BS: Revenge Stories?

Subject: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: ichMael
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 07:03 PM

I'm looking for short stories with a revenge/vengeance theme. Pieces like Guy de Maupassant's A Vendetta. I searched the database here and didn't find any stories, but I found an old thread on Songs of Vengeance. Good thread but not what I'm looking for, so I thought I'd ask if any of you can recommend a short story about revenge. Poe wrote a couple (The Cask of Amontillado and Hop-Frog), but I need more.

All help appreciated. Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: SINSULL
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 07:06 PM

Not a short story but ultimate revenge - The Count Of Monte Cristo. The book not the movie. LOL

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: SINSULL
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 07:09 PM

Stephen King wrote a collection of short stories called The Four Seasons. Stand By Me and the Shawshank Redemption were based on parts of it. There is a story in it about a fat and unattractive boy who in a blueberry pie eating contest. He gets his revenge on anyone in the town whoever ridiculed him.
Be forewarned - very funny and totally gross.

Subject: Lyr Add: EAST TEXAS RED (Woody Guthrie)
From: catspaw49
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 07:10 PM

How about a song instead? Here is one of my favorites, the best "don't get mad, get even" song ever written........

EAST TEXAS RED
(Woody Guthrie)

Down in the scrub-oak country of the Southeast Texas gulf,
There used to ride a brakeman--and a brakeman double tough.
He worked the town of Kilgore, and Longview twelve miles down,
And the hobos said little East Texas Red was the meanest bull around.

Now, whether you ride in the dim moonlight, or the shimmering heat o' the sun,
You can always see little East Texas Red just a-sportin' his cool running gun,
And the tale got switched down to stems and mains and everybody said
That the meanest bull on them shiny irons was little East Texas Red.

It was on one cold and drizzly day 'long about nine or ten,
A couple o' bums on the hunt of a job stood in the blizzardy wind.
Hungry and cold, they knocked on the doors of the working people all around,
For a piece of meat, a carrot, or a spud for to boil their stew around.

Now, Red he come on down the line and he waved old number two.
He kicked their bucket over a bush and dumped out all of their stew.
One of the boys said, "East Texas Red, you better get your business straight,
'Cause you're gonna ride that little black train just one year from this date."

Now, Red he laughed and he clumb the bank and he jumped on the side of a
wheeler.
The boys caught a tanker for Seminole, then north to Amarillo.
They found them a job of oilfield work and followed that pipeline down.
It took 'em to a hell of a lot of places before that year had rolled around.

Then on one cold and drizzly day, they caught them a gulf-bound train,
Shivered and shook with the dough in their pockets to the scrub-oak flats again.
Over hills of sand and hard-froze roads where the cotton wagons roll
On past the town of Kilgore and on to old Longview.

The smoke from their fire went higher and higher, and Red come down the line.
He shivered and shook with the snow in his face as he waved old number nine.
He followed the ties past the cinder dump 'til he come to the very same spot,
And there he spied the same old 'boes settin' 'round the same stew pot.

Red went to his knees and he hollered, "Please, don't pull that trigger on me!
I did not get my business straight," but he did not get his say.
A gun wheeled out from an overcoat and it played the old one-two,
And Red was dead when the other men set down to eat their stew.

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: ichMael
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 07:20 PM

The Count of Monte Cristo. A great one. The book. Kind of long for my purposes, though.

And it makes sense that S. King would write vengeance stories, after the huge success of Carrie. That was vengeance. I'll look for that collection of stories.

East Texas Red. One of my fave-o-rites.

Thanks to you both.

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 08:34 PM

Dante's Inferno?

If you let deities be the ones carrying out the revenge there are a whole lot more...

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 10:56 PM

Several of the great Damon Runyon's stories have, or include, this theme: Dark Dolores, Sense of Humor, Undertaker Song, The Brain Goes Home ...

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 11:22 PM

& I would recommend Bram Stoker's The Squaw ~ in which a she-cat takes a terrible revenge on a man who has accidentally killed one of her kittens.

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: ichMael
Date: 24 Feb 10 - 07:13 PM

Thanks for the input, folks.

The Inferno. Parts of that would definitely fit in the revenge category. Been a while since I've read that. Need to refresh.

Need to refresh on Damon Runyon, too. Read a book of his stories a long time ago. I found this collection of old time radio programs of a show called The Damon Runyon Theater. Three of the four stories you mentioned were dramatized, looks like in 1949. And I found The Squaw online and marked it to read.

Thanks again for the help.

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: Amergin
Date: 24 Feb 10 - 07:18 PM

There are tonnes of stories here on mudcat...stories about pranks and dealing with hecklers...

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: Amos
Date: 24 Feb 10 - 07:40 PM

Arlo Guthrie sings his father's "East TExas Red".

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 02:10 AM

Genesis 6:1 - 9:17

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 06:12 AM

He was an airline pilot, respected by the company he worked for and with an unblemished record. She was cabin crew, beautifully made and with a gentle and pleasing disposition. Behind the professional facade of each lay a dark, deep personality, not recognised by the majority. James at 39 yrs old was still single and still playing the Romeo role with young women in order to have his wicked way with them. Sally, now 26 yrs old had slept around in her late teens and early twenties but was now ready to settle down with the right man.
It was Wednesday the 26th and Sally was assigned to James' crew on the New York run. They took an instant liking for each other and made for each others company whenever convenient. As they left the aircraft for an overnight stay in New York, James asked Sally if she would like to meet later for a drink in the bar and that is where the relationship started.
A short six months later and they had lived together for four months in a classy flat in Chelsea where James had provided furniture and fabric to Sallys design and they were living a comfortable life. However, they spent many hours apart and despite Sallys trust in him, James had been playing his Romeo role with yet another girl who was on cabin crew.
Sally was approached by Amanda, a good friend who made her aware of James' infidelity and she decided to confront him on his return from Bahrain.
His attitude when confronted was not what Sally had expected and the conversation closed with him ordering her to leave the flat during the six days he would be away doing the Australian run.
After he had gone the next morning, Sally packed her things and cleaned, hoovered and tidied the flat so that it would look good for him on his return in six days....... BUT.... as she left, she picked up his landline phone and dialled the American speaking clock, leaving his phone off the hook where it would remain for six days.
Imagine James receiving his telephone bill at the end of the quarter!!!!!
That's revenge!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 06:23 AM

I'm still planning mine... ;0)

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: Amos
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 10:21 AM

Why?



A

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: GUEST,John Gray in Oz
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 10:48 AM

i was in the Navy and back in '64 as a very green 16yo I joined my first ship. On the first morning I was alone in the messdeck putting away my kit when a stoker came up from the boiler room and asked me to lend him 25 cents for the soft-drink machine. He said he would pay me back when he came off watch. Well - he never did, and I went on to learn that Joe was a gambler and not well liked as he owed money to just about everyone.
Six years later I was in a sailors pub in Sydney. I had gone to the greyhound races with some mates, first time ever, and had fluked a good win.
Joe came into the pub and I could see him moving from group to group as they shook their heads. Obviously he was trying to borrow money.
He got to my group with the story that he needed $600 to pay back rent or the bailiff was going to evict Joe & wife from their flat the next day. That was a lot of money in 1970 and none of the boys had more than $40 or so on them. I piped up and said I had more than $600 and flourished it in front of him.
He thought he was saved, saying, lend it to me and I'll pay you back next week.
I took great delight in replying that, if he couldn't pay back 25 cents from 6 years prior what hope did I have of getting back $600 ?
The next day one of the crew who lived just past Joe's came to work and reported that Joe and his wife were sitting with all their furniture on the footpath.
Revenge - let me tell you, is bloody beautiful.

JG / FME

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 11:40 AM

I thought that the Bram Stoker Cat / Kitten story was called "The Iron Maiden (or" Virgin")",after the eponymous torture apparatus featured therein ??
          Anyway,I seem to recall a P C Wren ( "Beau Geste") story about a sadistic NCO who messed with the honour of a Private's girlfriend....The Private,an Oriental and a tattooist, I believe,somehow got the NCO in a trap,drugged or whatever,and whilst he was out cold,completely tattooed his entire nose a deep black !!
             There was another one,by the same author,about tying up the prisoner,laying him on his back,then putting a large rat ,under a brass bowl,on his stomach,and putting hot coals on top of the bowl----guess how the terrified, hyperthermic rat escapes !! Uuggh !

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 11:47 AM

By the way,John Gray in Oz, I too was a green 16 year-old in the RN in 1964 ;I joined Raleigh in February of that year (as a JEM). So what was your Official Number,then ?? I can't PM you,but you can me,if you like !!

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: Bettynh
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 12:21 PM

Harlan Ellison is infamous for his real-life stories of revenge. One of his fictional stories is The Man Who Was Heavily into Revenge:
Synopsis: Fred Tolliver, a 62-year-old retired studio musician, has been well and truly screwed by contractor William Weisel. For a substandard, shoddy, and falling-apart guest bathroom Weisel has charged his client four times the estimated price, charged almost as much as Tolliver receives in a year. Tolliver's pleas for redress are met with vague indifference by Weisel and his sometimes-receptionist wife Belle. Tolliver swears he will get even, swears there will be justice.
And he does. And there is.
Shortly after Tolliver is pushed to the breaking point, bad things (REALLY bad things) start happening to William Weisel. No one will sell him gas for his Rolls because Fred Tolliver wouldn't like that. Belle leaves him and cleans out his bank account. His loans are all called due, his stocks plummet, he even fails his est class. Over the next week Weisel is reduced to a reeking, malnourished, stained and soiled bum who remains alive only by the narrowest thread, and Fred Tolliver is still unable to work or play his cello or do anything but think about how his life was ruined by William Weisel.
Eventually, Weisel succumbs - and the force haunting him needs to find a new focus - and what better focus than Fred Tolliver?



"The passion for revenge should never blind you to the pragmatics of the situation. There are some people who are so blighted by their past, so warped by experience and the pull of that silken cord, that they never free themselves of the shadows that live in the time machine...

And if there is a kind thought due them, it may be found contained in the words of the late Gerald Kersh, who wrote:"... there are men whom one hates until a certain moment when one sees, through a chink in their armour, the writhing of something nailed down and in torment."
— Harlan Ellison (The Essential Ellison: A 50 Year Retrospective)

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 01:01 PM

Bubblyrat ~ no, the Stoker story is called The Squaw: trust me, I have just looked it up in my copy of Dracula's Guest & Other Stories to make sure. The cat's expression as she looks at her kitten's killer reminds him of that of a vengeful Apache squaw he had met on a previous adventure.

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 01:06 PM

Just jokin', Amos. :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 01:08 PM

Stan Rogers's Mary Ellen Carter is a story of (in my opinion) the best kind of revenge -- constructive rather than destructive...

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 02:21 PM

OK MtheGM old chap, I guess you are correct ! I haven't actually read the story for probably over 40 years ; but I remember the gory details !! Everyone should read that yarn !

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: Alice
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 02:43 PM

REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier

Mrs. Danvers burns down Manderley.

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: ichMael
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 07:44 PM

Thanks for the responses. Making notes.

The Penance, by Saki, was a story I came across a while back. Five pages long, a story about a cat. Worth a read, in my opinion.

Think I'll read The Squaw now.

Thanks again.

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 07:48 PM

Ambrose Bierce

Revenge

An Insurance Agent was trying to induce a Hard Man to Deal With to take out a policy on his house. After listening to him for an hour, while he painted in vivid colours the extreme danger of fire consuming the house, the Hard Man to Deal With said:
    "Do you really think it likely that my house will burn down inside the time that policy will run?"
    "Certainly," replied the Insurance Agent; "have I not been trying all this time to convince you that I do?"
    "Then," said the Hard Man to Deal With, "why are you so anxious to have your Company bet me money that it will not?"
    The Agent was silent and thoughtful for a moment; then he drew the other apart into an unfrequented place and whispered in his ear:
    "My friend, I will impart to you a dark secret. Years ago the Company betrayed my sweetheart by promise of marriage. Under an assumed name I have wormed myself into its service for revenge; and as there is a heaven above us, I will have its heart's blood!"

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 08:02 PM

ichMael, have you ever read "The Lady or the Tiger?" by Frank Richard Stockton? Here's a link to it.

http://dragonmud.com/people/thoth/stories/story71.html

Ignore the title on that link. The original title was "The Lady, or the Tiger?" The typist on the link mis-scribed it.

Subject: RE: BS: Revenge Stories?
From: ichMael
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 08:30 PM

Oh, yeah. The Squaw's a definite revenge story. I read it here:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10150/10150-h/10150-h.htm#The_Squaw

Ambrose Bierce. Yes, I've read that one. He said once that all novels could be reduced to short stories. Or something to that effect. The Revenge story is a good example of what he meant--it could be fleshed out with a lot of backstory, but there's no need. Or I guess Bierce didn't see the need.

And yes, I've read The Lady, or the Tiger? Didn't remember reading it until the ending, but yes, I read that somewhere years ago. Excellent piece.

Thanks.