Monday, October 22, 2012
Your review
Write a review (max. 350 words) of a short story. Briefly summarize the story (without giving anything away), then focus on the elements you find interesting to comment upon, such as point of view, characters / characterization, plot, style, effects, etc. Finish by giving your honest opinion and don't forget to sign your name! Feel free to comment on your classmates' reviews. (due by November 13th, but try not to leave it until the last minute!)
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Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteToday I'm going to talk about The Masque of the Red Death, written by Edgar Allan Poe.
In the reign of Prince Prospero, the Red Death rages in the country. Scarlet stains appear on the body and especially upon the face of every victims.
Although his dominions are half depopulated due to this disease, the Prince decides to invite a thousand of friends in one of his fortified abbeys. They would stay there, with musicians, dancers, buffoons and wine, all protected from the outside. The external world could take care of itself.
The inside of this abbey is organized as a maze, it reflects perfectly the prince's love of the bizarre. There are seven rooms, where windows are made of stained glass and whose color varies in accordance with the color of the chamber into which it opens. The only exception is for the last one, that is covered in black velvet tapestries, though the panes are deep blood. At the occasion of a magnificent masked bal, when the gigantic clock strikes midnight, a mysterious bloodstained man appears in the black and red chamber…
This is a gothic novel, the action takes place in an abbey. The atmosphere remains macabre and grim owing to the initial situation, Poe’s vocabulary and the weirdness of this place.
Unlike The Black Cat, The Masque of the Red Death is neither a moral story nor an ironic text. Here Poe uses a lot of symbolism.
I found this novel very captivating. And don't forget the life is sometimes a masked ball...
Hope you’ll like it if you read it!
Noémie Vabres
Hello everyone,
ReplyDeleteI'm going to tell you a few things about "Skeleton in the cupboard", which was written by T.Wilmot. It is one of the easiest one to read from our book but I really liked it so I thought it would be great to share my point of view with you.
Robert was a middle-aged man who's life is quite simple. He lived in a quiet city, had a nice spouse and worked as a civil servant. For several days now, he had been exchanging plesantries with a really nice twenty-ish girl, sitting on a bench in a park during lunchtime. But one day, they started to talk about their respective job and the girl turned out not to be originating from the city. She was actually there because she was tracing someone. As she reavealed the clues that she had collected about that person, Robert began to feel a bit uncomfortable, and for a good reason : He knew exactly who she was looking for, and he was very close to this person…
The beginning of the story is really engaging. It looks like it is going to be a cute story but as you read, you begin to understand that something is wrong with Robert. The author gets the reader to understand that there is something unclear but he doesn't tell what immediately, which builds up suspense and wait.
The point of view used in this short story is Robert's, but it is a third person point of view. This choice is really accurate because we can feel his guilt growing through the story, but we have to be really active about the investigation because we doesn't know anything about what the girl thinks.
In addition to that, this point of view puts the reader in the "bad guy's" mind, which feels a bit strange. This makes me feel of "The Black Cat"
Finally, the end of the this short story is the icing on the cake ! An unexpected twist appears and you're left there, not knowing what to think !
To some up, I find this short story really interesting, and I hope I made you want to read it !
Hello everybody!
ReplyDeleteFor my review, I’ve chosen another Roald DAHL’s short story entitled “Man from the south”, it’s quite short (less than 5000 words) and even if it can look trivial at the first glance, you realize that this is absolutely not!
Before I begin, I draw a short summary: all you have to know is that this story is all about bets, little fingers, and a Cadillac, the rest is already in the title.
First, Roald DAHL introduces his characters with both direct and indirect characterization. He builds a precise physical description, but for the rest, you have to guess with the behaviors, dialogues seen through a first-person point of view and I have to say; this is really interesting for the reader, this kind of autonomy, which gives you the possibility to analyze things by yourself.
Secondly, the author uses the dialogues accurately, because he doesn’t hesitate to change the words according to the character’s pronunciation, and as a result it’s quite funny to read it aloud. As well, he uses it very frequently, I’m sure that half of the story is composed of dialogues and it makes the reading easier to understand, this way it’s more pleasant to read because it gives more balance between descriptions and dialogues.
Then, DAHL regroups here a lot of the qualities of a good short story. He confines the story in a short amount of time; he makes appear only a few characters thereby it’s pretty easy to understand the thread of the story, and the sequence of events.
Finally, as in every short story the ending is the most interesting part, this end is really intense, naturally you read the last lines faster and louder. It’s really realistic: less description, more severity, phrases became shorter and shorter.
Thus, like in lot of his short stories, Roald DAHL choses to write an open end. This technique extends the suspense, and gives the reader an opportunity to wonder about the situation. Moreover I have noticed that the stylistic devices are quite the same than in “The Landlady”.
I liked it very much, it’s really “light”, and makes you travel in Jamaica , in a word : approved !
Here is the link, if you want to read it online: http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/south.html
Hi everybody! Today I’m going to talk about the « skeleton in the cupboard » by Tony Wilmot.
ReplyDeleteThis is the story of Robert Smythe, a middle-aged man and a civil servant who meets a girl each day at the park. They don’t really know each other: their name, job, situation, place where they come from; they are just talking. Little by little Robert discovers that the girl is doing some strange researches, a MG sports car, a name, a wedding... These studies remind him his past, a dark evening, an unfamiliar route, a scream. He was in his MG when the accident happened. The MG the girl is searching. But something he doesn’t know is that his wife also has a secret.
One point I found interesting is dialogues. Most of the time it is direct speech but one of the sentence (often the last one) is indirect speech. After the dialogue, there is a move: the girl leaves, the man does an action. That gives the feeling of the departure. It is a third-person point of view and an internal focalization. Indeed we are in the head of Robert but it’s “he”.
This story is one of my favorite. The way it is written, the suspense. We really understand at the last sentence the story. When I first read it the horror of the end stayed in my mind for hours, I couldn’t stop my brain to think about it!
I hope you will also like this story
Flavie Gaillard
Hi everyone !
ReplyDeleteFor my review, I took the liberty of choosing another Edgar Allan Poe's novel, which very closely reminds me of "The Black Cat", namely "The Tell-Tale Heart". Not only does the as usual nameless, unreliable and first-person narrator share his story for the very purpose of proving to the reader, as well as to himself, that he is absolutely not insane, while it actually only reveals how deeply perversed is his mind and how mentally imbalanced he is, but he also proves, by the very struggle he must endure, slowly, but steadily feeling more and more the urge to kill that the whole notion of humanity is ineluctably linked to the notion of evil.
Poe's trying to confront the reader with the possibility of evil at the core of every human, a part of us so powerful that nobody can consider himself beyond of its reach, every single human being may find himself facing it sooner or later.
The narrator's insistence upon his sanity is almost ironic because his denial of madness, proven by the minute description of his actions and the precision of every move he makes, is actually a rational explanation for a completely irrational behavior, which is the ultimate evidence of his insanity.
Furthermore, the narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" killed the old man for no other reason than to finally stop seeing his blinded eye that became his obsession, although he has, apart from that, nothing against him. The way the narrator's trying to achieve his dark aim and going from that executing his crime would never even cross the mind of a sane person, but his terrible paranoia overtakes his morals that slip through his fingers as quickly as he falls into dementia.
Edgar Allan Poe depicts the horrible crescendo that makes the sanity of the narrator fade day by day with such acuteness that we can almost sense it deep within ourselves. And what brings the final touch to the story is the incessant beating of the old man's heart that even death cannot still ...
To all those who felt lust for more fulfillment when ending "The Black Cat",
I hope you will enjoy reading this short story just as much as I did,
Nicole Rychter.
Hi everybody ! I am going to tell you about " Robot dreams " by Isaac Asimov .
ReplyDeleteLinda Rash, a young scientist, creates a new type of robot brain in order to obtain a brain more complex, closer to the human one. She knows she will be stopped if she tells someone about it so she doesn't. But when Elvex, the robot, starts dreaming, she decides to consult Dr Calvin, a legend in robot science. They discover Elvex doesn't only dream of robots working and obeying to human beings but also of robots wanting to protect themselves, to be free ...
This short story consists of a single dialogue between the two doctors and Elvex. It doesn't last more than one hour. That shows how fastly the " problem " of Elvex's dreams is resolved.
Isaac Asimov uses only direct speech; he puts the reader as an external observer. We are not active at all, we just see and hear what is happening. This external point of view makes us feel powerless.
I loved this story because it conveys strong messages such as freedom and individual thinking. Issac Asimov makes us ask ourselves what does humanity mean ; if we are considered as human beings because we are flesh and blood people or because we are able to think by ourselves and to have feelings.
I really enjoy this short story and I hope you will too even if I found the end was not surprising enough .
Hi everyone !
ReplyDeleteI've just finished reading "Skeleton in the cupboard" by Tony Wilmot.
We enter the life of Robert Smythe, a civil servant (who, however his job, seems quite fearful ) of a quiet city. His daily seems to be one of the most common. At one point near. Actually, he's used meeting a twenty-ish girl at the park. But Robert begin to show a certain interest -even thought she's very attractive- when the woman tells him she's trying to trace someone. That interest rapidly changes in a bad premonition when he discovers that the requested person is closely linked to him. And according to him, he has good reasons to be worried..
I've noticed that Flavie and Lea, who have read the same story as me, had a very positive opinion of it and I'm not surprised at all!
First, the author always succeeds, thanks to efficient shifts, to make us focusing on each event, what creates a pace that leads us up to the last page without that we see time passing !
Secondly, I think the point of view chosen is hugely important in that genre : here, it's the 3rd person. Moreover, the intern focalization based on the protagonist's feelings contributes to make us feel as uncomfortable as him -and it works really good, trust me! Plus, it hold ours breath until the last word.
When I've finally discovered the key of the plot, I was happy to have survive (Because, you know, it's unfortunately not the case of everybody ) !
A thing that could seem strange to you, I thought the title was really engaging.. I'm sure you'll understand all the meaning of it when you would have finished to read it.
Even if I'm found of detective story, that one capted my attention because we are in the heart of the situation and have to be the detectives.
In conclusion, I'd say that the "Skeleton in the cupboard" is a must.
Hope you'll enjoy too !
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi everyone,
ReplyDeleteI hesitated quite a long time before chosing a short story, because we all know there are millions of them ! How to choose ?
I knew that one of the short story's goal, was moral. Moral, as a message behind the story. So i chose Oscar Wilde's "Devoted Friend."
The author introduces two symbolic characters that are supposed to be best friends, Hugh the Miller and Little Hans. Hans was a good, simple, innocent, hardworking and helpful man. On the contrary, Hugh was callous, greedy, and extremely selfish fellow. The Miller always claimed he was Hanses best and most devoted friend. But his behavior was quite contrary to his claim. Indeed, the Miller kept asking Hans to run any random errand he could possibly think of, and Hans was so happy to have such a Devoted Friend, that all he wanted to do was to please Hugh, by complying with his desires.
For a long time, the selfish and uncaring Miller kept exploiting little Hans. All he had to do was use charming words and expressions about true friendship, but he never acted as so. Poor Hans, living with nothing more than his house and his garden, believed each and every word the Miller said, without ever noticing neither the selfishness of his fellow, nor the fact that he never gave little Hans anything in return of his help. Sometimes Hugh would send Hans to the town market to sell a heavy bag of flour, or tell him to take the sheeps in the mountain. Often he would ask Hans to do some repair work at the barn, or help him at the flourmill.And Hans willingly did everything without any resentment, because he would of rather died than displease his “best friend”.
Once, Hugh came knocking on Hans door, explaining that his little boy had fell, and that Hans had to go and alert the doctor, who lived in another village. As usual, Hans obeyed, and there he went, in the middle of a deadly cold and windy night, fetching the doctor. On his way back, Little Hans lost his way and stranded in the hill tracts. He kept running in directions vainly, and happened to fall into a deep ditch, and drown.
The next morning, all the village was present for Little Hanse’s funeral. Hugh led the general procession, still claiming he was his only true friend.
Once again, Oscar Wilde wrote a perfectly written, and full of sense, short story. I think he reached his goal of hiding a message behind the story. Satire is present in this story, on the so-called devoted friendship. It reveals to the reader the real concept of true friendship, which is a relationship based on mutual honesty, mutual respect, and mutual interest. It has no room for selfishness, cruelty nor foolishness. We can judge by the story that neither Hugh the Miller neither Little Hans knew what real friendship was.
At the very end of the story, the narrator intervenes, and clearly explains that his story was a moral story, and that even him thinks that it’s very difficult to recant. Because, not everybody shares this point of view, so how can you try to convince a person something that person doesn’t believe in, or is not okay with ? You can’t.
If you have the opportunity to read it, I hope you do, because it’s short, classic, interesting and extremely realistic.
Milla
Hi Everyone !
ReplyDeleteI have chosen to tell you "The birds poised to fly", written by Patricia Highsmith, which you can find in the "10 short stories" book.
First of all, let me sum up the story and introduce you the characters. Don, a rather young man living in the U.S.A, is truly in love with Rosalind,a European woman he met twice in his life : once in New York, two years ago, and a month ago in France. Back from Europe, he immediatly wrote to her, asking her to marry him and telling her that he wanted to spend his life with her. But a while has now gone by, and no letter has come back. Although trying not to worry and giving Rosalind excuses not to have time to answer him (she was moving from Rome to Paris when he left her), Don just can't take his mind of the return of the letter, and starts wondering whether he has been too hasty... And yet, he keeps checking his mailbox morning and evening, with each day new letters but no one from Rosalind. One day, he noticed that there have been three letters in the box next to his since the previous day. During the day, the idea that the letters might have been put in the wrong box comes to him. The evening, coming back from work, he checks again his mailbox, and notices that the three letters are still untouched in his neighbor's box. One looks like an airmail envolepe from Europe. He decides to take it : it is indeed a love letter, but...
I'll let you know the end by reading it yourself, hoping that it made you want to know more about this story !
The story is told at the third person, and it is the internal point of view of Don. I thought that story was really sensitive, because it is about someone being in love and waiting for an answer.
The author builds up suspense through the story, we are waiting for the denouement to know who was the recipiend of the letter, and what is Don going to do. It is not a story of action but it shows what can sometimes be the hard part of being in love, and we truly understand the narator's feelings and acts.
I hope you'll like it !
Médélice.
Hi everyone !
ReplyDeleteI chose to present The nightingale and the rose by Oscar Wilde, a story I used to read when I was a child and that really liked, but I think it's still very interesting to comment on it now, because Oscar Wilde's tales are so special they can be read at any age.
The story starts in the room of a young student, crying because the girl he's in love with won't go to the ball with him. Indeed, she would've agreed on the condition that he brings her a red rose. But in the poor boy's garden, there is not a single red rose. Fortunatly, a little nightingale hears his mourns and is touched by his love for this girl, so it decides to help. The bird flies all around the gardens, asking every flower, every little animal if they know where to find a red rose, however, there are many roses, some are white or yellow, but none are red. At the end of the day, the nightingale finds a dead rose tree beneath the student's window, and asks one last time the same thing «Give me a red rose, and I will sing you my sweetest song. »
Surprisingly, the tree's roses are red, but winter's killed the plant, and it won't have any flowers before a long time. The bird begs so much the tree can't help but offer to the nightingale a terrible solution : it can make one single red rose, but for this, the bird has to sing all night, with its breast against a thorn, its blood has to run into the veins of the tree so it can come alive again, when the day comes, there will be a rose, but the nightingale will die. It's a terrible choice the bird has to do, still, it decides to sacrifice itself because « Love is better than Life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man? ».
I saw Milla did another Oscar Wilde short story, and this one is pretty much in the same spirit as hers. Oscar Wilde focuses through the tale on human flaws, denounces their selfishness and how easily they change their mind about something they once held on so dear. The end is truly heartbreaking, for during almost all the story you follow the nightingale in its desperate quest to help the student have his red rose and conquer his love, but in the end (I think I can tell you, you might have guessed Ocar Wilde was not really the optimistic kind) its sacrifice is useless. The author made all the characters, even though they are few, very vivid for the reader, you can't help but feel a great pity for the poor little bird or a burning hate for the student and his vain girl. In the end you almost always think about the questions this moral is asking : we must have all been the student at least once in our lives, other people did everything they could, made sacrifices for us, to get us something we wanted so hard, but we ended up throwing it away without realizing how much it meant to those people. As always, it's beautifully written, in avery poetic style, yet not too heavy, and you can't stop once you've started.
Hope this will make you want to read it !
Here's the link: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/NigRos.shtml
Hi everyone !
ReplyDeleteI chose to write about "Thief" from Robley Wilson. I found it into the "10 short stories". At first, when you read it, it's a bit embarrassing because it's jigsaw reading. That means you have to mentally put the story in order so it was a bit more "distracting" than a normal story.
This short story takes place in an airport's terminal and the 3 main characters are 3 travellers. We don't know their name but we recognise them by their appearance. Their is one man who is the main character and two girl : a brunette and a blonde. The narrator is the guy who has been stolen. Unfortunately, the brunette who he was trying to charm ripped off his wallet with all his credits card inside. After a while, he meets her again, she is reading a magazine. He sat next to her and she pretends that she doesn't know him, he knows that's not true so he asks her to give back the wallet.
She gives back a wallet but it's not the correct one. At this point, a chase starts in the airport. The man is running after the brunette when he hears a female voice saying " Stop thief, Stop that man !" Someone reacts very quickly and puts out a foot to trim him, he is totally confuse.
For me, the main interest of the story is the jigsaw reading but I was confused as well at the end of the story because it's not very clear ( or maybe I didn't understand). Anyway, I found it interesting but not enough to recommend it. If you like brainteasers, you'll be pleased with this story. The vocab is easy to understand, and the style isn't too complicated. It's a third person narrator with an internal focalization.
Bryan Blanchot
hi everyone!
ReplyDeleteI thought a very long time about which short story I could talk about. I've only read a few short stories in my entire life. But my mom bought me, without knwoing It would be very useful for my work, a book with three short stories written by Oscar Wild (thanks to her!!). I chose to present you "The Happy Prince" ;
A swallow who was rejected by a coquettish reed (yes, a reed!), found some comfort between a statue's feet. After a moment, he realized that the statue was actually alive and crying above him. The swallow asked him the reason of his tears. there the statue explained that before he was a prince who lived all his life in a castle where he couldn't see the world around him, and where everything was so beautiful that he never knew sadness and pain. This is why everybody called him the Happy Prince. But now, he was the statue of his memory, and he could see the ugliness of a world he never saw. He wasn't happy anymore and couldn't stop crying. the swallow grown fond of him and did what the statue commanded him when he wanted the swallow to take jewels off of his body and give it to the poors.
before meeting the Happy Prince, the swallow was selfish and only cared about his own skills, but he began minding about misery and the importance of loving others.
It is the same for the statue; the more the statue lost in unneeded property, the more he gained in humanness.
It is a wonderful story about friendship between a swallow and a statue, written in a juvenile literature way. At first sight, it might seem childish, however, it is one of the best story I've read for now.
This happy-sorrowful ending left me full of mixed feelings; sad because of the selfishness of humans and glad that the swallow and the Happy Prince stay together forever. ( right now I have chills all over my body just thinking about it!)
hope you enjoyed my summary and made you wanting to read it!
bye bye! I'm looking forward to see you all!!
Valentine Raimbault
Hello everybody!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading "The Black Cat" in class, I wanted to know more about Edgar Allen Poe's style. This is why I decided to read "The Tell-Tale Heart" which I’m going to talk to you about today.
In an unknown setting, we are led to listen to a narrator trying to convince us that he is not mad, before telling us his story. Actually, he was often confronted to a man’s pale blue eye covered by a film (veil). Indeed, this eye that looked just like a vulture’s made him feel so uncomfortable that he wanted to get rid of it forever by taking the old man’s life. And once that idea came to his mind, it started to haunt him day and night! That poor old man had done nothing to him, but just his eye ran his blood cold. And one night, he is going to do something that will haunt him maybe even more…
You will find what that is in the book (that you can find in “10 Short-stories”).
What I found interesting about that book is that we can find a lot of things that are really similar to “The Black Cat”.
Firstly, in each short story, the narrators are extremely similar. Both of them try to convince us that they are not insane, they are anonymous, they have an internal focalization and can be considered as unreliable and finally, they both have the desire of killing.
Secondly, the setting isn’t given and we don’t have any information about the characters.
Lastly, if you want to find more similarities, you can read the book.
To finish, I found that book very well written and easier to read than “The Black Cat”. I loved the story, once I had started it, I couldn’t stop reading it and I really wanted to know the end. I was lucky the book was only five-page long!
I hope that I made you want to read the book and that if you read it, you’ll like it!
Tom.
Hello everyone !
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I’m willing to share my opinion about one of the short story I read during the vacation which is the Skeleton in the Cupboard by Tony Wilmot. Actually, it was the first time I ever read something written by this renowned novelist. I ought to aknowledge that I really like it, that was a peculiar but nonetheless orginal story settled in a harmless, calm atmosphere. However, step by step, we came up with the conclusion that under the apparences,everyone has “a skeleton in the cupboard”. What’s more, I enjoy the fact that the ending is, actually, really unexpected; all along the story, the writter keeps ups breathless, and manage the suspens and the mystere. The story is more or less focused on a so-called “ordinary, normal” couple who reveals to have a rather complicated past. The protagonist is Robert Smythe, middle-aged man, working hard at the Vehicle registration Department, we can literaly say that he has a simple, flawless life. He lives in a leafy suburb on the outskrits of town with a charming spouse. Nevertheless, since several days, he’s flirting, exchanging pleasantries with a young, handsome woman who doubtlessly is twenty years younger than Robert. Once, when they were talking, the woman revealed her design on coming to Elmston, she was, in fact, doing some research about a person whose criterions fit perfectly to Robert’s ones. On top of that, she mentioned that she’s required to trot herself twenty years back, when the event took place. Queer coincedence, twenty years, an eery and outrageous thing has turned Robert upside-down. Is our protagonist really innocent ? In order to have a clear mind about it, Robert made up his mind to track her down, as the woman’s investigations are starting to get fruitful, one the contraty, Robert is beginning to fear for his own life. All along the book, we are able to see how the mistake a man once did, will pursue him and lead him to commit the unfixable sin. As the story goes on, we will find out that he’s not the only one to have a heavy past.
As far as I’m concerned, I really appriciate this story, the denouement is unpredictable,unexpected and last, but not least, interesting. Fruther more, the narrator is external which is, to my mind, a great thing for such a story. It means that we can trust the narrator, he’s reliable. And still, the point of view is definitely internal due to the fact that we’re constantly in Robert’s thoughts and mind except in the end, when we’re able to enter his spouse’s thoughts . As a matter of fact, I like it, it’s really useful and helpful for us to have Robert’s point of view, in a certain way, it aids us to figure out the events and the way the personnages react. Moroever, the personnage of Robert is a bit complex due to the fact that he’s reacting rather odd, comparing to the others. The plot is intersting and keeps the reader sticks to the book.
Thus, I, honestly, advice you to read this novel. Hope you will enjoy the rest of your vacation !
Macha
Hey everybody ! :D
ReplyDeleteLike many of you, I have read "Skeleton in the cupboard", written by Tony Wilmot.
This story recounts a short period in the life of a middle-aged man named Robert. He is like any other average person who is married, works as a civil servant and lives a very basic and simple life, except for a detail that he prefers not showing...
Since a few days, he was meeting up with a twenty-ish year old young lady at the park. They started seeing each other during their mid-day break.
Robert knew more and more about the girl and was helping her with an investigation on which she was working ; she was tracing someone.
When the man discovered the details and clues that the young lady had collected and was studying, he began feeling uncomfortable, awkward and guilty in her presence. Indeed, he knows very well who she is trying to trace...
( I personally loved this short and easy to read story because of the building up of suspense and the unexpected twist as an ending, where we discover the whole truth. )
Enjoy ! ;) ( If you still haven't read it )
Eloïse.
Hi everyone!
ReplyDeleteThe short story I've chosen to write about is "Next door", written by Kurt Vonnegut.
The story takes place in an old house divided into two flats by a wall as thin as paper and occupied by two families: the Hargers and the Leonards. The latter is composed of the parents and their eight-year-old son named Paul.
One night, while his parents let him alone to go to the movie, he hears from the other flat a man and a woman fighting and trying to mask their noises with the radio. Since they become more and more violent, Paul asks them to stop. However, they keep arguing and Paul tries to find a way to stop them. He will realize later that it isn't a good idea.
Vonnegut used the third-person point of view and we enter in Paul's mind. I think it was a good choice because we see how an eight-year-old boy can face this situation.
There are many dialogues which make the story easier to understand and follow.
All along the course of the story I was wondering what was happening next door and I was surprised when I finally understood what happened there.
I really like the end of the story: indeed the last sentence is very humorous.
To conclude, I found the story very good and easy to read, so I recommend it to you.
I hope you'll enjoy it!
Lucie
Hi everybody !
ReplyDeleteApparently I’m not the only one who has chosen « Skeleton in the cupboard »’s short story to talk about, however it remains one of my favorite short stories so I decided not to change my mind !
The story is written by contemporary author ‘Tony Wilmot ». It deals with a fully random meeting between a young girl, aged in the twenties, and a middle aged man, whom have more in common than they ever expected. They meet on a public bench and start to discuss. They accomplish the same routine every following day. The young lady teaches the man that she is looking for somebody. And it becomes clearer and clearer to the man that he is not completely stranger to the clues she has accumulated. That is where the man starts panicking : in effect he has got a dark secret nobody should ever discover…
In my opinion the fall of the story was cleaverly conceived as it was nowhere near predictable. For this the author has done a great job with the use of main characters, point of view, and narration in the story.
The narrator is one of the main characters : the middle aged man. The only other character at the start of the story is the young girl. The man is the center of attention : The whole story is written from his point of view, he is the one that appears the most in the story, and the title « skeleton in the cupboard » is even realted to his past. For which we tend to think the whole plot revolves around this character. And here is where Wilmot surprises us : comes in a third character, who seems perfectly innocent, and of whom we don’t really hear of. She’s a secondary character and we first think of her as part of the story’s background, but we then discover the importance of the role she plays in the plot. We also learn that the narrator is only secondary to the plot. Something we could never have guessed !
To finish with the story is pleasant to read, clear and untertaining. Be sure to have a nice time and a good laugh ! Well done to Tony Wilmot !
Charline
Hey everyone,
ReplyDeleteSo today I am going to talk about a short story I read called the Skeleton in the Cupboard, written by Tony Wilmot. This short story is quite easy to read and engaging.
The story takes place in quiet town. A young man called Robert, is meeting a girl every day since a week while while his lunchtime break, they talk about their life. The girl is quite young but seems to be investigating on her sister's death, she’s actually looking for someone in this town that could be her sister’s murderer. She tells this story to Robert but he becomes a bit distrustful; it reminds him something, feeling like he knows this person very well…
The story begins as if it was going to be a calm and simple story but actually the more you read, the more you feel like Robert is weird in many ways. The suspense is
well managed because even if this is Robert's point of view, you know he tries to hide something from this girl. You can feel Robert's guiltiness growing as you turn the pages, and the story becoming more and more gruesome. The end is quite unexpected and we don't really know what to think of it. The author's style is really clear and mere, that makes the reader understand well.
On the whole I enjoyed this short story, I found it quaint and easy to understand. I hope you'll like it if you read it!
Emma
Mrs Bixby and the Colonel's Coat
ReplyDeleteBy Roald Dahl (1960)
Hi everybody !
I am going to present you a short story written by Dahl « Mrs Bixby and the Colonel's Coat », that I discovered when I studied it at school last year and which I loved(anyway I love all of Roald Dahl's works!).
There are a lot of women like Mrs Bixby on earth : a nice American woman of the upper-middle class, married, without children. Actually, that is what people could think about her when they pass Mrs Bixby in the street ; but that is only appearance : how many of those women had a rich lover, a Colonel, living in Baltimore, and told their husbands they visited their sweet Aunt Maude every month ? As a matter of fact, that was what Mrs Bixby did, once a month, on a Friday evening, she took the train at Pennsylvania Station to Baltimore, spent the night at her « aunt's » and came back to New York the following day. Mr Bixby, a dentist, never wanted to go to Baltimore with his wife, who didn't insist, because « after all, she is not your aunt. She's mine. ». This relationship lasted for eight years. A little before Christmas, when Mrs Bixby was going to take the train back to New York City, the Colonel's groom brought her a box. As soon as she could, Mrs Bixby went to the ladies’ restroom, in order to open the packet out of sight. She had done well : a beautiful mink coat lay within the box. A short letter accompanied it, explaining to the lady that was the last time they had seen each other, and she could accept this present as a parting gift. Mrs Bixby just had the time to get over this break-up before she had to imagine the perfect plan to justify the possession of such an item to her husband.
In this short story, the narrator comments the action as an omniscient narrator, but often with the internal characterization of Mrs Bixby.
Roald Dahl uses a lot of irony, for instance the way he describes all the characters who are all caricatures. If the beginning of the story is mainly a description, after the discovery of the coat, the rhythm of the plot intensifies, and the author creates suspense with new twists which slow down the unraveling of the problem. You just can't stop reading without knowing what Mrs Bixby has imagined to hide the coat, because of course, even if we are in her mind, we don't know what she is going to do.
This short story is very easy and pleasant to read and the end is as unexpected as it is logical.
That is the talent of Roald Dahl,I hope you appreciate it as much as I do if you read the story of Mrs Bixby !
Zoe Ferdjani
Hi everyone !
ReplyDeleteI’ve chosen to talk about « The tell-Tale heart » by Edgar Allan Poe which I found in the “10 short stories” book.
In the first place, this story is about a man (the narrator) with a furious desire to kill an old man however he likes for the sole purpose of not having to endure his gaze anymore. Indeed, he has blue bright eyes which freeze the narrator’s blood. To achieve his purpose, he goes in the old man’s bedroom every night to observe him until the fateful night when he decides to end.
This short story reminds me of “The Black cat” by Edgar Allan Poe too because here again, the narrator tries to convince the reader that he’s not mad at all, it’s only an uncontrollable obsession that pushed him to do certain things.
Nevertheless, at the end of the story, we can notice that the narrator has become totally mad.
As to the style, as well as “The black cat”, the narrator speaks at the first-person and it’s a first-person point of view. He’s quite unreliable because he attempts to prove that is not mad but through his actions, we discovered that he does a lot of crazy things for no reason. We have a direct description of the old man which is brief and concern especially his eyes.
To my mind, it’s still a win bet for the author who has created a short story with a lot of suspense and excitement for the reader. Moreover, the end is quite unpredictable.
Hope you like it!
Manon
Hi everyone!
ReplyDeleteI’m going to talk about the short story called « Desirée’s baby » written by Kate Chopin which is in the "10 short stories" book.
The text deals with a young woman who had been found by the Valmondé’s family when she was of the toddling age; the belief was that she had been purposely left by Texans. At the age of eighteen, Armand Aubigny (a proud man in the area, coming from an important family), who knew her before, suddenly fell in love with her. Afterwards, they married and had a son. However, one day, it occurred to them that their three-months-old baby was not exactly as they expected, reminding them Désirée’s obscure origins.
The story is told by an unknown narrator, with the third-person point of view and an internal focalization. Furthermore, the narrator captures the reader’s interest during the whole story which is, in my opinion, engrossing and a bit stirring.
In this short story, the writer explores racial discrimination and pride which is in this case, more important than love. Indeed, this story takes place during the slavery period and at the time, people who were not white were considered as slaves or not as human.
To conclude, I might say that the family name doesn’t make you who you are; it’s up to you to be yourself despite your conditions.
If you have free time, don’t hesitate to read it, it is very short, exciting and make you think a lot!
Pernilla
Hi everybody!
ReplyDeleteI have quite long hesitated which short story I will choose between “The Tell-Tale heart” by Edgar Allan Poe and “Robot Dreams” written by Isaac Asimov but finally I’ve chosen the one of Asimov.
In the first place I’m going to summarize this short-story: “Robot Dreams” narrates a futuristic situation between Elvex, a robot, Linda Rash, its creator and Susan Calvin an expert in robotic. Linda, a new scientist, wanted to create a new type of robot brain more complex than the former ones but she knew that the other scientists would disapprove that idea. Therefore she realized Elvex without tell that to anybody. But soon she had to tell to Dr Calvin what she had done because Elvex dreamed: Robots were not supposed to dream. The following of the talk between Dr Calvin and Elvex teaches us that this new high technology brain dreamed of other robots which are slaves of human and that Elvex has no conscience of the three robots’ laws which are “a robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings and robots must protect their own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law” but he just remembers only the third one. Moreover, in his dream he saw a human who wanted to save them and so said “let my people go” and when Susan asked him who was this man Elvex just replies “I am, Dr Calvin”. To make a long story short Elvex was beginning to be a problem, a threat of rebellion. They had to destroy it before he contaminates the other robots.
For this short-story Isaac Asimov used the first point of view and the external focalization which is giving us the impression of being unpowerful like if we can’t act or maybe have our opinion. There are not many characters which lets us focalize on the essential plot. Although this plot is not very original or surprising because there were lots of science fiction stories like that before but the way it is writing and the idea which is evoked is really interesting to focus on.
Like I said, I found this short-story not really surprising but interesting for the question that “Robot Dreams” is evoking me: Is the technology evolution is good for the human being and the humanity?”
I recommend this short-story to all fan of robotic and science fiction!
Enjoy!
Elodie Drai
Hi everyone!
ReplyDeleteToday I’m going to talk about “The Birds Poised To Fly”, by Particia Highsmith, which I’ve found quite interesting.
This story takes place in New York, in the United States of America.
A young man, Don, haven’t got any news about Rosalind, a young woman that he met twice in his life. The first time he met her was in New York, two years ago, and the second time was in France, in Juan-les-Pins.
During this time, Don fell sincerely in love with her. Back home, Don immediately wrote her a letter, where he told her everything he thought, his feelings, and asked her by a letter if she would like to marry him.
Thirteen days have passed, and no answer in his mailbox. Don is terribly anxious, but remains trustful, trying to find Rosalind some excuses. (quite pathetic by the way...)
From this moment, Don became “dangerously” obsessed, checking his mailbox every time that he could.
One day, while checking his mailbox, he started thinking that the letter had probably been put in a wrong box, in one of his neighbor’s box.
This is how he noticed that one of his neighbor’s mailbox contained three letters, since few days, including one which looks like an european letter.
He then decided to opened this mailbox and to took this mysterious letter from a certain Dusenberry.
But this isn’t an answer from Rosalind, but from Edith, a woman who seems to be in the same situation as Don.
I won’t tell you more about this story, I let you discover the end by yourself.
I’d just say that I wasn’t really satisfied about this end, I’ve found it quite disappointing.
Nevertheless, it is really easy to read, and you really want to discover what happened next.
This story is told at the third person, and it’s an internal point of view. Some flashbacks are present too and some moments are written with a letter style.
Gabriel Cautain.
Good afternoon everybody !
ReplyDeleteLike most people here, i chose to talk about the short story by Tony Wilmot, "the Skeleton in the Cupboard" because I tought it was really well written and the plot is great.
It tells the story of a middle-aged man, Robert, who is a civil servant and lives a quiet life. Everyday since a week, Robert meets a young woman in a parc in front of his office, and they talk about their mutual life, their job...soon, Roberts figures out that the young woman is looking for someone, someone that might have killed her sister...
He also find out that she has some clues, like the killer was driving a sport car, or that he lives in this town...clues that reminds him something he wished he had forgot...
I really like this short story, because it's really intriguing and you really want to know the end, from the climax to the resolution.
Hope you liked and see you all tomorrow :).
Hey everybody ! I'm going to talk to you about the short story " Robot dreams " by Isaac Asimov which I've found very appealing.
ReplyDeleteLVX-!, pronounced " Elvex ", is a robot, We do not know what kind of robot it is or what it's functions were in the world, all we know is that this robot has been examined and modified by Dr Linda Rash, a young and unproven robopsychologist. The goal that Dr Rash achieved was to apply fractual geometry to the robot's brain in order to add complexity and therefore render it more human. This use of fractual geometry has never before been performed on a robot and that's what tempted Dr Rash to try it. She wanted to be the first to accomplish this madness, she wanted the explore the depths of robot psychologie and prove to the whole scientist community her true potential. This desire and need for success was burning inside her so much that she bent the rules in her favor, alas, the reaction of the living legend of robot psychologie " Dr Susan Calvin " was less than favorable. When Linda had discovered that the use of fractual geometry had been causing her robot to have dreams she immedeatly alerted Susan Calvin a very accomplished robot psychologist, she disapprooved of Linda's work but at the same time was veru curious of the robot's dreams.
Will Dr Linda keep her job and what will happen to Elvex ?
I strongly advise you to read this excellent short story, I enjoyed it very much and it made me reflect on wether this kind of problem will ever occur in the futur
Nicholas Kunzig
Hi everyone !
ReplyDeleteSo, I decided to write my review on Patricia Highsmith's “The Birds Poised to Fly”.
The story is about a twenty-nine-year-old man called Don who is deeply in love with a girl, Rosalind, whom he had met two years before in New York. At that time, they had been dating for a while but it didn't go any further, since Don thought she had someone else. But then, they met again when they were both on holidays in France and spent five days together, during which he told her he loved her, and she said she loved him too. Afterwards, he went back home and wrote her a letter explaining his feelings for her, telling her he loved her more than everything and wanted to move to Paris (where she lived) and marry her. He then had to wait for her answer. He waited for her answer for days and weeks, but it didn't come, so he tried to think of reasons why she hadn't replied yet. But one day, while he was checking his forever empty mailbox, he saw a letter that seemed to be from Europe in his neighboor's mailbox, and as it had arrived several days before, he broke into it and took the letter. It wasn't from Rosalind, however, he kept it, and the curiosity was so strong he decided to read it, which led him to do something he most certainly shouldn't have...
The story is told by an external narrator but from Don's point of view. It may sound like a annoying cheesy love story, but actually, since Rosalind isn't very present and after a few paragraphs, the other letter and an other story come by, it is quite a nice read. It also has a psychological side, because we see Don living vicariously through Edith, another character who appears later in the story : he tries to control her life to make it the way he wants his own life to be, ending up hurting her and only realising it too late. I really liked the story, except the ending, because I didn't feel like the story was over, and, on my opinion, unlike in “The Landlady”, it doesn't add anything to story.
However, I recommend it to everyone and I don't regret reading it.
Maelle.
Hi everyone, I chose the short story called "The skeleton in the cupboard", written by Tony Wilmot.
ReplyDeleteIt tells the story of a man, Robert Smythe, who is meeting a girl everyday since a week. He soon finds out that this girl is searching for a man who married about 20 years before, and who drove an MG. Roberts begins feeling uncomfortable, because this reminds him a part of his life that he was trying to forget.
Actually, 20 years before, a few days from his wedding, he accidentally killed a little girl on the road. He didn't stop to report the accident so he wasn't caught by the police but was ever after remorseful.
Will this girl find out that the man she is looking for is sitting right next to her ?
What will Robert do to prevent her from telling the police ?
You'll know it if you read this story !
I think this short story is very interseting because of the denouement, which is very unpredictable and funny.
Gaspard
Hi everybody !
ReplyDeleteI'm going to talk about the short story called "The Skeleton in the Cupboard". It's the story of a man called Robert. Every day, at lunchbreak, he meets a girl in a park and talks with her. Their conversations are about themselves; they speak about their job, etc.. One day, the girl tells him that she's tracing someone who owns a MG car and who got married 20 years ago. Robert gets more and more scared as the girl gives him details, because it reminds him of something wrong he did years ago.
Why does Robert worry so much? You'll know by reading the story..
Capucine Piellard
Hi everyone !
ReplyDeleteI read "Skeleton in the cupboard" by Tony Wilmot and I found it really interesting though quite worse than the first two short stories that we read, in a way ; like it's really got an ending much more unpredictible than the other.
For example, in "The Landlady" by Roald Dahl, even though we don't know how, it's obvious that the protagonist's going to die at some point ; whereas in "Skeleton in the cupboard", we think something during the whole book and at the end, it's not it at all.
So, the story is about a maried middle-aged man called Robert, who's keeping a dark, ugly secret that could ruin his life.
Someday he meets a young lady who's investigetting on a man who she's looking for. Along the story, she gathered pieces of information by pieces of information and tells her story to Robert, who understands quickly that the man she's looking for is obviously himself.
Scared that she'll ruin his life, he's ready to do everything to keep her from talking... But is it really necessary ?
What will the girl find out ? What will Robert do ? Read the story and you'll know.
Hi everyone !
ReplyDeleteI going to write you the summary of an excellent short story with a very surprising ending, entitled "Iceberg" by Fred Kassak.
It tells the story of a young man, Bernard, which jealousy will make him commit murder. But he will not kill the person he thought !
Indeed, the wife that he loves, Irène, has only eyes for another man...George.
But...who's actually George ?
We don't know and Bernard has never seen him before.
So we (the readers) will discovered it at the same of he...
This story, writing with an extreme intelligence in order to mislead the reader, fascinated me.
I really recommend it to everybody !!
Enjoy ! See you all tomorrow !
Anna Gabrielle
Thank You and that i have a dandy give: House Renovation Canada split level exterior remodel
ReplyDelete