March 13 - The City of Dreadful Night

“The City of Dreadful Night”
by Rudyard Kipling
Tales of Horror & Fantasy (2008)

* * * (Good) Realistic

A man takes a walk into the city on a motionless night and under a bright moon, observing the effects of an oppressive heat.

Atmosphere. That’s the strength of this story. You feel as though you are walking that corpse-lined path, sweltering under the harsh heat, approaching the midnight hour, observer in a foreign land. More descriptive writing than story, this does serve as great example of Kipling’s ability to set a scene, as dreadful as that scene may be. I wouldn’t have made it down that road of corpses, not at night, not by myself. It’s a portrait of despair, brightened by the faith of a people suffering, overwhelmed, but not without hope in the coming day. It is dark, but beautiful writing; only I wish it told more of a story.