He got up and sat on the edge of the bedstead with his back to the window. “It’s better not to sleep at all,” he decided. There was a cold damp draught from the window, however; without getting up he drew the blanket over him and wrapped himself in it. He was not thinking of anything and did not want to think. But one image rose after another, incoherent scraps of thought without beginning or end passed through his mind. He sank into drowsiness. Perhaps the cold, or the dampness, or the dark, or the wind that howled under the window and tossed the trees roused a sort of persistent craving for the fantastic. He kept dwelling on images of flowers, he fancied a charming flower garden, a bright, warm, almost hot day, a holiday—Trinity day. A fine, sumptuous country cottage in the English taste overgrown with fragrant flowers, with flower beds going round the house; the porch, wreathed in climbers, was surrounded with beds of roses. A light, cool staircase, carpeted with rich rugs, was decorated with rare plants in china pots. He noticed particularly in the windows nosegays of tender, white, heavily fragrant narcissus bending over their bright, green, thick long stalks. He was reluctant to move away from them, but he went up the stairs and came into a large, high drawing-room and again everywhere—at the windows, the doors on to the balcony, and on the balcony itself—were flowers. The floors were strewn with freshly-cut fragrant hay, the windows were open, a fresh, cool, light air came into the room. The birds were chirruping under the window, and in the middle of the room, on a table covered with a white satin shroud, stood a coffin. The coffin was covered with white silk and edged with a thick white frill; wreaths of flowers surrounded it on all sides. Among the flowers lay a girl in a white muslin dress, with her arms crossed and pressed on her bosom, as though carved out of marble. But her loose fair hair was wet; there was a wreath of roses on her head. The stern and already rigid profile of her face looked as though chiselled of marble too, and the smile on her pale lips was full of an immense unchildish misery and sorrowful appeal. Svidrigaïlov knew that girl; there was no holy image, no burning candle beside the coffin; no sound of prayers: the girl had drowned herself. She was only fourteen, but her heart was broken. And she had destroyed herself, crushed by an insult that had appalled and amazed that childish soul, had smirched that angel purity with unmerited disgrace and torn from her a last scream of despair, unheeded and brutally disregarded, on a dark night in the cold and wet while the wind howled
The Blog
MFA Talk in The New Yorker Launches Age-Old Discussion 
Louis Menand’s piece in the summer fiction issue of The New Yorker, “Show or Tell,” has been stirring up the old MFA debates around the internets. Obstensibly, it’s a review of Mark McGurl’s new book, “The Program Era,” which seems to be arguing that MFA programs impacted fiction during the last fifty years (big surprise!) […]
Read More Whatever Happened to Tracy Kidder? “House” might be the most boring premise ever for a nonfiction book. It’s a story about three circles of people — the homeowners, the architect, and the builders — as a house gets built. But it’s absolutely enthralling. Between “House” and “The Soul of a New Machine,” Kidder had me hooked a good while back, […]
Read More Open Letters Monthly In June The June issue of Open Letters Monthly is out — A Fiction Issue, no less — and it’s a doozy. Not only a ton of reviews, including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The Thing Around Your Neck, reviewed by John Madera, but the genuine article of fiction itself. This issue includes six short stories/novel excerpts. Also, I […]
Read More Happy 3rd Birthday to BookFox Happy Birthday to me. Or, well, BookFox. I’ve come so far from that fateful first post about meeting Jonathan Safran Foer. It’s been three wonderful years, and I’m so glad to get through the terrible twos. Thanks to my faithful readers, and may there be much more literary fun to come.
Read More Tin House: The Writer’s Notebook Tin House just put out a collection of essays with writers on writing, called The Writer’s Notebook. Many essays came from the Tin House Writing Workshops, and some were gleaned from elsewhere. Brilliant stuff, and not at all the hackneyed tired advice you find in so many writing books. For instance, I really appreciated Aimee […]
Read More Economic Downturn Hits Literary Journals The economic trickle down has started to affect an area of publishing where monies are usually scarce to begin with: The Literary Journal. Inside Higher Ed announced that Middlebury College is demanding that the New England Review become financially independent. Jacket Copy covers the story, and at the VQR blog, Ted Genoways argues for the […]
Read More Frank O’Connor Short Story Award Longlist The Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award Longlist was announced last week, but it’s only a list of all eligible collections, not whittled down from a larger body of contenders. Really, it’s less of an honor for those nominated than a PR move. Of course, the leadership of the prize hardly follows convention, especially when […]
Read More Joseph O’Neill on Flannery O’Connor Joseph O’Neill (Netherland) ostensibly reviews Brad Gooch’s biography about Flannery O’Connor in the June issue of Atlantic Monthly, but really gives us an thoughtful essay about O’Connor and O’Neill’s responses to her work. His main thrust is that O’Connor received fame early — she never eked out an existence as a struggling writer — yet […]
Read More Mix Tape of All-Time Best Short Stories (With Secret Theme!) Over at Emerging Writers Network, Dan’s been hyping up Short Story Month, and a lot of others are getting in on the action. Marcel Jolley mentioned mix tapes over there. So I submitted a mix tape for Dan, themed along Fantastic Fiction. Love the concept of mix tapes. Did a bunch on this blog way […]
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