the narrator's inner demons, or is it merely an excuse for his horrendous acts of violence? Is the black cat merely a cat, or something embued with a greater power to bring about justice or exact revenge?

6. Loyalty perverted: 

A pet is often seen as a loyal and faithful partner in life but the escalating hallucinations the narrator experiences propel him into murderous rages, first with Pluto and then with the cat the replaces him. The pets he once held in highest affection become the thing he most loathes. As the man's sanity unravels, his wife, whom he also purports to love, becomes someone who merely inhabits his home rather than shares his life. She ceases to be a real person, and when she does, she is expendable. When she dies, rather than feel the horror of killing someone he cares for, the man's first response is to hide the evidence of his crime.

Motifs of the Story :-

• The Black Cat 

Black cats, which are often associated with supernatural events, show up twice in the story. The narrator's first cat, Pluto, and the cat he meets after Pluto's death are both black. Black cats are ultimately responsible for the narrator's downfall. Pluto's unwillingness to socialise with his owner results in the owner's brutal attack and murder of Pluto. The second black cat drives the owner even deeper into madness until he accidentally kills his wife in an attempt to attack the cat.

Symbols :-

Symbols are a key component of Poe's dark tale, particularly the following ones.

1. The black cat :- 

More than just the title character, the black cat is also an important symbol. Like the bad omen of legend, the narrator believes Pluto and his successor have led him down the path toward insanity and immorality. 

2. Alcohol :-

 While the narrator begins to view the black cat as an outward manifestation of everything the narrator views as evil and unholy, blaming the animal for all his woes, it is his addiction to drinking, more than anything else, that seems to be the true reason for the narrator's mental decline.

3. House and home :-

"Home sweet home" is supposed to be a place of safety and security, however, in this story, it becomes a dark and tragic place of madness and murder. The narrator kills his favourite pet, tries to kill its replacement, and goes on to kill his own wife. Even the relationships that should have been the central focus of his healthy and happy home fall victim to his deteriorating mental state. 

4. Prison :- 

When the story opens, the narrator is physically in prison, however, his mind was already imprisoned by the shackles of madness, paranoia, and alcohol-induced delusions long before he was apprehended for his crimes.

5. The wife :-

The wife could have been a grounding force in the narrator's life. He describes her as having "that humanity of feeling." Rather than saving him, or at least escaping with her own life, she becomes a horrible example of innocence betrayed. Loyal, faithful, and kind, she never leaves her husband no matter how low he sinks into the depths of depravity. Instead, it is he who is in a sense unfaithful to his marriage vows. 

His mistress, however, is not another woman, but rather his obsession with drinking and the inner demons his drinking unleashes as symbolically personified by the black cat. He forsakes the woman he loves—and eventually kills her because he can't break the hold of his destructive obsession.

Conclusion :-

The storyline in "The Black Cat" effectively shows the obscurity in every human being. This story shows how every individual has the potential for ethical significance, and inscrutable immorality. The equilibrium of these forces can vary among every person, but the presence is true. 

Quality - John Galsworthy

 Introduction :-

“Quality” by John Galsworthy was first published in “The Inn of Tranquillity: Studies and Essays” in 1912.

The story, written in first person narrative from an unknown narrator’s perspective, is a beautiful depiction of today’s cruel reality. The plot is set on the two traditional German shoemakers who did not compromise with quality and craftsmanship but met the sad fate of extinction in an age of marketing where success is determined “by advertisement, not by work.”

The story shows what our business world has become now: more the advertising, more the earning. No one pays attention to the poor traditional craftsmen who value art and quality of products. They have to suffer even though they don’t deserve that.

The main theme is commitment; commitment to one’s work, to one’s passion. Every worker is an artist if he loves his work and is immersed in it. The Gessler Brothers’ commitment towards their work is really touching. For them the struggles, the hardships are nothing as long as they keep doing their work.

There aren’t many characters in the story but those that are there are well portrayed, beautifully described and realistic.

The ending of the story is quite sad. There’s a sense of loss and grief. And that is what the author wants the readers to feel for those true craftsmen like the Gessler brothers who value quality, as the title suggests.

About the Writer :-

Best known today as the author of "The Forsyte Saga," John Galsworthy (1867-1933) was a popular and prolific English novelist and playwright in the early decades of the 20th century. Educated at New College, Oxford, where he specialised in marine law, Galsworthy had a lifelong interest in social and moral issues, in particular, the dire effects of poverty. He eventually chose to write instead of pursuing law and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932.

In the narrative essay "Quality," published in 1912, Galsworthy depicts a German craftsman's efforts to survive in an era where success is determined "by advertisement, nod by work." Galsworthy depicts shoemakers attempting to stay true to their crafts in the face of a world driven by money and immediate gratification — not by quality and certainly not by true art or craftsmanship.

"Quality" first appeared in "The Inn of Tranquillity: Studies and Essays" (Heinemann, 1912). A portion of the essay appears below.

 Plot Summary :-

‘Quality’ written by John Galsworthy in 1912 is about the German shoemakers, Gessler Brothers.

The story starts with the description of the boot shop; on top was the name plate ‘Gessler Brothers’ and a few shoes displayed on the window. They make shoes on order. The narrator then narrates one of his meetings with Mr. Gessler. He says it has not been possible to go to him much because the shoes he made have lasted very long and are the best of their kind.

One day the narrator goes to their shop to get a pair of Russian-leather shoes. Mr. Gessler retreats upstairs and comes back after some time holding a fine golden Russian leather piece. After the narrator’s approval he says he’ll get his shoes tomorrow fortnight.

One day the narrator goes to their boot shop and tells him that the last shoes he got from him creak. After a long pause Mr. Gessler asks him to bring the shoes to him. He assures that if he can’t repair them, he will give the money back.

Another day he goes to Gessler Brothers to order a new pair, wearing a pair of shoes which he bought due to some emergency from a big firm. Mr. Gessler at once recognizes that the shoes are not made by him. He touches a particular spot on the narrator’s shoe where it isn’t comfortable for the narrator and says that it hurts there. He expresses his contempt that those large firms attract customers through shiny impressive advertisements to sell their inferior quality products. Then the author explains to him under what circumstances he had to buy those shoes.

The new shoes lasted nearly two years. And in his next visit he receives quite a shock. When he enters the shop, he sees the younger Gessler brother who informs him of elder Gessler’s death. That day he orders several pairs. It takes longer to make them but the quality is even better than the previous ones.

Soon after, the narrator leaves for abroad and returns after over a year. The first shop he goes to is Mr. Gessler’s. Mr. Gessler, now seventy-five, is unable to recognize him at first. Narrator gives a huge order. The wait is longer than ever but the quality only gets better.

After a week, while passing the little street, the narrator thinks to go in and tell Mr. Gessler that the boots are perfect. But when he goes to the place where the shop was, the name plate is no longer there.

Disturbed, he goes into the shop and a young English face greets him. The narrator enquires about Mr. Gessler and comes to know of younger Gessler’s death. Upon hearing this the narrator is quite shocked.

The young man explains to him that Gessler died from starvation; he used to devote himself to shoe making so much that he used to forget about everything else. All the money went in the rents and leather. The fate was quite obvious from the beginning. But both the narrator and the young man agrees that the Gessler brothers made good quality boots.

Themes of the Story :-

• The rise of large corporations

"Quality" is partly about the rise of large corporations in the 20th Century. Published in 1912, this short account chronicles the beginnings of mass consumerism and the development of large corporations, both of which had a devastating impact on small businesses. Overall, the narrator's experience buying his shoes from a larger business is depicted as impersonal and of a lesser quality compared to the intimacy of the Gessler brothers' store.

• The importance of small businesses

In this short narrative, Galsworthy stresses the better quality of items bought from smaller businesses, hence the title "Quality." As a customer at the Gessler store, Galsworthy is given personal and high-quality service. In addition to this, the shoes he buys are of an impeccable standard and are fitted to his individual feet. However, Gessler then buys some shoes from a larger corporation, which are not as good.

• Financial struggle

Galsworthy critiques the capitalist economic structure of the 20th century, in which big corporations could outperform small businesses. This leads to an unfair distribution of wealth, meaning that small business owners often struggle to make ends meet, despite many being committed to providing the best quality of products. This is reflected in this story about the Gessler brothers, who both die as a result of their devotion to creating high-quality shoes.

Characters of the Story :-

1. Narrator

The narrator is not disclosed by name, but it is inferred that he is male. He takes frequent trips to the shoe store, and purchases more than necessary – thus, indicating his wealth and love for fashion. He becomes a little attached to the brothers and becomes quick friends with them. By the end of the book, he is taken aback that the brothers’ shop has closed and states that they made the finest shoes he’d ever bought.

2. Mr Gessler (Older)

The older Gessler brother is the initial owner of the shoe-making store. He is highly devoted to his work and goes above and beyond to make the narrator happy with his purchases. He is also outspoken about his dislike for larger companies manufacturing low-quality shoes. He eventually dies and his store is taken over by the younger Mr Gessler.

3. Mr Gessler (Younger)

The younger Mr Gessler is shown to have the same passion for shoemaking as his older brother. Indeed, he too gains the favour of the narrator, who compliments him throughout for the quality of his work. Eventually, he too dies because he becomes consumed with his shoes and stops caring for himself.

Symbols of the Story :-

• The Boots

The Gessler's boots are a key symbol of their artistic talent. The narrator describes them in a flattering tone, praising the Gessler brothers' high-quality products; for example, the narrator describes how the shoes are so well-made that they never seem to wear out: "they were better than ever. One simply could no wear them out."

• The Gessler Shop

The Gessler Shop is a symbol of small businesses, with owners who work hard to create high-quality products. In this story, the Gessler's struggle to survive in a capitalist economic climate, with the younger brother ultimately dying of starvation before the shop is closed for good. The closure of the shop is a symbol of the imminent collapse of small businesses, which Galsworthy predicts in this story.

• The death of the brothers

The deaths of the Gessler brothers symbolise the decline of smaller businesses as a result of larger corporations and a lack of customers. The eldest brother explains to the narrator that business and demand had declined in recent years, as customers were flocking to the large firms. In addition to this, the brothers make great quality shoes, meaning that they last a lot longer. As a result, customers do not buy shoes from them as often. Due to these two reasons, the brother's struggle to make ends meet, and eventually both die due to financial depravity.

Conclusion :-

In the end, we see that this commitment to quality ultimately drains the life out of an old Mr. Gessler who could not make ends meet. However, he is the real hero in the reader's heart, for he stood true to his principles. The other Quality by John Galsworthy themes is dedication and integrity.

The Nightingale And Rose -Oscar Wilde

 Introduction :-

"The Nightingale and the Rose" by Oscar Wilde is at once touching and darkly funny. Published in 1888, it relates the plight of the Student, who has fallen in painful love with the professor's daughter. A nightingale hears the Student's plaintive cries and recognizes in them the true love that she has always sung about. She decides to help the Student obtain a red rose to give to his love, even though it will come at great cost to her.

About Oscar Wilde

The life of the Irish novelist, poet, essayist, and playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) is as famous as – perhaps even more famous than – his work. But in a career spanning some twenty years, Wilde created a body of work which continues to be read an enjoyed by people around the world: a novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray; short stories and fairy tales such as ‘The Happy Prince’ and ‘The Selfish Giant’; poems including The Ballad of Reading Gaol; and essay-dialogues which were witty revivals of the Platonic philosophical dialogue.

Wilde’s life – his generosity to others, his double life as a family man and someone who engaged with extramarital affairs with other men, and his subsequent downfall when he was put on trial for ‘gross indecency’ – has been movingly written about in Richard Ellmann’s biography of Wilde and in the 1997 biopic Wilde, with Stephen Fry in the title role.

The Nightingale and the Rose’: plot summary

‘The Nightingale and the Rose’ is about a Student who is in love with a woman, a Professor’s daughter. She has told him she will dance with him if he brings her red roses, but the Student’s garden does not contain any roses. The Nightingale listens to the lovelorn student lamenting his hopeless love, and feels sorry for him.

She knows how rare true love is, and she knows it when she sees it. The Prince is giving a ball the following night, but although the Student and the woman he loves will both be there, she will not dance with him without a red rose.

A Lizard, a Butterfly, and a Daisy all tell the Nightingale that it’s ridiculous that the young Student is weeping over a red rose, but the Nightingale sympathises with him. She flies to a nearby grass-plot and asks the Rose-tree to give her a red rose, and in exchange she will sing for it. But the Rose-tree says it produces only white roses, so cannot give her what she wants. It suggests going to the Rose-tree by the sun-dial.

The Nightingale proposes the same deal with this tree, but it replies that it only produces yellow roses, so cannot help. However, it directs her to the Rose-tree right under the student’s window. However, although this Rose-tree does produce red roses, the winter has frozen its branches and it cannot produce any.

The Nightingale asks if there is any way she can get one red rose for the Student. The tree replies that the only way of producing a red rose is for the Nightingale to sing by moonlight while allowing a thorn to pierce her heart, so her blood seeps through to the tree and produces a red rose. The Nightingale agrees to this, because she believes Love to be more valuable than Life, and a human heart more precious than hers.

She goes and tells the forlorn Student what she is going to do, but he doesn’t understand her, because he only understands things written down in books. The Oak-tree, in which the Nightingale has built her nest, does understand her words, however, and requests one last song from the Nightingale. She sings, but the Student, taking out his notebook, is rather unimpressed, because the bird’s song has no practical use.

That night, the Nightingale sings with her heart against the thorn, until it eventually pierces her heart while she sings of love. Her heart’s blood seeps into the tree and produces a red rose, but by the time the flower is formed the Nightingale has died.

The next morning, the Student opens his window and sees the red rose on the tree, and believes that it is there thanks to mere good luck. Plucking the rose, he goes to the house where his sweetheart lives, and presents her with the red rose. But another suitor, the Chamberlain’s nephew, has sent her jewels, which are more valuable than flowers, so she says she will dance with him instead at the ball that night.

The Student denounces the girl for her fickleness, and she calls him rude. He throws the red rose into the gutter, where a cart rolls over it. As he walks home, he decides to reject Love in favour of Logic and Philosophy, which have a more practical use.

Themes of the Story :-

1. Love and Sacrifice

From start to finish, "The Nightingale and the Rose" is a story about the nature of love. Love is what the Student claims to feel for the girl, and it is also what inspires the Nightingale to sacrifice her life to create a red rose; doing so, she thinks, will help the Student win his sweetheart's affection.The fact that neither the Student nor the girl appreciates the Nightingale's sacrifice, however, complicates the story's meaning. In the end, Wilde suggests that true love is possible, but that much of what people commonly call love is shallow and self-interested.

2. Art and Idealism 

Oscar Wilde is likely the most famous British writer associated with Aestheticism, a late 19th-century movement that championed "art for art's sake." In contrast to those who argued that the arts should address social issues or impart moral lessons, the Aesthetics contended that art's sole purpose was to be beautiful. This question about the nature and role of art forms the backdrop to "The Nightingale and the Rose," with the Nightingale and the Student embodying opposite sides of the debate.

3. Materialism, Intellectualism, and Emotion

Despite its fairy-tale setting, "The Nightingale and the Rose" engages with the real-world debates taking place in the late 1800s. The Enlightenment of the preceding century had inspired great confidence in humanity's ability to solve scientific, practical, and even moral problems with reason. Rapid industrialization (and the wealth it generated) lent further credence to these ideas by "proving" the success of 18th-century scientific innovation and free-market economics. 

"The Nightingale and the Rose" Characters :-

The first character to enter the story is the Student, who is never named. The Student is a young man caught in the throes of love. Though he studies Philosophy, he finds himself overwhelmed by this powerful emotion. "She said that she would dance with me if I brought her red roses," he cries, "but in all my garden there is no red rose."

The Student is presented as somewhat of a philistine, finding no value in the beauty of the nightingale's song. He is only capable of appreciating the logic of his dusty textbooks. Apparently, his studies have not prepared him for the real world, for he has no idea what to do with his emotions. The Student may have knowledge, but he lacks wisdom.

The Rose-tree under the Student's window is the only tree in the Garden that grows red roses. However, it's barely survived an especially bitter winter, and can't provide any red roses this year. However, that's not entirely true—the Rose-tree can grow a rose, but only if the Nightingale pays a great price.

" 'If you want a red rose,' said the Tree, 'you must build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it with your own heart's-blood. You must sing to me with your breast against a thorn. All night long you must sing to me, and the thorn must pierce your heart, and your life-blood must flow into my veins, and become mine.' "

In contrast with the knowledgeable Student, the Nightingale is wise. She knows the value of love and the place that beauty has in this world. Her song exalts true love, and she is relieved when she finally meets a "true lover" in the Student, whose "hair is dark as the hyacinth-blossom, and his lips are red as the rose of his desire; but passion has made his lace like pale Ivory, and sorrow has set her seal upon his brow." Now that she has found a true lover, she sets out to make his love possible.

The Nightingale knows that Love is greater than Life, so when she discovers that the only way to obtain a red rose is to sacrifice her own heart, she does so willingly. All of nature listens to her final love song.

The last character to appear is the professor's daughter, the object of the Student's affection. She is an altogether materialistic creature. Even though she has asked for a red rose, she is more impressed by the jewels and silver buckles of the Chamberlain's nephew.

Moral of The Story.:-

The moral of this story is that the world is full of people who know much and understand little. They cannot appreciate true love and beauty, and put all their faith in practical things instead.

Conclusion :-

It is a children’s story but it deals with philosophical and emotional issues that are beyond the understanding of children. It is also enriched with the wealth of deep meaning. It is full of indirect comments on life, personifications, similes and symbolism.

Moreover, in this story Oscar Wilde raises the most common issues of materialism and idealism present in the conventional society he lived in.

Blow up with Ship-Wilkie Collins

 Introduction :-

'Blow up with the ship' is a short story by 19th century writer Wilkie Collins. It is a thriller story.

The story is narrated in first person. The narrator was sent to sea when still a boy and became a mate at the age of twenty five. The setting is sea during the year 1818, when the Spanish colonies in South America were fighting for independence.

About the Writer :-

Wilkie Collins, in full William Wilkie Collins, (born Jan. 8, 1824, London, Eng.—died Sept. 23, 1889, London), English sensation novelist, early master of the mystery story, and pioneer of detective fiction.Wilkie Collins  was an English novelist and play-wright of the 19th century. Collin’s major works reflect an enormous interest in mystery and crime. He had a unique talent for creating an atmosphere of foreboding detailed description and intricate plots. T. S. Eliot called Collin’s masterpiece The Moonstone ‘the first and greatest of English detective novels.

His Notable Works includes“Basil” “The Moonstone” “The Woman in White”

About the Story :-

Blow Up with the Ship is a gripping story of robbery and crime on the high seas. It is narrated in the first person and the story has all the ingredients of a thriller. The backdrop is provided by a battle for independence in one of the Spanish colonies in South America. The action in the story takes place during a sea journey in a ship significantly named ‘The Good Intent’.

Summary of the Story :-

The narrator was sent to sea when still a boy and became a mate at the age of twenty-five. The incident took place in the year 1818, when the Spanish colonies in South America were fighting for independence. There was plenty of bloodshed between the government of Spain and the rebels under General Bolivar. 

    The writer sailed in the ship named, ‘The Good Intent’. The vessel was laden with gun powder. It was sent to help a revolution. She had a crew of eight. As the ship contained gun powder, they were harassed with new regulation which they didn’t like. They were not allowed to smoke or light the lanterns. But the Captain used to light the candle when he went to bed or when he looked over his charts on the cabin table. Therefore the regulations didn’t apply to him.

 Finally they reached the coast of South America and a boat came towards them rowed by two men, one was an Irishman and the other was an evil-looking native pilot. The crew was not allowed to reach the land till midnight. The native pilot was “skinny, cowardly, quarrelsome fellow”. He picked quarrel with everyone. He lighted the pipe and the narrator became angry and tried to stop him. The pilot tried to push him. He raised his hand and the pilot fell down and pulled out his knife. The narrator slapped his murderous face.

The next morning the narrator was awakened by a scuffle and a gag in his mouth. His hands and legs were tied. The ship was in the hands of the Spaniards. They were swarming all over the ship. All the seven members of the ship were killed except him. The pilot came there with a pilot’s stick and carpenter’s drill in one hand and a long piece of thin rope in the other. He put the candle stick, with the new candle lighted in it. He drilled a hole in the side of the barrel and the gun powder came trickling out. He rubbed the powder into a whole length of thin rope. He then tied the rope to the candle which was just one feet away from him. He then whispered to the narrator “blow up with the ship” and everyone left the place with the gun powder. The narrator was filled with fright and fainted.

The narrator woke up after eight months. He came to know that an American ship which came that way had saved him. But even now he is haunted by an old, flat-bottomed, kitchen candle stick. The usual paraphernalia of an adventure story is found in the story Blow up with the Ship. We could find dimly-lit rooms, shady figures moving mysteriously on the ship deck and the final shoe down ending in violence and death. The story like other adventure stories, end on a positive note with the rescue of the protagonist.

Conclusion :-

So, one can say that this story perhaps based on long lasting dream, which affects the real life of the narrator and in which he makes his unconscious fear strong.

A True Story,Mark Twain

 Introduction :- 

"A True Story" is a short story by the American author Mark Twain, who is best known for works like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. First published in November 1874 in The Atlantic Monthly, "A True Story" is appended with the following subtitle: "Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It." The story concerns a sixty-year-old African-American woman whose entire family is taken away from her at a slave auction, and who later works as a cook for a regiment of soldiers in the Union Army around the time of the American Civil War.

About the Writer :-

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced", and William Faulkner called him "the father of American literature".

His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), the latter of which has often been called the "Great American Novel". 

Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.

Narrator of the Story :-

The narrator of Twain's story is a man referred to as "Misto C-----." 

As a story within a story, “A True Story” exemplifies the frame-story technique in which the first narrator (Misto C——) provides the “frame” within which the second narrator (Aunt Rachel) tells the main story. By alternating the voices of his two narrators here, Twain tells two different stories simultaneously. While Aunt Rachel relates the dramatic story of her family, the frame-narrator’s occasional remarks quietly reveal the shifting relationship between Aunt Rachel and himself.

About the Story :-

In 1874, Twain assured the sober Atlantic Monthly that his short story “A True Story” was not humorous, although in fact it has his characteristic sparkle and hearty tone. Having been encouraged by the contemporary appeal for local colour, Twain quickly developed a narrator with a heavy dialect and a favourite folk- saying that allows a now-grown son to recognize his mother after a separation of thirteen years. While she, in turn, finds scars confirming their relationship on his wrist and head, this conventional plot gains resonance from Rachel’s report of how her husband and seven children had once been separated at a slave auction in Richmond. Contemporaries praised “A True Story” for its naturalness, testimony that Twain was creating more lifelike blacks than any other author by allowing them greater dignity, and Rachel is quick to insist that slave families cared for one another just as deeply as any white families. Her stirringly recounted memories challenged the legend of the Old South even before that legend reached its widest vogue, and her spirit matched her “mighty” body so graphically that “A True Story” must get credit for much more craftsmanship than is admitted by its subtitle, “Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It.”

Summary of the Story :-

At the beginning of the story, the narrator sits on a hilltop porch with his Aunt Rachel, whom in his mind is an unequivocally cheerful woman who must have never had a bad day in her life--why else, the narrator wonders, would she be so cheerful all the time? Even when her family and friends chafe and criticise her, she just laughs and laughs. But when the narrator asks his aunt a particular question, her attitude immediately turns grave for perhaps the first time in the narrator's life, to his knowledge. The narrator's question is: "Aunt Rachel, how is it that you've lived sixty years and never had any trouble?" Aunt Rachel is surprised by the notion that anyone would think she's "never had any trouble." She asks the narrator, "“Misto C——, is you in ’arnest?” before relating to him a story where she indeed had quite a bit of trouble.

Rachel starts by telling a little about her life as a slave. Despite the terrible reality of being forced into servitude and treated as property, Aunt Rachel says she had as loving a husband as anyone on earth, along with seven children she loved to no end. She smiles when remembering her mother, who would suffer no back-talk from her children or grandchildren. Rachel's mother would often respond to any back-talk by saying, “I wan’t bawn in de mash to be fool’ by trash! I’s one o’ de ole Blue Hen’s Chickens, I is!” In time, Rachel herself inherited the habit of responding to back talk in the same manner. 

The story takes a severely tragic turn, however. Rachel describes the day that the mistress who owned her family, having lost all her money and gone broke, was forced to sell Rachel, her husband, and her seven children at auction. Each time they took away her husband or one of her children, Rachel would cry out and get beaten. Near the end of the auction, Rachel's entire family had been sold with the exception of her youngest child, Henry. She refuses to part with Henry, she exclaims to the auction participants, holding him close to her body while all around her people threaten violence and worse. With Henry's face close to hers, he whispers that he will escape and find her. Sadly this doesn't stop him from being taken away from her that day. As she cries out, a man tells her to stop her "blubbering" before hitting her in the mouth.

Sometime after the tragic dissolution of her family, Aunt Rachel becomes a cook for a regiment in the Union Army stationed in New Bern, North Carolina. One night, the regiment is joined by an all-black platoon. And who should be in that platoon but her long-lost son, Henry. At seeing his face, she trembles and praises the Lord.

But at the end of the story, she tells the narrator: ”Oh, no, Misto C----, I hain't had no trouble. An' no joy!" This conclusion doesn't offer any easy answers. Perhaps the woman means to say that she is cheerful all the time regardless of her past, which contains moments of happiness like her reunion with Henry, but is also marked by unspeakable trauma and loss. Maybe she means to say that a joyful life isn't necessary to be a cheerful person--after all, Rachel's life has been anything but joyful, and what's the use in dwelling on the tragedy?

Conclusion :-

Whatever the case, however, "A True Story" contains a chilling contrast between the light tone of much of the narration and the horrifying tragedy at the heart of its heroine's tale of woe.