Non-English Short Story Recommendations.

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

Recommend a story or two on this thread that is written in a language other than English. It can be in translation or original.
I find it is often the case that literature originally in another language to English has a particular feel to it. What do you think?
Here are a couple (of obvious ones, but still very good):

The Horla - Guy de Maupassant

Viy- Gogol

[helrunar]

If you can find it, have a look at Alexei Tolstoy, Vampires: Stories of the Supernatural (1973), which I remember borrowing from the library when I was in high school. I think one of the stories was the origin of the Karloff segment of Mario Bava's Black Sabbath in 1963--story is usually known as "The Wurdalak." According to an online encyclopaedia, this novella was originally written in French and published in 1839 under the title La Famille du Vourdalak: fragment inédit des  mémoires d'un inconnu.

Interesting vocabulary note which I include since Rev Mother has stressed the importance of your continuing education:

The word vourdalak occurs first in Pushkin's work in the early 19th century, and was taken up in Russian literary language following Pushkin. It is a distortion of words referring to vampires (originally probably to werewolves) in Slavic and Balkan folklore – cf. Slavic vǎlkolak, volkodlak, volkolak, vukodlak, wurdulak, etc.; Romanian Vârcolac; and Greek Vrykolakas (both borrowed from the Slavic term).

Hel.

[dem bones]

Jan 8, 2024 15:00:29 GMT 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr said:

Recommend a story or two on this thread that is written in a language other than English. It can be in translation or original.
I find it is often the case that literature originally in another language to English has a particular feel to it. What do you think?

Wish I could articulate it better, but translations I love most share a dreamlike quality to them, the Gothics in particular. Some greatest hits (most should be easy to find).

Honore de Balzac - La Grande Breteche
Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch - The Gravedigger's Daughter
Hans Heinz Ewers - Tomato Sauce
Jean Ray - The Cemetery Watchman
Dino Buzzati - Just The Very Thing They wanted
Guy de Maupassant - Was it a Dream?
Pu Sung Ling - The Inn At Ts’ia-Tien
Edogawa Rampa - The Caterpillar
Barbey D'Aurevilly - A Woman's Revenge
Marguerite de Navarre - The Confessor
Maurice Level - Night and Silence
Gustav Meyrink - Bal Macabre
Villiers de l'Isle-Adam - The Torture of Hope
E. T. A. Hoffman – The Sandman
Eugene Sue – The Raft of Death
Marie de France - The Werewolf
Erckmann-Chatrian - The Child Stealer
Alexei Tolstoy - The Family of the Vourdalak
Alejandra Pizarnik - The Bloody Countess
Eddy C. Bertin - The Taste of Your Love
Theophille Gautier - Clarimonde
Gaston Le Roux - The Inn of Terror

A couple of novels came straight to mind.

De Sade - Justine (the Alan Hull Walton translation)
Roland Topor - The Tenant

[helrunar]

I'll add Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, translated by Lafcadio Hearn from the Japanese in 1904.

Hel.

[enoch]

Tales of Moonlight and Rain  (Ugetsu Monogatari) by Uyeda Akinari is an entire collection of Japanese weird tales first published in 1776.

[Swampirella]

"Seven Japanese Tales" has some real "gems":

"Junichiro Tanizaki’s Seven Japanese Tales collects stories that explore the boundary at which love becomes self-annihilation, where the contemplation of beauty gives way to fetishism, and where tradition becomes an instrument of voluptuous cruelty."

[helrunar]

Tanizaki is a marvelous writer. I recommend The Makioka Sisters if you've never read it. It is not a Vault of Evil type story but the psychological dynamics were fascinating.

There was a film version and I was once loaned a VHS tape of it (which tells you how long ago that was), but was unable to make time to watch--horribly busy year filling in for somebody at a college.

Steve

[Swampirella]

Jan 9, 2024 19:37:17 GMT helrunar said:

Tanizaki is a marvelous writer. I recommend The Makioka Sisters if you've never read it. It is not a Vault of Evil type story but the psychological dynamics were fascinating.

There was a film version and I was once loaned a VHS tape of it (which tells you how long ago that was), but was unable to make time to watch--horribly busy year filling in for somebody at a college.

Steve

I love all of Tanizaki's works, Steve, especially the Makioka Sisters. 

Another work that was made into a movie (several times) was "Quicksand". This is the version I've seen made in 1964.

 

[Jojo Lapin X]

Jan 9, 2024 19:37:17 GMT helrunar said:

I recommend The Makioka Sisters if you've never read it. It is not a Vault of Evil type story but the psychological dynamics were fascinating.

I recall finding it engrossing when I read it some 40 years ago, but now all I remember from it is some stuff about a female skin condition that allegedly goes away when you marry . . .

[jamesdoig]

Most stories by Stefan Grabinski would fit the bill, and Miroslav Lipinski is an excellent translator. I only just noticed Valancourt has a collection of his translated Anthony Sciscione which I'll have to try: www.valancourtbooks.com/orchard-of-the-dead.html.

[Shrink Proof]

A fun read is The Daedalus Book of Dutch Fantasy, featuring a range of weird tales from the Netherlands including some of Dutch literature's heavyweights (translated into English). This from the blurb on the book:-

The stereotype of the Dutch that most immediately springs to mind is that of a clean, orderly, and down-to-earth people. Richard Huijing reveals the other side of this society; that of a dark netherworld of the macabre, the weird, the perverted, the violent and the fancifully impossible conjured up by a host of the finest writers in the Dutch language of the last hundred years.

Worth checking out.

[jamesdoig]

Jan 9, 2024 20:27:22 GMT Shrink Proof said:

A fun read is The Daedalus Book of Dutch Fantasy, Worth checking out.

Don't have that one, but this 19th c. French one is a cracker - they did some great anthologies.