The Wife's Story: Difference between revisions
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{{Infobox short story <!--See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]]--> |
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{{orphan|date=October 2009}} |
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| name = The Wife's Story |
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| image = <!-- include the [[File:]] and size --> |
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| caption = |
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| title_orig = |
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| translator = |
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| author = [[Ursula K. Le Guin]] |
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| country = United States |
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| language = [[English language|English]] |
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| series = |
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| genre = |
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| published_in = ''[[The Compass Rose]]'' |
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| publication_type = Collection |
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| publisher = Pendragon Press |
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| media_type = Hardback |
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| pub_date = 1982 |
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| english_pub_date = |
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| preceded_by = Jake |
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| followed_by = Julian}} |
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"'''The Wife's Story'''" is a [[short story]] written by [[Ursula K. Le Guin]]. |
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==Plot summary== |
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{{Wikify|date=October 2009}} |
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Written in a [[vernacular]] [[first-person narrative]], the title character (who is eventually revealed to be a wolf) describes her beloved spouse and their idyllic family life in the past tense, except during the new moon, when he mysteriously disappeared. She then relates the night she witnessed his [[metamorphosis]] into a human and screamed in horror, resulting in her family and neighbors chasing and killing him. |
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==Interpretation== |
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"'''The Wife's Story'''" is a short story found in [[Ursula K. Le Guin]]'s 1982 collection ''[[The Compass Rose]].'' It describes a wife's difficulties with her husband as she suspects him to be a werewolf, based on several suspicious behaviors. While the narrator tries her best to deal with the situation, at the end of the story her husband is revealed to be a hated werewolf. As he changes at the dark of the moon into a human, the female wolf narrator describes killing him. The story is unusual for its shift in perspective; of the many books and stories on werewolves, few are written from the point of view of other wolves. |
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The story is unusual for its [[point of view (literature)|point-of-view]]: Of the many books and stories on [[werewolves]], few are written from the perspective of wolves. Le Guin goes to great lengths to conceal the nature of the narrator, fully exploiting the reader's assumptions to purposefully heighten the [[plot twist]] at the story's [[denouement]]. |
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==References== |
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;Notes |
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{{reflist}} |
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;Bibliography |
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{{refbegin}} |
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* {{cite book | title=Ursula K. Le Guin Beyond Genre: Fiction for Children and Adults| last=Cadden | first =Mike| publisher=Routledge| location=New York, NY | edition =1st | year=2005 | isbn = 0-415-99527-2}} |
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* {{cite book | title=The Curse of the Werewolf: Fantasy, Horror and the Beast Within | last=Bourgault du Coudray | first=Chantal | publisher=I. B. Tauris | location=New York, NY | edition=1st | year= 2006 | isbn=978-1845111571}} |
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* {{cite book |title= Conversations with Ursula K. Le Guin (Literary Conversations Series) | last=Freedman | first=Carl | author-link=Carl Freedman (writer) | publisher=University Press of Mississippi| edition=1st | year=2008 | isbn=978-1604730937}} |
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* {{cite book | title=The Columbia Companion to the Twentieth-Century American Short Story | last=Gelfante | first=Blanche H. | publisher=Columbia University Press | location=New York, NY | edition=1st | year=2004 | isbn=978-0231110990}} |
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{{refend}} |
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==External links== |
==External links== |
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| ⚫ | |||
*[http://www.ursulakleguin.com/ Author's website] |
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*[http://www.amazon.com/Compass-Rose-Ursula-K-Guin/dp/0060914475] |
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| ⚫ | |||
{{Ursula K. Le Guin}} |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wife's Story}} |
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wife's Story}} |
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[[Category:Short stories by Ursula K. Le Guin]] |
[[Category:Short stories by Ursula K. Le Guin]] |
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[[Category:1982 short stories]] |
[[Category:1982 short stories]] |
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[[Category:Werewolf written fiction]] |
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{{fantasy-story-stub}} |
{{1980s-fantasy-story-stub}} |
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Latest revision as of 18:47, 14 December 2024
| "The Wife's Story" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Short story by Ursula K. Le Guin | |||
| Country | United States | ||
| Language | English | ||
| Publication | |||
| Published in | The Compass Rose | ||
| Publication type | Collection | ||
| Publisher | Pendragon Press | ||
| Media type | Hardback | ||
| Publication date | 1982 | ||
| Chronology | |||
| |||
"The Wife's Story" is a short story written by Ursula K. Le Guin.
Plot summary
[edit]Written in a vernacular first-person narrative, the title character (who is eventually revealed to be a wolf) describes her beloved spouse and their idyllic family life in the past tense, except during the new moon, when he mysteriously disappeared. She then relates the night she witnessed his metamorphosis into a human and screamed in horror, resulting in her family and neighbors chasing and killing him.
Interpretation
[edit]The story is unusual for its point-of-view: Of the many books and stories on werewolves, few are written from the perspective of wolves. Le Guin goes to great lengths to conceal the nature of the narrator, fully exploiting the reader's assumptions to purposefully heighten the plot twist at the story's denouement.
References
[edit]- Notes
- Bibliography
- Cadden, Mike (2005). Ursula K. Le Guin Beyond Genre: Fiction for Children and Adults (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-99527-2.
- Bourgault du Coudray, Chantal (2006). The Curse of the Werewolf: Fantasy, Horror and the Beast Within (1st ed.). New York, NY: I. B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1845111571.
- Freedman, Carl (2008). Conversations with Ursula K. Le Guin (Literary Conversations Series) (1st ed.). University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1604730937.
- Gelfante, Blanche H. (2004). The Columbia Companion to the Twentieth-Century American Short Story (1st ed.). New York, NY: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0231110990.
External links
[edit]
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