Cruelty was copyrighted in 1986, but it appears that it was only released in 2016. Spoilers abound. So, there's no point in complaining since you've been warned.
Cruelty consists of 10 short stories:
"The Butler"
Some 'nouveau riche' types have just come into a fortune. They want to buy their way into the good graces of the bourgeois. But of course, it takes a lifetime, I'm sure, to learn how to behave as the bourgeois do. Without much concern for money, they purchase all sorts of expensive things. They invite everyone to dinners. They buy the most expensive wines under the advisement of the expensive butler.
But, the joke is on them! The butler had replaced all the expensive wine with cheap wine. But that does not stop them from bragging to their 'friends' about how expensive this and that wine was, and the vintage, despite it being all the same.
The butler, no longer able to tolerate his employer, confesses that he had replaced the expensive wine with the cheap, and drank it himself.
"The Great Automatic Grammatizator"
This story is a bit of interesting science fiction. A man invents a story and book writing machine. Just pull on a set of levers, and the machine will write a mediocre short story. With an upgrade, it produces novels. Within a short while, it is used to take over the creative industry. How far away from just such a reality in the form of an AI powered writer?
"Royal Jelly"
"Royal Jelly" is a bit funny. It's about a man who is born with a natural connection to bees. Later on, he has a baby. The baby is dying. So, he feeds it some royal jelly. At the end, the wife discovers that both her baby and her husband look part bee-part human. It's like a B-grade horror story.
"Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat"
This is a comedy. A woman gets a parting gift of an expensive mink coat. But she wants to make up a silly story as to how she gets it. She takes it to a pawn shop and gets $50 for it. Then, the husband goes to get it. When he brings it home, it's a cheap mink wrap while his secretary gets the original. I didn't see that coming. I knew something was coming, and I guess that was the most obvious in hind sight.
"The Swan"
Some very bad boys do some bad things to a poor boy.
"Poison"
A funny story about someone who believes he has a venomous snake on his stomach. Eventually, it's discovered that there is no snake.
"Skin"
I enjoyed this one. A man gets a young boy, destined for greatness, to give him a large tattoo on his back of his wife. The young boy is in love with the wife. Later on, the young boy becomes a famous artist. The man shows off his tattoo at a gallery. A multimillion dollar canvas stuck to his back. One of the men offers to take care of the old man in exchange for his customers to see the great artwork on his back on the beach. Not too long after, the artwork reappears, minus the old man. Pretty cruel.
"The Princess and the Poacher"
This one was a cute story, a fairy tale really. A very ugly boy, but talented and powerful, is shunned by all. He's a great hunter, however, and manages to poach birds and other animals for his family's dinner table.
One day, he decides to take a chance and try to poach around the castle. While he's there, he sees the princess in danger of a boar heading straight for her. Already in love with her, he takes on the giant boar head on, and breaks its neck.
As a reward, the king proclaims that the poacher can rape and ravish any woman he chooses. The poacher chooses not to. Eventually, the princess falls in love with him because he chooses not to ravish the maidens. He is the only one not to chase her and has respect for her.
Certainly, not a story for children. Perhaps a good story for all the incels idiots out there in the world today.
"Genesis and Catastrophe"
A young woman has lost three children. She's afraid to lose the fourth. The reader is invited to worry about her, and hope that she doesn't lose her fourth child. That is, until you realize that her newborn son is Adolph Hitler.
"Claud's Dog"
A big con: a man finds an identical dog. One dog is fast, the other slow. They're both greyhounds. He tries to conjure a great con by running first one, against whom the odds are calculated he cannot win, and then running the much faster dog with the big odds. The con works. Except all the bookies refuse to honour the bets that they made. In the end, they lose out.
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In the end, it was an enjoyable book. "The Princess and the Poacher" tickles the romantic side of me and would have to be my favorite of the lot.
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