Wednesday, August 07, 2024

Short Story Wednesday, "A Friend in Need" Somerset Maugham


 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXydqcviqBA

 

A very short story that seems almost all description until the chilling last paragraphs.  I wanted to read something by him after seeing the doc. Wow. Wasn't expecting this. 

George Kelley

Jerry House 

Kevin Tipple 

Tracy K 

Casual Debris

I had never heard of Nancy Hale, who has a story in the collection Tracy refers to. Amazed to see just how much she published. Many novels, even more short stories. How did I miss her?

 

9 comments:

Margot Kinberg said...

I haven't read Maugham in a while. Looks like I should...

Jeff Meyerson said...

Don't remember it offhand, though I have read a couple of Maugham's short story collections and always meant to read the rest.

I finished the locked room collection. One of the last stories I read (because it was the longest) was Cornell Woolrich's "The Room With Something Wrong." Woolrich is another that I like his shorter works and have read all of those I could get my hands on. This is kind of a goofy premise, with a nice Depression feel to Room 913 in this hotel seems jinxed. Over a period of several years, a number of people - all single men, staying alone - have apparently jumped to their death from the same room, leaving behind a short suicide note. But the hotel detective does not believe they're suicides and refuses to give up trying to find out what really caused them to jump. The solution is outre, to say the least, and not that convincing, but i liked the story a lot.

I also finished the Toni Kelner book, and the title story, which I read last, was just ridiculous to me. "The Skeleton Rides a Horse" is meant to be taken literally, as under her Leigh Perry pseudonym, she has written half a dozen SKELETON books, with a skeleton - Sid - who is professor Georgia's best friend (!). He walks, talks, texts, etc. Sorry, but this is a bridge way too far for me. The story itself is OK, but the rest of the collection is much better.

I will finish the Philip K. Dick collection today, and I have another one on hand.

Casual Debris said...

I read quite a bit of Maugham back in the day. Absolutely loved the novel Of Human Bondage. I remember this story though had forgotten about it. Thanks for the reminder.

Nearly forgot to publish mine but it is now up. Thanks.
https://casualdebris.blogspot.com/2024/08/casual-shorts-isfdb-top-short-fiction.html

TracyK said...

I will look for short stories by Maugham. I haven't even read any of his novels.

TracyK said...

I looked into Nancy Hale after you mentioned her at my post. She has written many, many short stories. It is possible to find some on Abebooks.

Todd Mason said...

As I meant to mention a couple of hours ago, before this particular Chromebook ate half my post and required reconstruction (now I know better), Maugham is indeed good and worth investigating.
Mine here:
https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2024/08/ssw-world-literature-today-july-2024.html

TracyK said...

Todd, I am now seeing the commenting screen on blogger, both when I comment on my blog and here. I don't like it but it probably just takes getting used to.

Todd Mason said...

The threading is almost useful (responses to comments follow the comments), but the names Not being linked is annoying.

Todd Mason said...
This comment has been removed by the author.