The umbrella by Guy de Maupassant — Review

The short story “The umbrella” by Guy de Maupassant represents a genre of tragicomedy. The process of reading it becomes sad and funny at the same time.

It is funny because of the absurdity and even the comical nature of the forms that human greed sometimes takes. And it’s sad that, putting yourself in the place of the main character’s husband, you feel sympathy and realize how unbearable life can be.

Some people try to save money by buying goods at discount sales, but sometimes the craving for savings is completely unreasonable, it is very difficult for a person to part with the accumulated funds in principle - such was the wife in this story.

She saved on everything she could, although there was plenty of money in the family, and her husband went to work with an old patched umbrella, causing grins from colleagues. In the end, he nevertheless forced his wife to buy a new umbrella, and you can find out how it ended by reading this not very long, but interesting story.

Here is the link to the text of the story:
https://www.yeyebook.com/en/guy-de-maupassant-short-story-the-umbrella-english-text-eng/

A Desperate Character by Ivan S. Turgenev — Review

A story “A Desperate Character” by Ivan S. Turgenev is about a man who went out of his frame, went out of the way of life of his parents.

He sold his estate, spent his money and his life went down. Maybe he didn’t have enough attention from his parents, maybe it was because of specific features of his character.

What can save a person who is burning his life and whether something can save him … - the reader can see after reading this story.

Here is the link to the text of the story:
https://americanliterature.com/author/ivan-s-turgenev/short-story/a-desperate-character

Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut - Review

After the novel , "Cat's Cradle" the story "Welcome to the monkey house" looks to be honest a little bit strange. I don't want to say anything bad. Vonnegut's stories seemed to me somehow different, different from his major works.

Here is a bleak future, overpopulation of the planet and a scientist inventing maybe not a harmful thing, but the government again distorted everything and turned it upside down. Vonnegut talks about serious things with humor.

Anyway, it is very strange work.


Here is the link to the text of the story:

https://onlinereadfreenovel.com/kurt-vonnegut/31647-welcome_to_the_monkey_house_read.html

The Music on the Hill by Saki — Review

A story “The Music on the Hill” by Saki is about the god Pan, which was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Pan here is a very jealous and vengeful god who severely punishes disrespect for himself.

Here is the link to the text of the story:
https://americanliterature.com/author/hh-munro-saki/short-story/the-music-on-the-hill

Lifeguard by John Updike Review

In the story “Lifeguard” by John Updike Review the narrator is the rescuer who literally perches above the rest of the society, looks down, observes. It gives us an eloquent overview of how society works.



Here is the link to the text of the story:

https://www.bookfrom.net/john-updike/page,75,45130-the_early_stories_1953-1975.html?ysclid=ljk2yrq942353234654