"The Interlopers" by Saki

This is a story, which I can say in advance, will leave the reader with an enormous sensation of suspense.

It truly has a very short plot, with well-defined events and a background that gives the reader an idea of what can be happening through the characters' minds.

This short story tells the story about two enemies: Ulrich vonGradwitz and Georg Znaeym, which were not the creators of their feud. This feud, or heritage hatred had been born, as if to be said, with their grandparents, who fought for a stripe of forest. These two families where neighbours, and for three generations, had not been able to sort out their problems yet.

The setting of the story is the forest, on Ulrich's side. Time's setting is breve, as the story unfolds only in a matter of hours during night-time.

These two men were hunting for each other in the forest. The best reward for both would be to find the other and kill him. At least this was Ulrich's thought. And so Georg appeared before him. This was the perfect time to kill each other, but as civilized and well educated men, they could not shoot without some words first. (This, besides the fact that both own enormous quantities of forest, suggest the social class they belonged to).

All of a sudden there was a lot of wind and a shriek was heard. This was the sound of a tree falling, probably because of lightning that preceded a storm. This caught both under the heavy branches of the trees.

At first, they did not care a lot about being saved and going home. They cared more for their men to arrive first and save them and kill the other, which was the important part. Georg, wrestling against the weight, said that his men would save him and put that weight on Ulrich so that he would die. Then he would show his condolences to his family. Then Ulrich turned the idea in his favour. It was a complete disaster, still fighting about that.

After some time, Ulrich got his wine and, although it was difficult, drank a little bit. He offered a bit to Georg. This unexpected action would start the end of the hatred and the beginning of a friendship between both. Georg denied the offer, by still keeping his hatred towards him. Silence was all that could be heard for some time. Then another surprising act from Ulrich: he said that if Georg's men were to appear first, that he could do whatever he wanted to; but if it was his men who arrived first, Georg would be the one who would be saved first and then him. This action made Georg calm down his hate towards Ulrich and finally say that he would agree to be his friend.

All that remained in that silent night was to be rescued. They tried shouting at the same time, but it would not work... no one came to save them. Then finally they noticed a sign of life, which meant, by the number, that Ulrich's men had finally arrived. They heard the running, and Ulrich was the one who could see them coming. Georg asked if those were Ulrich's men. Ulrich answered "No". They were wolves. This is where the story ends.

I think it is a wonderful story. The characters are dynamic, specially Ulrich, as suddenly, he changes his mind towards Georg. In the beginning of the story, he was the furious one, the one who seemed to hate the most. And all of a sudden, that completely changed.

The ending is just set in the perfect place: The climax. The objectives of this story are:

• To show us the change from hate to friendship in a difficult situation.
  
• To give the reader an unexpected ending so that he or she can imagine how the story of these men is going to end. Each reader has the decision on it.
  
  

The ending is the combination of suspense and the unexpected, which makes it so wonderful, and makes the reader eager for more. Probably in the case of a movie, this would be the not-previewed ending that would make the audience ask for a second part.

I liked the story a lot, specially the ending.

(Image from: http://media.photobucket.com/image/forest%20lightning/Bea_Douglas/Forest/IMG_5584.jpg)

"The Californian's Tale" by Mark Twain

This story tells us about a guy whose origins are completely unknown for us readers thorugh the complete story. He is situated in the state of California in the aftermath of the Californian Gold Rush, which took place in 1849. 

The Gold Rush was precisely the abandon of their houses by people in other places in the actual United States to go to the actual state of California to get some of the recently found gold. This story probably tells us about the late 1860s. 

So we find our character (whose name is not provided, so will be refered as "our character" or "the narrator") walking and looking at the little cabins built by the miners who had once gone after gold and had not found it. These miners did not have the possibility to go back to their previous homes, but did not have the will to stay in there either. This can be infered by the damages and by the lack of care to their cabins.

Suddenly this man arrives to an unexpected cabin, more like a cottage. This was a delight to the eye, or in his words, "a rest to the tired eye" [because of being tired of having seen all kind of deteriorated cabins]. This cabin was well taken care of and gave a sensation more of joy than of unsatisfaction. The inhabitants probably must have found the place not a punishment as the rest of the area's inhabitants. Henry, the man of the house, let him in and gave him a really warm welcome. Our character was very pleased with the comfortance of the place.

Henry began telling him about his wife, who had been the cabin's decoration artist, and how beautiful she was. He mentioned about her soon returning home, and asked the narrator to stay to receive his wife, and that she would be really pleased with him, as she liked visitors with lots of things to talk about. It was a Wednesday, and the lady would return on Saturday. Although our character could not stay for so long, Henry talked that beautifully about his wife that he convinced him. 

The fact that Henry talks that good about his wife, can makes us think that he was kind of naïve, because he talked as if he had wanted our character to fall in love with her. He would not care if the other liked her so much without even knowing him. Henry reads a letter to the narrator and made him cry, which is a fact that could have made him fall even more for the lady. We cannot say if the narrator is in love with Henry's wife, but what we can surely say, is that he can't wait to meet her, and so is his will, that he would stay there more than he had planned. And so time seemed neverending to our character, who was always watching the tick-tack on his clock, only to find himself in that neverending wait for this lady.

Then we have the appearance of three new characters in the story, who are Henry's long-time friends: Joe, Tom, and Charlie. Henry reads the letter to them too, and they cry. 

Saturday had arrived, and the preparations for her arrival were ready. The three friends and our character along with Henry were expecting full of joy her arrival. But it starts to get late, and the three friends put Henry to sleep, for him not to suffer more. Our character asks about the lady's arrival, and he got a totally unexpected surprise. The friends' answer was "She? Poor thing, she's been dead 19 years." What a surprise he got! And so Henry's friends started explaining how their friend, each year after her death, waited for her and then, they put him to sleep so that he would not suffer. Then everything went back to its place for another year. 

This tells us about how the narrative perspective was really important in this short story. Its a character totally new to the situation and who is describing to us what he lives for the first time. So this is a we get as readers: a first time to everything, at the same time with the narrator. So we find out about Henry's insanity at the same time that the narrator does.

To me, it is a very well written short story, with an unexpected ending and which, despite of being so short, make you interested in the plot.

(Image from: http://www.someoldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/gold-rush-lord.jpg)