Book Bits

Hermann Hesse and the Young Saint Francis

'He was one of those hypersensitive children,' Hermann Hesse wrote of his fictional Francesco Bernardone, the child that grew into St Francis of Assisi, 'who in these earliest stirrings of the soul experience a sorrowful foreboding, a saddening intimation that all human joys are transient.' This extract from his short story, The Childhood of St… Continue reading Hermann Hesse and the Young Saint Francis

Short Stories, Uncategorized

Chekhov’s Heartache

This short story by Anton Chekhov was written when he was just 26 years old, a medical student in Moscow who was writing in his spare time to support his family. 'Heartache' is a devastating sketch of failed attempts to communicate loss and grief. The quote at the beginning of the story is the first… Continue reading Chekhov’s Heartache