Review: The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury Review

The plot of the short story "The Pedestrian" by Ray Bradbury takes place in the future  (the year 2053 A.D.) but it references a present issue.

The main character of the story, Mr. Leonard Mead, walks during the night alone, through the empty streets. The planet where he lives doesn’t have enough oxygen to breathe, so he takes with him a container of fresh air.

He had been doing it for years and in all that time, he has never met another person along the way. The city was peaceful and calm, criminality had been completely eradicated. The local parliament voted to keep only one of the three police cars which the city previously had before.

One day Mr. Mead was stopped during his walk by the police, they accused him of breaking rules. The author presents this action and shows how it unexpectedly takes place: his arrest had no valid reasons, outwardly the police performed their role as it should be.

Ray Bradbury described how the bureaucratic machine worked, works and will be working into the future. That's the idea readers should begin to work with.

Here is the text of the story (on page 52 of pdf-file):

http://www.chs.accomack.k12.va.us/ourpages/auto/2017/2/10/31077797/se_unit6.pdf

The Life of Harry Houdini by Tom Lalicki - Review

Most of Tom Lalicki's works present biographies. "The Life of Harry Houdini" belongs to this genre too. This is a story about American magician Harry Houdini.

The author highlighted the very important feature of Harry Houdini's character - persistence in achieving the aim. Success came to him after years of painstaking work. The book can be interesting for people who like learning history through narrations and biographies.

Here is the text of the story:

https://d3jc3ahdjad7x7.cloudfront.net/jyKNTwcfLmOUQVJORjzdXU9OAk0C6z46S3QqscA35CXFe90l.pdf

The Pool by William Somerset Maugham - Review

The story 'The Pool" written by famous British writer William Somerset Maugham is about love. The main character, Scottish mam Mr. Lawson lived on the island Samoe. The island is located in the Pacific ocean close to Australia.

The author used the method of narration from the first side for the beginning and end of the story. The main part, the story of love Mr. Lawson with the girl Ethel was written from the first side. Ethel was a daughter of a native woman and a man from Holland. The author called her and people who had mixture parents - half-caste.

The plot of the narration took place on the island Samoe, in Scotland and on Samoe again. It is a very touching story about unhappy love, differences between cultures, human weaknesses and prejudices. 

Maugham's stories are highlighted by a very rich style, clear message- the main idea and the plot is really captivating. 

Here is the link to the text of the story:

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/26854/26854-h/26854-h.htm

Review: The District Doctor by Ivan Turgenev

The short story “The District Doctor” by Ivan Turgenev belongs to the genre of narrative. The author caught a cold and invited the district physician to his hotel. After some medical procedures were completed, the main characters had a frank conversation during which the district doctor told the story of his life.

The author said "I am going to impart his narrative to the indulgent reader. I shall endeavour to express myself in the physician's words". Ivan Turgenev is a classical Russian writer, his works are studied in schools. One reason for such success is the ability of the author to use the language of simple people. The translation text from Russian to English can't display all the nuances of this folklore.  

The story is very touching, it is a love story without a happy ending. The feelings of people, their thoughts and actions, all of them are very authentic. The slice-of-life narration style conveys perfectly the atmosphere of place and time, where and when the story took place.

Here is the link to the text of the story:

http://public-library.uk/ebooks/29/6.pdf