The Signal-Man

Written by Charles Dickens four years before he died of a stroke in 1870, and a year after the train to London he was on derailed, “The Signal-Man” (1866) is a chilling short story about a railway signalman who works in a dim, damp tunnel. He recounts to the narrator his sightings of a wildly gesticulating but mute specter. Each time he sees the ghost some horrific event on the railway follows. The story captured my attention from the start and held on. It’s a quick read, perfect for a drizly autumn day, and reflects the time in which it was written, when steel production and rail transport were being ramped up and there was growing interest in the unconscious mind.

Bartleby, the Scrivener

Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street” (1853) is a rather odd short story about an unnamed lawyer who tries just about everything to indulge then evict an obdurate clerk in his employ. It’s somewhat peculiar in that the writing is crisp and humorous while its main themes are isolation and the fading away of a man who seems to have given up on himself and all else. Walls—in offices, buildings, and the “Tombs” (municipal jail in Manhattan)—appear to symbolize Bartleby’s self-limitation and eventual demise. I particularly liked it for how Melville made his description of Bartleby frustrating for us, in that it's vague because the narrator doesn’t really know who this despondent fellow is or was, or why his scrivener behaves the way he does, giving us plenty of time to try to work these things out for ourselves, and perhaps to try a little to empathize with this puzzling character, before more is revealed on the final page. Very good.

Scandal

This 1986 novel by Shusaku Endo is a departure from a lot of his previous work, mainly historical fiction. Protagonist Suguro, a modern-day novelist similar in many respects to real-life Endo, receives an award for his writing at age 65. Leaving the ceremony he’s accosted by a drunken woman who blurts out that the revered Catholic author frequents a brothel in Shinjuku’s infamous Kabukicho district. Suguro, now convinced a doppelganger is out there bent on sullying his reputation, will seek out this double. Or is he actually him? Complicating the matter and stirring Suguro’s turmoil is a young girl he hires as an assistant and also a Madame Naruse, who volunteers as a nurse at a hospital for children by day, but by night is driven by a predilection for sadomasochism.

Although some parts didn’t cohere for me, I liked the story for its setting (Tokyo) and for how Endo maybe reveals aspects of his own character through the prose. But certain descriptions or words had me questioning the accuracy of the translation—I can’t put my finger on why I felt this exactly; they just didn’t seem like Endo’s. All in all, though, it’s a compelling read, and I’ve always been a sucker for doppelganger tales told to cast light on persona and bad behavior.