Short Stories – The Suicide Club

This post is part of a year-long series about short stories.  Read about my “Year of the Short Story” HERE.

The Suicide Club by Robert Louis Stevenson (1878) – Three short stories that make up a longer narrative.  Originally published individually in London Magazine, they were later collected and put into book form.

Some may consider this entry a bit of a cheat for the year of the short story, but you’ll just have to deal with it.  About two years ago, I fell in love with Robert Louis Stevenson.  While I knew “Treasure Island” and “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde” (not a type, that is the name the author gave the story) from the movies, I had never read any of his books.  Once I did, I was hooked.  Stevenson writes with all the storytelling clarity I could ever hope to find.  His stories are quick and clever and never, ever drag.  Plus, in reading the original stories, I see how much has been left at the side of the creative road by the movies.  As wonderful as the stories are on the big screen, they are so much better on the page.

So I was quite excited to come across a short story collection from him.  These are murder mysteries center on two adventure-seeking gentlment, Prince Florizel of Bohemia and Colonel Geraldine.

The stories are:

• “The Story of The Young Man With The Cream Tarts” – The two receive a curious invitation to a party, one with a dark and sinister foundation.  They will confront the Suicide Club and its death-dealing founder.
• “The Story of the Physician and the Saratoga Trunk” – This time a young man returns to his hotel to discover a body in his bed.  The Suicide Club is back, and Florizel and Geraldine fight to save an innocent man.
• “The Adventure of the Hansom Cab” – The final installment begins with a young former lieutenant being whisked off to a private party.  Guests are dismissed one by one till only a handful are left.  They will join in a final confrontation with the leader of the Suicide Club.

It’s fun and has all the tension you want from a good murder mystery.  Stevenson weaves another wonderful story.  The Prince’s name kept nagging at me.  I thought perhaps it was a reference to the Sherlock Holmes story “A Scandal in Bohemia”, but the Stevenson story predates it by more than a decade  Turns out Prince Lforizel of Bohemia is a character in Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale”.  This Victorian era version is the much more dashing and adventurous of the two

Another great collection of short stories to add to your list!