The Unreliable Narrator

The Tell-Tale Heart

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe tells the story from the perspective of a maniacal murderer, who at first assures the reader "how healthily-- how calmly I can tell you the whole story." As the story progresses, he reveals his true mental derangement which spirals out of control in front of the reader, a true psychotic killer, we know, without a doubt. Poe offers the quintessential definition of "telltale" in the story's revealing betrayal. Poe uses this technique brilliantly in so many of his stories, it's hard to choose. Some of our other favorites: The Cask of Amontillado, The Black Cat, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Angel of the Odd.

The Repairer of Reputations

The Repairer of Reputations by Robert W. Chambers is itself a dystopia, in which the author invites the reader to disbelieve the authenticity of the story's events (the protagonist is an unreliable narrator because he sustained a head injury and is committed to an insane asylum). He becomes ultra-paranoid and may have committed murder after reading a censored play, The King in Yellow, which itself is a false document the author tries to convince the reader is authentic. A true dystopian horror story.

Hearts and Hands

Hearts and Hands by O. Henry offers the author's usual irony and clever wordplay, this one about a prisoner being escorted to Leavenworth by a sympathetic marshal, who perpetrates his mistaken identity on account of Easton's run-in with his acquaintance, Miss Fairchild. O. Henry himself is an unreliable narrator as an ex-con, wanted on embezzlement charges and fled to Honduras before turning himself in for his sentence. This story was published the year he was released from prison.

The Moonlit Road

The Moonlit Road by Ambrose Bierce is a story about a woman's murder in which he invokes elements of supernatural and horror, told from three different perspectives: the son, the murderous husband, and the dead wife (through a medium). Bierce's brilliance is his ability to convey clarifying details to the reader, so we feel as though we discovered the husband's guilt on our own. He doesn't make it easy for us, given the inconsistent names, we don't immediately connect they are son and father: Joel Hetman, Jr.'s statement (the son), followed by Caspar Grattan's (the father) narrative, rationalizing his actions some twenty years later. Julia Hetman (the dead wife/mother) tells her story from the after-life through the Medium Bayrolles, so she is REALLY an unreliable narrator—or is she telling the actual truth best of all, which means the reader believes in the supernatural? Bierce leaves ambiguity and doubt: was that shadow leaving her chamber real or imagined? Why does the husband use the name Grattan? Did Julia commit adultery? The brilliance is in the unreliability of the interwoven stories.

The Chronicles of Clovis

The Chronicles of Clovis by H.H. Munro (SAKI), is a collection of short stories about a disenchanted, upper-class youth with a mean-streak who delights in tormenting his elders. SAKI makes it quite apparent that his protagonist's perspective is nowhere near the truth, or what his elders think! In addition to the collection of Clovis Sangrail stories, check out his titles involving Reginald, a snarky young man who points out the blatantly hypocritical actions of the upper-class, a perfect vehicle for SAKI to deliver his own biting social commentary. Clovis on Parental Responsibilities and Reginald's Christmas Revel are both good examples of the Unreliable Narrator technique, though almost all of SAKI's work offers such witty banter, told by the brashest of characters, the reader knows is absolutely "wrong" by conventional standards, and that's the point!

Extracts from Adam's Diary

Extracts from Adam's Diary by Mark Twain is the companion to the better-known (reliable narrator), Eve's Diary, in which Twain playfully reimagines the Biblical version of original sin by writing a narrative from both participants in the Garden of Eden. Because Adam is so clueless about Eve's capabilities and wisdom (Twain's intent), he is the clear Unreliable Narrator in this short story pairing.

The Fortune Teller

The Fortune Teller by Machado de Assis is about betrayal and treachery, told by a woman's lover, who hopes her husband remains unsuspecting of their adultery. This Unreliable Narrator is completely clueless, has no idea how obvious their affair is to everyone else, particularly the cuckolded husband. The fortune-teller is an "aiding and abetting" unreliable narrator, because she assures each lover that they have nothing to fear. The reality ends up being quite different (we won't spoil the story's end).

Asleep in Armageddon

Asleep in Armageddon by Ray Bradbury is a masterful narration by the only man left on earth (how can he be reliable, nobody can corroborate his story?). After death, he has conversations with feuding spirits who might just be his dreams or thoughts. How long is time, distance in space, which planets exist—his account is absolutely unreliable, and fascinating!

The Story of the Three Apples

The Story of the Three Apples from The Tales of the Arabian Nights is a complex tale of deceit in which many people confess to their role in the murder of a young woman, whose own children admit to taking an apple. Hard to know who to believe and who to convict of the murder.

The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story challenging equitable medical practices, narrated by a woman suffering from extreme post-partum depression. The other perspectives on her condition are that of her husband, the doctor (neither one has a clue). Gilman leaves the reader to evaluate whether she is credible or on the verge of insanity because of a dysfunctional medical system.

The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, who employs a journalistic storytelling technique through an unreliable narrator, who sensationalizes all events, but they come off as sounding real. The Halloween, 1938 radio broadcast of the story, narrated by Orson Welles, was convincing enough that listeners who tuned-in mid-broadcast mistakenly thought it was a real alien invasion.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is one of his masterworks and best example of the Unreliable Narrator. He employs dramatic irony relying on Huck, a naive and uneducated boy, to narrate the story, in which he knows he is "wrong" to help runaway slave, Jim. But Twain ensures that the reader knows he's doing the "right" thing.

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is a highly biased account of the Heathcliff, Earnshaw, and Linton Families, unreliably narrated by both Lockwood and Nelly Dean.

The Good Soldier

The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford chronicles the tragedy of Edward Ashburnham, set before World War I, using a series of unreliable flashbacks in non-chronological order, gradually revealing a version of events that is totally different than those at the start. Ford's credited with pioneering this technique of "literary impressionism."

Dom Casmurro

Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis is considered a masterpiece of literary Realism and the Unreliable Narrator technique, told by a vengeful husband, offering many allusions to Shakespeare.

Dream Women: A Mystery in Four Narratives

Dream Women: A Mystery in Four Narratives by Wilkie Collins employs the dramatic technique of unraveling a mystery with three unique perspectives. He wrote one of the first modern English detective novels, The Moonstone (1868).

• Lesson Plan: Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, and the Unreliable Narrator
• Edgar Allan Poe explains the "vivid effect" in The Philosophy of Composition
• A Study of Unreliability: The Moonlit Road and In a Grove
• Teaching The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (grades 9-12)
• The Yellow Wallpaper: Is the narrator reliable or unreliable?
• Unreliable Narration of Wuthering Heights
• Teaching the Arabian Nights in Wisconsin: A Resource Guide
• Unreliable Narrator Movies to Twist Your Next Plot ("The Usual Suspects" and "Fight Club")
• On Writing a Novel with an Unreliable Narrator
• In a Grove (short story summary) by Ryunosuke Akutagawa (not yet in the public domain)
• The King in Yellow Critical Essays