Notes of a Dirty Old Man
The underground newspaper column where this mode of Bukowski prose was invented.
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Tales of Ordinary Madness
The stories that made France love him first — half of the notorious 1972 collection, under the title the world kept.
- 1983
- Savage
- Hallucinatory
- Wry
- autobiographical
- challenging
- filthy
- episodic
- dark
About Charles Bukowski
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeTales of Ordinary Madness, published by City Lights in 1983, collects half of Charles Bukowski's 1972 story collection Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness, which City Lights divided into two volumes — this one and The Most Beautiful Woman in Town. The stories are the wildest form of Bukowski's prose: drunks, prostitutes, madmen, writers, and Los Angeles landlords, told with a looseness the novels discipline. In French, as Contes de la folie ordinaire, the collection helped make Bukowski famous in France before America caught up — and an Italian film adaptation arrived in 1981, directed by Marco Ferreri, before this English edition existed.
The story, in more detail
The stories run from autobiographical sketches barely fictionalized to grotesque invention: racetrack afternoons, drunk tanks, sexual disasters, and writers behaving badly at readings. The register swings between the comic and the genuinely disturbing, sometimes inside one story — this is Bukowski with the novel's structural restraints removed.
The collection's publication history is its own story. The 1972 original appeared from City Lights under the title Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness; in 1983 City Lights split that volume in two, and the halves have circulated under the split titles since. The French translation of the material, Contes de la folie ordinaire, was central to Bukowski's European fame in the late 1970s.
Themes and analysis
Sneed beside the sea
The beach gives Sneed room to remember without freeing him from the habit of measuring his life as a failure. His remaining money becomes a cruel summary of sixty years, while the young people's mockery turns that inward judgment into a public spectacle. Yet their questions about whether he is human expose the brutality of the judges rather than proving his worthlessness. The narration has already given readers access to memories and perceptions the group refuses to acknowledge. Their laughter cannot cancel the person the story has allowed us to accompany.
Mrs Conners brings soup
Mrs Conners's offer interrupts the story's cruelty with an ordinary act of care, but the narration refuses an easy rescue. Her confidence in the soup contrasts with Sneed's silent inspection of it; the gap between giver and recipient remains even while she tries to help. He thanks her, then disposes of it privately. The scene does not make her another tormentor. Instead, its restraint shows kindness failing to reach someone whose withdrawal is already profound. The returning sound of the sea links his last solitude to the opening landscape.
Why we recommend it
The stories at full wildness
Without the novels' autobiographical spine, the prose goes where the poems and novels do not — funnier, uglier, and stranger.
The making of the French Bukowski
This is the book, in translation, that French readers knew him by when he landed in Paris in 1978.
Short fiction beyond the novels
The separate stories allow abrupt changes of narrator and situation that a sustained Chinaski novel cannot accommodate as freely.
What this book explores
Timeline
1972
City Lights publishes the original combined collection under its full title.
1981
Marco Ferreri's film adaptation appears, with Ben Gazzara.
1983
City Lights splits the 1972 volume; Tales of Ordinary Madness takes the title the world keeps.
Book editions
Paperback
- Paperback
- City Lights Books
- 1972
- Paperback
- City Lights Books
- 1983
- 9780872861558
Reader reviews
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Tales of Ordinary Madness: frequently asked questions
What is Tales of Ordinary Madness?
A collection of Charles Bukowski's wildest short stories — drunks, madmen, writers and Los Angeles low life — published by City Lights in 1983 as half of his 1972 collection Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness, which was split into two volumes.
What happened to the original 1972 collection?
City Lights divided it in 1983 into Tales of Ordinary Madness and The Most Beautiful Woman in Town; the two split volumes have carried the stories since.
Why does this book matter to Bukowski's French fame?
Its French translation, Contes de la folie ordinaire, was one of the books that made him a cult figure in France in the late 1970s — the readership that brought him to Paris in September 1978.
Is there a film called Tales of Ordinary Madness?
Yes — Marco Ferreri's 1981 film, with Ben Gazzara playing a Bukowski-like poet, adapted the material two years before this English split edition appeared.
Are the stories autobiographical?
Some are barely fictionalized sketches from Bukowski's life; others are grotesque invention. The collection swings between the two without labeling which is which.
Is there a film of Tales of Ordinary Madness?
Yes — Marco Ferreri's 1981 Italian production, released in the United States in 1983, with Ben Gazzara playing a poet named Charles Serking. Bukowski disliked the result, though it won four David di Donatello awards in Italy.
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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 Tales of Ordinary Madness, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1Charles Bukowski (Poetry Foundation)
WebsiteUsed forBiographical and bibliographic backbone: the career arc, the Black Sparrow relationship, and the book's place in it.
2Charles Bukowski timeline (bukowski.net)
WebsiteUsed forPublication dates, publishers, and chronology checked against the bukowski.net timeline.
3Charles Bukowski: books and chapbooks (Verdant Press checklist)
WebsiteUsed forBibliographic details cross-checked against the Verdant Press checklist.
4Tales of Ordinary Madness — edition record
Official recordOpen Library, Internet ArchiveUsed forOfficial record used to verify names, dates, institutional details, or other factual information on this page.
5A Dollar and 20 Cents — Roland 5 reprint
WebsiteInstitute of Contemporary Arts, 2010Used forComplete reprint of A Dollar and 20 Cents in Roland 5, printed pp. 28–30; not a collation of the complete collection.
i
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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