Appointment in Samarra

One of the most fascinating things about short stories is their ability to deliver an impact within a limited space, and often, that power lies in the ending. A perfect example of this is William Somerset Maugham’s retelling of Appointment in Samarra (1933).

The speaker is Death:

There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture, now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threating getsture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

This story has an unexpected ending. It’s an embedded story because Death speaks and tells us about other people’s thoughts and actions. The ending is important; you cannot stop a short story in the middle, because everything is usually explained at the end, often with a twist. There must be a unity.