Fearful Pleasures by A. E. Coppard
"Fearful Pleasures" is a collection of twenty-two stories by A. E. Coppard that delves into the interplay between the ordinary and the supernatural. The narratives explore themes of life, death, and the consequences of human desires in both whimsical and haunting ways. For example, in "Adam and Eve and Pinch Me," a writer navigates ghostly sensations while anticipating the birth of his child, highlighting the thin veil between existence and the afterlife. Other stories, like "Clorinda Walks in Heaven," present a unique afterlife where past relationships are revisited, while "Old Martin" delves into the superstitions surrounding death and burial.
Coppard’s characters often find themselves entangled in magical or eerie events, such as in "The Bogie Man," where a young girl gains a lengthy life through an unconventional pact. Through folktale-like explorations, the collection examines the adventures of everyday individuals encountering fantastical forces, revealing how their desires and actions lead to unforeseen consequences. The stories are set in a mix of historical and contemporary contexts, providing readers with a diverse tapestry of human experience that resonates with both humor and fear. Overall, "Fearful Pleasures" invites readers to ponder the complexities of life, mortality, and the unseen worlds that may exist alongside our own.
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Fearful Pleasures
First published: 1946
Type of work: Stories
Type of plot: Fantasy—mythological
Time of work: Undefined, but with some contemporary references
Locale: England, Ireland, and France
The Plot
Fearful Pleasures, which consists of twenty-two stories, opens with “Adam and Eve and Pinch Me,” the title story of A. E. Coppards first collection (1921), in which a writer who is certain that he is not dead nevertheless experiences unpleasant ghostly sensations. He encounters his charming third child, whose imminent birth is announced by the writer’s newly expectant wife immediately after he mysteriously reconnects with his body.
In “Clorinda Walks in Heaven,” the title story of a 1922 volume, a woman meets all of her husbands from past lives in an afterlife not very different from the ordinary world. The title character in “Old Martin” becomes obsessed, when his beloved niece dies, with the superstition that the last soul buried in the churchyard must slave for all of those who went before, because the churchyard is filled to capacity upon the nieces burial. “Polly Morgan” tells about a young girl who obstructs her aunts romance with a ghost, only to see the aunt subsequently wither and die of loneliness in a way that foretells the girls fate.
In folktale fashion, Coppard often explores the adventures of simple people who encounter supernatural forces. In “The Elixir of Youth,” Tom Toole keeps his bargain with a strange old man to search for eternal youth and is then cheated of his share. In “The Bogie Man,” Sheila becomes familiar with a tiny man who confers a seven-thousand-year life on her when she lets him sleep on her breast. In “The Gollan,” a lazy young man allows a leprechaun to make him invisible and afterward discovers the price of this convenience: Everyone else is invisible to him. In “Crotty Shinkwin,” Crotty goes fishing and overturns an island when his anchor catches the steeple of the town church on the underside of the island. In that town, someone with his name lives a life quite different from his own.
Some of Coppards stories feature magical events. In “Rocky and the Bailiff,” a simple boy concocts a magical cure for a cattle plague but gains nothing. In “Ale Celestial?,” Barnaby Barnes receives a perfect brewing recipe from a dwarf and gains fame until his greed poisons his skill. “Father Raven” fibs to gain admission to heaven for his flawed congregation on Judgment Day and finds himself rejected. In “Cheese,” a stingy salesman finagles a delicious cheese recipe from a gypsy but refuses to pay royalties. In revenge, the gypsies trap the salesman like a mouse; he barely escapes, although not to the world he left.
Some of Coppards stories have contemporary settings. In “Gone Away,” three people motoring through France find themselves covering thousands of miles, according to their odometer, and losing track of landmarks they note along the way. In this seemingly ordinary world in which one can never find anything twice, they make the mistake of becoming separated in a town they visit. In “The Tiger,” an animal trainers passion for a married woman in his circus troupe is punished by the creature he has failed to tame. In “The Gruesome Fit,” a man flees his wife and home because he fears that he will commit murder, but in his new lodging, he irresistibly murders a stranger.