This month, we have a not-so-demanding 30 pages to read, all told. In keeping with an unwritten promise, I have not read the preamble for either of these shorts, but I did a very brief bit of internet sleuthing on the two authors.
Gabriel-Ernest, by Saki. This extra-short 10-page story was first published in 1909. Saki is a pen name for Hector Hugh (H. H.) Monro, who was a journalist in the UK. According to the internet, Saki is “famous for his satirical writings about Edwardian England” (oooo, could be a good one!).
The Cockatoucan; or, Great-Aunt Willoughby, by E. Nesbit. I think a fun game might be to guess in advance what these stories are about and then read them to see how close we were. This one I am guessing is about an old, spinster, cranky aunt who is reincarnated as an old, cranky, jerk of a toucan. E. (Edith) Nesbit was a very prolific writer, publishing between 1885-1924, the year she passed away. A quick count from her wikisource page indicates: Novels for children: 14, Story collections for children: 22, Novels for adults: 11, Story collections for adults: 11, short works from magazines: 22, Others: 34, Poems/poetry: 33, Non-fiction: 2. The Cockatoucan falls under Story collections for children, in a book called Nine Unlikely Tales.
Although I couldn’t find any direct evidence* that Nesbit and Saki knew each other, they were both from England, and they both lived in London (Saki from 1896 and Nesbit from 1875), and they were both prolific writers, so I like to imagine that they crossed paths in some writing circle or another.
Okay, Nerdy Friends! Have at it! Comment freely once you’ve read the stories, I think by now we know how to avoid the comments if we are trying to avoid spoilers. One thought for this month might be to read the preamble after reading the story and then see what we can figure out about why Neil Gaiman chose it for this collection.
*I did not look all that hard…
I liked your idea of guessing what the stories would be about before reading them…but then I completely forgot to do it 🙁 Next time!
It was nice to have stories that didn’t seem to be written with a moral in mind. I thought Gabriel Ernest was a tightly written entertaining tale. (I was going to say “fable” but wikipedia tells me that fables do have a moral at the end.) It was nice and neat, no surprises – couldn’t tell what it would be about from the title but figured it out at first sighting.
The second story (loved your theory Risa!) was also entertaining in an Alice-in-Wonderland sort of way. Interesting premise with fun consequences. A bit “of its time” with it being so tiring for a girl to be clever.
First, I would never had guessed the story of Gabriel Ernest from the title, but maybe I skirted the edge with Cockatoucan? At least I got the transformation angle correct 🙂
I liked both of these stories! Gabriel Ernest was satisfying in its lack of a moral (as emc already said) and how, in the end, the monster doesn’t so much win as simply persist. Kind of like life.
The Cockatoucan story on the other hand was just fun and creative and so cleverly captured the imagination of a young girl. I laughed out loud at the transformation of her nursemaid Pridmore into an Automatic Nagging Machine! Definitely not as satisfying was Matilda transforming into a “clever” girl (and then becoming over-tired because being clever is “fatiguing”).
I might modify the challenge of guessing what the stories are about based on the title to guessing what kind of unnatural creature we are going to encounter…
Guessing the unnatural creature – great idea!
And I’m using “emc” because you have another Erin in some of your post comments, but using my name in posts is fine 🙂
Okay, I am late to the game, but this is the beauty of an online bookclub.
First, I really liked the Gabriel-Ernest story and you people are absolutely right: there is really no moral. Very well written. Surprised he didn’t eat the Aunt: she was my first choice for victim.
What is it about magical birds? This the second story, the one about the Phoenix being the first. The Cockatoucan story was a big “no” for me as it was too far out from reality.
Looking forward to next month’s stories….