Lunchtime read: Selected Tales

Well these things happen but I headed off for work leaving Mr Pye on the dining table so all there is to blog about today is the Poe which following the brilliant Murder in the Rue Morgue was always going to be a bit of let down. One passing thought reading the first story is that of course in pre aeroplane travelling times the sea was unavoidable and no doubt seen as dark and mysterious with only a few people being able to master it. Not quite sure if the storyteller in this tale has been totally mastered by the swirling whirlpool.

Highlights from A Descent into the Maelstrom
A sailor taking a tourist up the cliffs points out to him the raging sea below and the whirlpools that form then suddenly disappear and then tells him a tale about how he was sucked into one on his boat with his brother. They were caught in a great storm and dragged towards the whirlpool and went into it and were slowly sucked down. The surviving narrator threw himself off the boat onto a barrel and was eventually spat out but his brother was smashed with the boat at the bottom of the whirling sea. After he was rescued the man’s hair had turned from “raven black” to white and despite his graphic detail none of the fishermen who had saved him believed his tale.

Highlights from The Island of the Fay
A short and whimsical tale about fairies – Fay’s - that streak like shadows across the woods until their shadow is no more. Compared to what has gone before there is not much in common here in terms of mood with it being more melancholic and reflective than inspiring horror but of course there is the supernatural element to unsettle.

More hopefully over the weekend…