Unlikely Stories, Mostly
by Alasdair Gray
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This anthology may be likened to a vast architectural folly imblending the idioms of the Greek, Gothic, Oriental, Baroque, Scottish Baronial and Bauhaus schools. Like one who, absently sauntering the streets of Barcelona, suddenly beholds the breathtaking grandeur of Gaudis Familia Sagrada, I am compelled to admire a display of power and intricacy whose precise purpose evades me. Is the structure haunted by a truth too exalted and ghostly to dwell in a plainer edifice? Perhaps. I wonder. I show more doubt. Lady Nicola Stewart, Countess of Dunfermline in The Celtic Needlewoman Alasdair Grays most playful book earned a place in this Classic Series by being in print since first published by Canongate in 1983. This completely amended edition has two new stories; also a postscript by the author and Douglas Gifford. show lessTags
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Gray's vigorous, excessive drawings are the most off-putting element in this uneven collection of allegories and self-conscious myths: they attempt to turn whimsy into neo-Blakean prophecy; they also have the odd, apparently unintentional effect of making the more serious pieces here seem more vaudevillian than they are. Still, a few of Gray's critical/prophetic sketches do score shrewd hits. show more But Gray's fondness for his own pictures and lots of typesetting tricks are stumbling blocks for the reader on nearly every page. show less
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Author Information
42+ Works 7,413 Members
Alasdair James Gray was born on Dec. 28, 1934, in Glasgow to Amy (Fleming) and Alexander Gray. His mother worked in a clothing warehouse, his father in construction. Mr. Gray studied design and mural painting at the Glasgow College of Art. When he graduated in 1957, he was commissioned to paint murals around Glasgow, which he continued to create show more until 2014. He worked on freelance projects and also wrote plays before publishing his first novel. Whether he was creating etchings for his books or a mural to adorn the ceiling of the Glasgow arts and entertainment venue Oran Mor, Mr. Gray created an unusual niche for himself encompassing Scotland's literary and artistic spheres. While his murals can be found at subway stops and restaurants in Glasgow, some of his works are in the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland. In addition to writing fiction, poems and plays for the stage, television and radio Mr. Gray published an autobiography, A Life in Pictures, in 2010. It combined photos, written descriptions and lavish illustrations to reveal that much of Mr. Gray's personal life was embedded in his work. Alasdair James Gray passed away on December 29, 2019 at the age of 85. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Unlikely Stories, Mostly
- Original publication date
- 1983
- Epigraph
- They passed through the galleries, surveyed the vaults of
marble, and examined the chest in which the body of the founder
is supposed to have been reposited.They then sat down in one of
the most spacious chambers to ... (show all)rest a while before they attempted
to return.
“We have now,” said Imlac, “gratified our minds with an exact
view of the greatest work of man, except the wall of China.
“Of the wall it is very easy to assign the motives. It secured a
wealthy and timorous nation from the incursions of Barbarians,
whose unskillfulness in arts made it easier for them to supply
their wants by rapine than by industry, and who from time to
time poured in upon the habitations of peaceful commerce, as
vultures descend upon domestick fowl.Their celerity1 and fierceness
made the wall necessary, and their ignorance made it efficacious.
“But for the pyramids no reason has ever been given adequate
to the cost and labour of the work. The narrowness of the chambers
proves that it could afford no retreat from enemies, and
treasures might have been reposited at far less expence with equal
security. It seems to have been erected only in compliance with
that hunger of imagination which preys incessantly upon life, and
must be always appeased by some employment. Those who have
already all that they can enjoy, must enlarge their desires. He that
has built for use, till use is supplied, must begin to build for
vanity, and extend his plan to the utmost power of human performance,
that he may not be soon reduced to form another
wish.
“I consider this mighty structure as a monument of the insufficiency
of human enjoyments. A king, whose power is unlimited,
and whose treasures surmount all real and imaginary wants, is
compelled to solace, by the erection of a pyramid, the satiety of
dominion and tastelesness of pleasures, and to amuse the
tediousness of declining life, by seeing thousands labouring
without end, and one stone, for no purpose, laid upon another.
From 'Rasselas' by Samuel Johnson - Dedication
- To the good angel Mullane and Christopher Boyce and to their daughter Petra Davina.
- First words
- A star fell beyond the horizon, in Canada perhaps.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"Our love once meant much more to me than money so I'm not giving you any."
- Blurbers
- Moran, Col. Sebastian; Stewart, Lady Nicola, Countess of Dumferline, The Celtic Needlewoman
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- Languages
- English, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 8
- ASINs
- 2
