Introduction: Read a Short Story Every Day – A Dark Mirror by Arthur Quiller-Couch
The Collected Illustrated Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
Do you want to read more, but cannot find the time? Why not get the process started by reading a short story every day. At American Literature, you get a choice of many stories to choose from, or you can read the story of the day that’s chosen for you. You may be thinking that there isn’t much diversity since all the short stories are “American” but that's not the case, and there is diversity because there are many different authors, some of whom you may not have heard of.
And there is also diversity in the genre and even the length of the stories. There are also some novellas included on the site. In fact, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, which I reviewed recently, is on the site, and I have seen other novellas as well. You can read many of the stories in 20 minutes or less. All of us can carve out 20 minutes a day to dedicate to reading, and when it becomes a habit, you can use the time to read sections of books.
And if you are like me, who is using the short stories on the American Literature website to practice speed reading drills, at some point you will start reading faster and will take less time to finish a book. If you read The Invisible Mentor blog regularly, you will notice that I have also been reviewing short stories, and I am doing that because some of the stories have potent life lessons that are worth sharing. A Dark Mirror by Arthur Quiller-Couch is another short story and author I was introduced to on the American Literature website.
What is A Dark Mirror by Arthur Quiller-Couch About?
While reading the story, on the surface, it is depressing, but when you are finished, you realize that Arthur Quiller-Coach is talking about the Bronte family – father, Reverend Patrick Bronte; daughters Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and son, Branwell. The unnamed narrator is looking into a mirror and narrates the lives of the three Bronte sisters who survived, their brother and father.
The dark mirror could represent a mirror in the home of the Bronte’s. In the story we are first introduced to the four surviving children who are playing a game with toy soldiers, and we see them growing up and dying. When the story ends, only the father and Charlotte are still living. A Dark Mirror by Arthur Quiller-Couch takes only five minutes to read. It is a bit depressing, but what the story does is it teaches us about pacing, how to pace what we write. And he also demonstrates how to write succinctly.
Please read my reviews of Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. I have read other books by the Bronte sisters, but I neglected to write reviews of them.
Books Mentioned
On the Art of WritingThe Collected Illustrated Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Sir Arthur Quiller-CouchThe Arthur Quiller-Couch Fiction CollectionThe Adventures of Harry RevelNews From The DuchyBeauty and the Beast
