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TWELVE TALES FOR CHRISTMAS
Philip Pullman
guardian.co.uk
Friday 10 December 2010 14.53 GMT
Philip Pullman introduces a special series of podcasts running each
day until Christmas in which a collection of our greatest writers
read and discuss their favourite short stories
Also in tomorrow's Review: an interview with Chinua Achebe, Wagner's
sexiest opera and our critics' recommendations of the best books to
give this Christmas
Losing the plot: Philp Pullman considers Anton Chekhov Photograph:
Hulton/Sam Frost
In this week's Guardian Review we launch a special series of podcasts
running each day until Christmas in which a collection of our greatest
writers read and discuss their favourite short stories.
We begin tomorrow with Philip Pullman reading Chekhov's The Beauties.
Here he explains why he chose this "masterpiece of minimalism":
"A schoolboy is accompanying his grandfather as they drive in their
carriage along a dusty road across the steppe on a sultry August day.
They stop for refreshment at the house of an Armenian friend of the
grandfather. The boy, the grandfather and their Ukrainian driver are
all struck by the beauty of the Armenian's daughter.
"Some years later, now a student, the boy is on a train that stops
for some minutes at a country station. He gets out to stretch his
legs, and sees a girl on the platform talking to someone in one of
the carriages. She is very beautiful.
"And that's all. Is that a story? It's about as spare and empty of
plot as a story could be; two impressions that barely even amount
to anecdote. Like Waiting for Godot, it's a story in which nothing
happens, twice.
"But it shows how little a short story needs a plot. I like plots,
and I work at them a lot; perhaps that's one reason why I've never
written a successful short story. The greatness of this one depends on
more impalpable things. Chekhov's genius lies in the way he manages
to convey with such apparent effortlessness a profound sense of the
mystery of beauty, and of the sadness of those who observe and think.
The narrator of this apparently inconsequential tale fixes on exactly
the right details, from a myriad of possible ones, to strike at the
heart. It's a masterpiece of minimalism."
For the next 12 days listen to a short story by a master of the form
read by one of today's top writers. They are:
Philip Pullman The Beauties, by Anton Chekhov (Saturday December
11) Willliam Boyd My Dream of Flying to Wake Island, by JG Ballard
(Sunday 12 December) Anne Enright Fat, by Raymond Carver (Monday 13
December) Colm Toibín Music at Annahullion, by Eugene McCabe (Tuesday
14 December) Margaret Drabble The Doll's House, by Katherine Mansfield
(Wednesday 15 December) Jeanette Winterson The Night Driver, by Italo
Calvino (Thursday 16 December) Rose Tremain Extra, by Yiyun Li (Friday
17 December) Julian Barnes Homage to Switzerland, by Ernest Hemingway
(Saturday 18 December) Tessa Hadley The Jungle, by Elizabeth Bowen
(Sunday 19 December) Helen Dunmore My Oedipus Complex, by Frank
O'Connor (Monday 20 December) Ali Smith Conversation with My Father,
by Grace Paley (Tuesday 21 December) Helen Simpson The Kitchen Child,
by Angela Carter (Wednesday 22 December)
From: A. Papazian
Philip Pullman
guardian.co.uk
Friday 10 December 2010 14.53 GMT
Philip Pullman introduces a special series of podcasts running each
day until Christmas in which a collection of our greatest writers
read and discuss their favourite short stories
Also in tomorrow's Review: an interview with Chinua Achebe, Wagner's
sexiest opera and our critics' recommendations of the best books to
give this Christmas
Losing the plot: Philp Pullman considers Anton Chekhov Photograph:
Hulton/Sam Frost
In this week's Guardian Review we launch a special series of podcasts
running each day until Christmas in which a collection of our greatest
writers read and discuss their favourite short stories.
We begin tomorrow with Philip Pullman reading Chekhov's The Beauties.
Here he explains why he chose this "masterpiece of minimalism":
"A schoolboy is accompanying his grandfather as they drive in their
carriage along a dusty road across the steppe on a sultry August day.
They stop for refreshment at the house of an Armenian friend of the
grandfather. The boy, the grandfather and their Ukrainian driver are
all struck by the beauty of the Armenian's daughter.
"Some years later, now a student, the boy is on a train that stops
for some minutes at a country station. He gets out to stretch his
legs, and sees a girl on the platform talking to someone in one of
the carriages. She is very beautiful.
"And that's all. Is that a story? It's about as spare and empty of
plot as a story could be; two impressions that barely even amount
to anecdote. Like Waiting for Godot, it's a story in which nothing
happens, twice.
"But it shows how little a short story needs a plot. I like plots,
and I work at them a lot; perhaps that's one reason why I've never
written a successful short story. The greatness of this one depends on
more impalpable things. Chekhov's genius lies in the way he manages
to convey with such apparent effortlessness a profound sense of the
mystery of beauty, and of the sadness of those who observe and think.
The narrator of this apparently inconsequential tale fixes on exactly
the right details, from a myriad of possible ones, to strike at the
heart. It's a masterpiece of minimalism."
For the next 12 days listen to a short story by a master of the form
read by one of today's top writers. They are:
Philip Pullman The Beauties, by Anton Chekhov (Saturday December
11) Willliam Boyd My Dream of Flying to Wake Island, by JG Ballard
(Sunday 12 December) Anne Enright Fat, by Raymond Carver (Monday 13
December) Colm Toibín Music at Annahullion, by Eugene McCabe (Tuesday
14 December) Margaret Drabble The Doll's House, by Katherine Mansfield
(Wednesday 15 December) Jeanette Winterson The Night Driver, by Italo
Calvino (Thursday 16 December) Rose Tremain Extra, by Yiyun Li (Friday
17 December) Julian Barnes Homage to Switzerland, by Ernest Hemingway
(Saturday 18 December) Tessa Hadley The Jungle, by Elizabeth Bowen
(Sunday 19 December) Helen Dunmore My Oedipus Complex, by Frank
O'Connor (Monday 20 December) Ali Smith Conversation with My Father,
by Grace Paley (Tuesday 21 December) Helen Simpson The Kitchen Child,
by Angela Carter (Wednesday 22 December)
From: A. Papazian