âÂÂCharlie in the House of Rueâ is a work of short fiction by Robert Coover originally appearing in chapbook form by Penmaen Press (1980) and first collected in ' (1987) by Simon & Schuster.
âÂÂCharlie in the House of Rueâ is told in the third-person by a reliable narrator.
The story opens as CharlieâÂÂpresumably Charlie Chaplin of the silent film eraâÂÂenters a movie set representing a grand manor house and begins helping himself to food, liquor and cigars. He discovers that the domestic staff and visitors, rather than behaving as classic comic figures, are withdrawn, preoccupied or hostile. Charlie is at pains to enlist them in funny routines, and his increasingly desperate efforts lead to deaths and disasters.
Rather than ending in triumph for the Little Tramp, the comedian is demoralized and crushed by his failure.
The âÂÂCharlieâ in the titleâÂÂthough unnamedâÂÂis comedian and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin of silent film era fame. Rather than eliciting laughter through a series of slapstick routines, Charlie finds that all his efforts to entertain end in grotesque and bloody homicides. The corpses finally induce expressions of mirth from the audience. According to critic Thomas E. Kennedy âÂÂ[T]he piece evokes true existential terror in a world of timeless repetitions and unpredictable transmutations.â Charlie, as the Little Tramp, is utterly dismayed at his predicament and bitterly weeps.