This month’s read is Anton P Chekov’s The Darling (1899), which features in George Saunders’ A Swim in the Pond in the Rain (2021). Join me in reading this story, and if you’d like to go deeper, read what Saunders has to say about it in his book. Note, the link will direct you to a HTML version. If you prefer EPUB, EPUB2, or Kindle, make a selection here.
Once you’ve read The Darling, join in the conversation below! Think reading experience, writing craft (setting, scene, voice, structure, characterisation, mood, subtext, POV … ), insights, inspiration, or anything else that comes to mind.
Hello! Thank you, Mek, for hosting a short story chat. I love the idea. 'The Darling' for me is pretty interesting bc Chekov seems to break half the rules we've learned in creative writing. I'm always here for rule breaking.
I found the time-management interesting, the way the story skips over vast durations, and pretty much names them (3 months later, 6 years later). It was a jolt the first time ('He proposed to her, and they were married.') but after that, I started to enjoy the conceit of it. It's a risky move, you really need to be on board as a reader for it to work, I think. Otherwise, I will have fallen out of the story.
I noticed that the narrator commentates on the actions and goings on, which is something I've been pulled up on as a writer. But as a reader, I really enjoy seeing the presence of the narrator and negotiating the duplicity of voice between the narrator and the characters. Of course, this story is mostly the narrator telling a story, rather than immersive (would you call it observational 3rd person POV?), but there are still these moments where I think the narrator shows their hand more prominently. E.g., in a phrase like this: 'Evidently her best years were over, past and gone, and a new, dubious life was to begin...' And here: 'There was no unhappier creature in the world, she felt.' The narrator's qualification here, 'she felt'... is such a wonderful intervention, rich with meaning. Kristen (from PWE)
Raptorial Bites, November 2022
Hello! Thank you, Mek, for hosting a short story chat. I love the idea. 'The Darling' for me is pretty interesting bc Chekov seems to break half the rules we've learned in creative writing. I'm always here for rule breaking.
I found the time-management interesting, the way the story skips over vast durations, and pretty much names them (3 months later, 6 years later). It was a jolt the first time ('He proposed to her, and they were married.') but after that, I started to enjoy the conceit of it. It's a risky move, you really need to be on board as a reader for it to work, I think. Otherwise, I will have fallen out of the story.
I noticed that the narrator commentates on the actions and goings on, which is something I've been pulled up on as a writer. But as a reader, I really enjoy seeing the presence of the narrator and negotiating the duplicity of voice between the narrator and the characters. Of course, this story is mostly the narrator telling a story, rather than immersive (would you call it observational 3rd person POV?), but there are still these moments where I think the narrator shows their hand more prominently. E.g., in a phrase like this: 'Evidently her best years were over, past and gone, and a new, dubious life was to begin...' And here: 'There was no unhappier creature in the world, she felt.' The narrator's qualification here, 'she felt'... is such a wonderful intervention, rich with meaning. Kristen (from PWE)