A story within a story...

Submitted by Agai_n t3_yhmpgb in books

I just finished Misery by Stephen King and it made me think...

How do you all feel about stories that have another story nestled inside of them? Or maybe even a story within a story within a story...?

I think it's extremely interesting when it's well done and the stories interlock / share some meaning or you learn things inside one of the stories that's relevant to the main story framing it.

On the other side, I could also see this becoming too confusing in the hands of a less skillful writer.

How do you feel about this concept and do you have other noteworthy examples, good or bad? The only other one I can think about right now is The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, which I also found fascinating.

7

Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

noknownothing t1_iuelowa wrote

I don't think it's a controversial issue. I mean, Arabian Nights is still in print.

12

ba_ru_co t1_iuelaoj wrote

King does it again in Billy Summers. I think he's really good at it, the sheer silliness of the Misery's Return stuff made me smile.

7

Astrid-Wish t1_iuepq5q wrote

Oh yeah. Several in one! Loved it, esp the writing style changing as the story goes.

0

alterego879 t1_iueo57y wrote

Ergodic literature! One of my favorites.

Someone already mentioned Arabian Nights, but other examples I can think of are:

Pale Fire - Nabokov

House of Leaves - Danielewski

S. - JJ Abrams and Dorst

If on a winters night a traveler - Calvino

The name of the wind - Rothfuss

Hyperion - Simmons

6

Snoo57923 t1_iuepejo wrote

Heart of Darkness... never heard them termed ergodic before. I've always called them frame stories.

3

helvetiq t1_iufgg4h wrote

Conrad does it really well, Lord Jim is another good example.

2

alterego879 t1_iuer4nn wrote

You know, I may be mistaken in my assumption of the meaning of the term! I first came across it when reading House of Leaves and S. and assumed the term applied those books having stories within stories.

But now that you mention frame stories, well hell. “Let me sit you down and tell you a tale” is exceedingly common in literature and seems to apply to most of my quick list above!

I’ll have to look further into this…

1

jess2888 t1_iuglgny wrote

Just looked it up, the simple definition is "any kind of literature that requires special effort to navigate and digest." I'm thinking Infinite Jest or Ulysses would be good examples of that.

2

MissyBee63 t1_iueqsko wrote

Read just about anything by John Irving and you’re likely to get two stories within a story. The World According to Garp, A prayer for Owen Meaney, A Widow for One Year, Hotel New Hampshire are a few off the top of my head that all contain other stories.

5

heatheroo83 t1_iuf7xl7 wrote

When it's done well, I love it. David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas kind of does this, as does Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin.

4

Username_of_Chaos t1_iufka51 wrote

I was also going to suggest The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. Another off the top of my head is Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr.

4

itsrainingdurian t1_iuhgkm7 wrote

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz. An absolute favorite of mine!

2

Mentalfloss1 t1_iuekmyg wrote

The movie, “The Princess Bride”, does this well. Allende’s book, “The Stories of Eva Luna” uses stories within a story from the character that appeared in her book, “Eva Luna”.

1

psirockin123 t1_iuf3uqn wrote

I think it can be good. It can be lore or history of the world within the book, or just a story that has similar themes to the book and the character can learn them.

The only full story that I think I read, within a book, was in Phantates. The MC was in a castle and spent his days in the library. One chapter is almost entirely just one story about a woman stuck inside a old mirror that a man bought at a shop. He tries to make her happy by cleaning his room and buying nicer furniture but she’s still sad. It’s kind of a love story in a fantasy world, like the book itself.

1

Dana07620 t1_iufo9kt wrote

I can't decide if The Princess Bride or The NeverEnding Story is the epitome of it. Call it a tie.

I loved when Star Trek started doing there own version of that with the holodecks.

EDIT: Watership Down. How could I have forgotten that one?

1

L1llI4n t1_iugx9uz wrote

Maybe it's just me and I should have finished the book, but Lucinda Riley's The Seven Sisters does this in the worst possible way imho.

I was hoping about some good stories about those seven interesting sisters finding their heritage, but instead, the story just totally switches to the ancestor and the whole book is about the ancestor, not about the girl I thought the story was about.

I would have probably liked it, if the girl in the present found little snippets about the girl in the past, but the whole book is just a wall of text about the girl in the past...

1

ChunkyPa t1_iuht8b3 wrote

Death's End has a nice little story within the main plot.

1