CLASSIC STORIES, STORY 2:

RUDYARD KIPLING’S ‘MARY POSTGATE’

 

While submissions are open for the GBP Short Story Prize 2016/17, we'll be posting some classic short stories for our friends and entrants to access freely.

 

This week Alex Pheby – author of the Wellcome Prize-shortlisted novel Playthings and judge for the 2016/17 GBP Short Story Prize – has suggested Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Mary Postgate’, with its “implicit critique of English attitudes regarding Europe and the working class”.

 

Routinely name-checked as one of the finest stories to come out of the First World War, ‘Mary Postgate’ has been described by Randall Jarrell as “truthfully cruel”, with a “psychological reality” that is “absolute.” It also has its detractors – including Angus Wilson, who recoiled at “the horrible satisfaction” that, he felt, Kipling clearly enjoyed while writing it.

 

You can read ‘Mary Postgate’ here.

 

Or listen to it here.

 

A good summary of the story, and critical evaluations of it, can be found here.

 

Finally, if you would like to enter the GBP Short Story Prize, or find out more about it, head here.