Pale horse, pale rider

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Pale horse, pale rider is a collection of short stories of the American writer Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980), who in 1939 appeared.

The volume consists of the three short novels or short stories Old Mortality , Noon Wine and Pale horse, pale rider . Not only are they longer than her other stories, but also represent the high point of the author's literary work.

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Old Mortality (Eng. Transitoriness or the sufferings of our mortality). The story spans the period between 1885 and 1912 and describes the effect that stories about a relative, Aunt Amy, who died early, had on the siblings Miranda and Maria. In the first part, in which the sisters are still children, they learn from their aunt based on stories from their various relatives. Aunt Amy becomes the heroine of romantic fantasies who defied the conventions of her time and suffered an early mysterious death. In the second part, the children are 14 and 10 years old and are in a convent in New Orleans. Her father comes to visit her and takes her to the horse race. There they happened to meet Uncle Gabriel, who was madly in love with Aunt Amy and whom she had finally married. But contrary to her previous ideas, Gabriel offers a sobering picture of a fat, unhappy man who has nothing in common with a romantic hero. You visit his second wife, who is hostile and unapproachable to the relatives. Gabriel still dreams of Amy while he leads a meager life through horse racing and drinking with his wife. In the third part of the story, Miranda is already a young eighteen year old woman. She is on the train to the funeral of Uncle Gabriel, who is to be buried next to Amy at home. On the train she meets Aunt Eva, because of her appearance an old maid who has become a teacher and is fighting for women's suffrage. Miranda hears from her that Amy was a self-centered, superficial, and spoiled girl. In the end, Amy decides she doesn't want to hear any more of the old stories. "I can at least know the truth about the things that I experience," she assured herself mutely, and made a vow of herself - in her joy of hope - in her folly.

Noon Wine (Eng. The Dark Song). A man looking for work turns up on a small farm in Texas around 1900. Mr. Thompson hires the man and it soon becomes apparent that he knows how to work well and that over time brings the farm to some prosperity. Mr. Helton, a Swede who speaks nothing and says nothing about himself, becomes indispensable for the owner couple, who, with a certain weakness and the sickness of the woman, had not gotten very far. After nine years, however, an unsympathetic man suddenly comes to Thompson's farm and after some back and forth talk it turns out that he is a bounty hunter who had tracked down Mr. Helton. He allegedly murdered his brother, was in a madhouse, and escaped from there. In Thompson everything is fighting against these openings, he only knows Helton as a hard-working, impeccable person who does nothing to harm. The bounty hunter, on the other hand, now threatens not only Helton's life, but also his own, since it had become indispensable for him. In affect, Thompson kills the man when he thinks he wants to attack Helton with a knife. Although he is acquitted by the court, he and his wife consider him guilty. Couldn't there have been another way of resolving the conflict without killing a man? Thompson restlessly drives with his wife to all the neighbors and explains his story without being asked, he wants to justify himself. When he realizes that this is in vain, he finally commits suicide.

Pale horse, pale rider (dt. Pale horse and pale rider). In this story, Miranda was hit by the rampant flu epidemic in 1918, at the end of the First World War, and was seriously ill in hospital. In her artfully portrayed and intertwined feverish fantasies, events from her childhood mingle with those of her professional life as a journalist and her love for Adam, a young soldier who is waiting to be drafted to Europe. When she comes back to life, she learns that Adam was infected with her and died. She realizes that she cannot escape life and slowly begins to deal with the things of everyday life again.

expenditure

  • Pale horse, pale rider. Three short novels . New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1939
  • Pale horse, pale rider . New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1964
  • Collected stories . New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1965
  • Pale horse, pale rider . San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985
  • Pale horse, pale rider . San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990

Translations

  • The dark song . Munich: Desch, 1950 (translation: Maria von Schweinitz)
  • The sufferings of our mortality ; in: American storytellers from F. Scott Fitzgerald to William Goyen. Zurich: Manesse, 1957 (translation: Elisabeth Schnack )
  • Pale horse and pale rider . 3 novellas. Zurich: Diogenes, 1963 (translation: Maria von Schweinitz)
  • Pale horse and pale rider . Stories. Paperback edition. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1968 (translation: Maria von Schweinitz)
  • The sufferings of our mortality . Stories. Leipzig: Reclam, 1977 (translation: Maria von Schweinitz)
  • Pale horse, pale rider . Stories. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1986 (translation: Helga Huisgen)
  • The sufferings of our mortality . Narrative. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1988 (translation: Helga Huisgen)

Film adaptations