The Delicate Prey and Other Stories
The 1950 collection these late stories are usually measured against.
Read our take
Things Gone and Things Still Here
by Paul Bowles
Nine late stories written when Bowles had stopped travelling, including the one where a boy trades bodies with a cobra.
- 1977
- Spare
- Hallucinatory
- Elegiac
- spare
- dark
- voice-driven
- episodic
About Paul Bowles
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeBlack Sparrow Press published these nine stories in Santa Barbara in 1977, in an edition of five hundred hardcover copies. Bowles was in his sixties and had largely stopped travelling. Jane Bowles had died in 1973 after sixteen years of illness, and he was spending his working time translating Moroccan storytellers from tape. The stories lean on memory and on Tangier legend rather than on new journeys. The best known is "Allal", in which a fatherless Moroccan boy drugs a red cobra with kif paste and exchanges bodies with it.
The story, in more detail
The nine stories are Allal; Mejdoub; You Have Left Your Lotus Pods on the Bus; The Fqih; Istikhara, Anaya, Medagan and the Medaganat; The Waters of Izli; Afternoon with Antaeus; Reminders of Bouselham; and the title story.
"Allal" was written in Tangier in 1976 and first printed in Rolling Stone in January 1977. Gore Vidal, introducing Bowles's collected stories two years later, likened the boy-into-cobra exchange to the Taoist tale of Chuang Chou and the butterfly.
"You Have Left Your Lotus Pods on the Bus" is the outlier — not Moroccan at all. Written in Tangier in 1971 and first published in this book, it follows an American and his expatriate friend Brooks through a day in Ayudhaya with three Buddhist monks, Yamyong, Prasert and Vichai. It comes out of Bowles's stay in Bangkok in 1966.
Why we recommend it
"Allal" is the reason
A fatherless brickmaker steals a red cobra, drugs it with kif paste and trades bodies with it. Gore Vidal compared it to Chuang Chou dreaming he was a butterfly.
Written from memory, not travel
By 1977 Bowles had stopped moving. The stories rework his own early life and Tangier legend, which makes this the collection where his material turns inward.
It is genuinely hard to find whole
Five hundred copies in 1977 and no standalone reprint since. Outside the Library of America volume, the book as a book barely circulates.
What this book explores
Bring it to book club
- "Allal" turns a boy into a snake and treats it as ordinary. Where does the story ask you to accept that, and does it earn it?
- Bowles had stopped travelling by 1977. Can you feel the difference between these stories and the ones written on the road?
- "You Have Left Your Lotus Pods on the Bus" is a comedy of misunderstanding. Is it kinder than the Moroccan stories, or only quieter?
- The book was published in five hundred copies. Does knowing that change how you read it?
- Bowles was translating Moroccan storytellers from tape in these years. Does the collection sound like a man who had been listening?
Timeline
1971
Writes "You Have Left Your Lotus Pods on the Bus" in Tangier, drawing on his 1966 stay in Bangkok. It first appears in this collection six years later.
1973
Jane Bowles dies in Málaga after sixteen years of illness. Bowles remains in Tangier and turns to translating Moroccan storytellers from tape.
1976
Writes "Allal" in Tangier.
1977
Rolling Stone prints "Allal" in its issue of 27 January.
1977
Black Sparrow Press publishes the collection in Santa Barbara: 89 pages, 500 hardcover copies, 250 of them numbered and signed, and 26 handbound and lettered.
1979
Gore Vidal, introducing Bowles's Collected Stories, compares the metamorphosis in "Allal" to the Taoist tale of Chuang Chou and the butterfly.
2002
The Library of America collects all nine stories in Paul Bowles: Collected Stories & Later Writings.
Book editions
- Hardcover
- Black Sparrow Press
- 1977
- 9780876853412
- Hardcover
- Library of America
- 2002
- 9781931082204
- Paperback
- Harper Perennial
- 2006
- 9780061137044
Reader reviews
Readers may also like
A Hundred Camels in the Courtyard
The kif stories of 1962, and the closest ancestor of "Allal".
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The Time of Friendship
The 1967 collection, from the years when Bowles was still travelling.
Read our take
Without Stopping
The autobiography, published five years earlier, covering the life these stories draw on.
Read our takeThings Gone and Things Still Here: frequently asked questions
What is Things Gone and Things Still Here?
A collection of nine short stories by Paul Bowles, published by Black Sparrow Press in Santa Barbara in 1977 in an edition of five hundred hardcover copies. It runs to 89 pages.
What are the nine stories?
Allal; Mejdoub; You Have Left Your Lotus Pods on the Bus; The Fqih; Istikhara, Anaya, Medagan and the Medaganat; The Waters of Izli; Afternoon with Antaeus; Reminders of Bouselham; and the title story.
What is "Allal" about?
A fatherless Moroccan boy takes in a red cobra belonging to a travelling snake dealer, feeds it kif paste, and exchanges bodies with it. Gore Vidal compared the transformation to the Taoist tale of Chuang Chou dreaming he was a butterfly. It was written in Tangier in 1976 and first printed in Rolling Stone in January 1977.
Is the whole book set in Morocco?
No. "You Have Left Your Lotus Pods on the Bus" is set in Thailand, and follows an American and his friend Brooks through a day in Ayudhaya with three Buddhist monks named Yamyong, Prasert and Vichai. It comes out of Bowles's 1966 stay in Bangkok.
Where do these stories sit in Bowles's career?
Late. He was in his sixties, had largely stopped travelling, and Jane Bowles had died in 1973. The stories draw on memory and Tangier legend rather than on new journeys, and he was spending much of his working time translating Moroccan storytellers from tape.
How can I read it now?
There has never been a standalone paperback. All nine stories are in the Library of America volume Paul Bowles: Collected Stories & Later Writings, and in The Stories of Paul Bowles from Harper Perennial. The 1977 Black Sparrow first edition is scarce.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document Things Gone and Things Still Here, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1Things Gone and Things Still Here
NovelPaul Bowles, 1977Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
2Paul Bowles: Collected Stories & Later Writings
Official recordLibrary of AmericaUsed forThe Library of America volume that reprints the collection complete, and the authority for its contents.
3Paul Bowles
Official recordLibrary of AmericaUsed forThe Library of America's author record.
4Up Above the World — edition records
Official recordOpen LibraryUsed forOpen Library edition records, used for the Black Sparrow first edition's extent and its three 1977 ISBNs.
5Pipe Dreams
PeriodicalThe New York Review of Books, 23 November 1989, 1989Used forRobert Craft's 1989 essay on Bowles, for the late-career context.
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Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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