Xmas Misery: Getting in the Mood

The special CiB meme ‘Xmas scenes from books, accompanied by carefully chosen pictures’ is back!

Every year I do a series of Xmas entries on the blog, helped and encouraged by suggestions and recommendations from my lovely readers. If you use Pinterest you can see some of the beautiful seasonal pictures on this page, and you can find (endless!) more Xmas books via the labels at the bottom of the page. You’d think I’d be running out of Xmas books and scenes by now, but far from it – I have to begin this feature earlier in December each year. More ideas still welcome in the comments. (If it’s a particularly good choice I will ditch one of the ones I have ready and give you credit…)


Death on Christmas Eve by Stanley Ellin

short story from collection published 1956


Xmas misery Ellin 2



As a child I had been vastly impressed by the Boerum house. It was fairly new then, and glossy; a gigantic pile of Victorian rickrack, fretwork and stained glass, flung together in such chaotic profusion that it was hard to encompass in one glance. Standing before it this early Christmas Eve, however, I could find no echo of that youthful impression. The gloss was long since gone; woodwork, glass, metal, all were merged to a dreary grey, and the shades behind the windows were drawn completely so that the house seemed to present a dozen blindly staring eyes to the passerby.

When I rapped my stick sharply on the door, Celia opened it.

‘There is a doorbell right at hand,’ she said. She was still wearing the long outmoded and badly wrinkled black dress she must have dragged from her mother’s trunk, and she looked, more than ever, the image of the old Katrin in her later years: the scrawny body, the tightly compressed lips, the colourless hair drawn back hard enough to pull every wrinkle out of her forehead. She reminded me of a steel trap ready to snap down on anyone who touched her incautiously.



Xmas Misery Ellin 1



commentary: If you want a bit of miserable Christmas atmosphere, then this is the story for you. Stanley Ellin isn’t well-known in the UK: he’s a real crime fan’s writer. His collected short stories are as varied as they could possibly be, and are famously wonderful. You can find a report on one of them here on the blog: it’s funny, contemporary, moderately light-hearted. Ellin did all modes and moods.

In general I am not a fan of short stories, but I love these, and am also of the somewhat unpopular opinion that his short stories shone but his full-length novels I can, to say the least, do without.  (You can follow through on that here, if you’re interested: in a friendly survey of crime fiction fans I chose him as my author who only wrote one good book.)

But I’m not going to argue that one out now. This grim story of death in a family house will do nicely for Christmas…. These are the opening paras of the story, and I think tell you exactly what sort of a tale it is going to be. A tale to be read by someone who is very much enjoying their Christmas, and is settled comfortably on a nice sofa.

The picture of an old woman is by Sandor Bihari, and can be found on Wikimedia Commons. (It's my goto image of a grumpy old woman, and has been used as such several times on the blog already.)

The house is an illo from a book on old houses of southern Maine, and came from Flickr.















Comments

  1. I love Ellin - one of my favourite post-war american prose writers. What collection is this one in?

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    1. I think we've had the discussion before - I love his short stories, but you can't persuade me about his novels! So let's just settle for his being one of the great short story writers, which he truly is... This is a Penguin collection from 1968 called The Specialty of the House - apparently was first published as Mystery Stories in the USA in 1956. I think Specialty.. is his best-known story, which is why they gave it that title.

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  2. A murky, atmospheric story, to be sure, Moira! And it's interesting how some authors become better known for their short stories than for their novels. Often it's the other way, but some authors just do shine at shorter fiction.

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    1. Yes, and it takes a lot to persuade me to read short stories, but Ellin can always succeed. And I think of him as the crime fans' crime writer - he isn't well enough known, but those of us who like him, love him...

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  3. I don't think the old woman in the portrait looks grumpy. Just old and thoughtful. As if she is thinking of something that happened a long time ago. I actually think it's quite beautiful.

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    1. Fair comment Birgitta. Perhaps she is thinking of the old crimes... and yes, it's a compelling portrait.

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  4. For a long time I was convinced that THE SPECIALITY OF THE HOUSE was the only story that Ellin had ever written, such was its ubiquity in anthologies. I may just try and track down this particular anthology. I'm a bit fonder of shorties than you, and if you like his short stories then they must be good. Some writers are naturally novelists and some are naturally short story writers, and some are lucky enough to be able to do both. I've mentioned Edward D Hoch before, and he was perhaps the last writer able to make a living writing only short stories. He did try his hand at novels every now and then, but he admitted that part of the way through he would get bored in writing them, and you do get that strange feeling of the writer constantly checking his watch once he gets past a certain number of pages.

    ggary

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    1. Yes, Specialty must be one of the most anthologized stories ever. But the others are good too, and very varied. And now you are reminding me again that I must read some Edward D Hoch. I probably have some in anthologies on my shelves, as a starter...

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  5. Oh dear... the new look is very nice, but has totally confused me! That's what comes of not being a regular visitor (I have to play catch-up between trips to my mother, who has no internet, so at irregular intervals I work my way back through weeks of posts from my favourite bloggers, which takes ages, but is an enjoyable pastime). But you've still got your archives, and I can still search for things, and I assume I can still wander of following all the wonderful links you include...

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    1. I hope so! I know it can be a bit confusing, and I don't like that I no longer have the nice sidebar list of recent posts and other blogs. I am getting used to it, and definitely overall think it's better. But very much don't want to put off readers. And the archive tabs at the top of the page will always be there. Hope you can find what you want!

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  6. Just a quibble -- the house in the photo isn't Victorian, it's Edwardian (neo-Georgian style). For the true flavor of Victorian houses, you need to look at some of the books on archive. org, such as Keith's Architectural Studies.

    https://www.pinterest.com/pin/451626668858776567/

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    1. If only I'd had your expertise first! When I started looking I thought it would be dead easy to find exactly the kind of house I had in my head, but it absolutely was not, so I had to settle for the one above. But I'll know for the future, and the one you link to is certainly more the thing...

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  7. This story is in The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries, and I just read it recently. It is indeed very miserable and I did not care for it that much. Not really because of the miserableness. Not sure why. I have the collection you mention, The Specialty of the House, and I need to read more of the stories.

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    1. I'm sure you'd find some you like Tracy - they are so varied. I have a collection called The Blessington Method, which is also very good.

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  8. I'll have to check my short story collection and see if this one is in it. There's always room for a bit of Christmas misery.

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    1. In a sea of Xmas entries which are really not your thing, this is the one I would pick out for you! Have you read any Ellin? I think you would like him...

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    2. I read Mirror, Mirror on the Wall a few years back and have Stronghold (novel) and The Blessington Method (shorts) in the tubs.

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    3. I think you'd like both those novels -pull them out of the tub some time.

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