The Short Story Reader #4 – Panic by Daphne Du Maurier

I love short stories. I rarely find the time to read short stories. This daily series of blog posts is my attempt to read and examine at least one piece of shorter fiction per day. 

Panic is clammy, a story whose male narrator is a despicable human being whose comeuppance the reader celebrates with glee–or at least this reader did. It begins with the disappointment of reality not quite living up to expectations, and goes downhill fast from there; the male narrator is licentious, and with such an unrealistic evaluation of himself that it, along with his value judgements early on, tells you more than enough about exactly the kind of person he is. The reality is worse than his overgenerous estimation of himself:

“In his mind he drew a picture of himself, odd, eccentric, a bit of a genius, driven by passion, hypnotised by this girl.”

My comment after reading it was, “A pleasant read and a tense one, too. Different expectations, confusion, hesitations–and so English a behaviour from the man in his unwillingness to face shame, his need to avoid scandal. Horrific, too, for the implication, all but confirmed.”

I found an audio version of this story on YouTube, if you’d like to give it a try.