When readers talk about unreliability in fiction, they usually mean error. The narrator misunderstands events, exaggerates details, or lacks full knowledge. Unreliability becomes a problem of perception. And, it’s usually when the narrator is in the story – first person. In The Hand, unreliability is something else entirely. This is because it is narrated in […]
One of the most revealing features of The Hand is not the object itself, but how far away it always remains. The crime does not unfold in front of us. The danger never threatens the listeners. The horror is filtered through layers of narration, distance, and time. Maupassant, through the third-person narrator, does this deliberately. […]
