Whip unreliable narrators into line by studying the masters with Helen M Walters
From Amy in Gone Girl to Rachel in The Girl On The Train, unreliable narrators have proved very popular over the last few years. But in this article I want to look back a bit further and examine what writers can learn about the use of an unreliable narrator from the authors of some classic short stories.
The stories I have chosen this time are The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe, Daniel Keyes’ novella Flowers For Algernon, and The Friends Of The Friends (originally called The Way It Came) by Henry James. As usual, you will get the most out of the article if you read the stories for yourself (Read the short stories here, http://writ. rs/wmjan17), and if you don’t, beware spoilers ahead.