The Upper Berth by F. Marion Crawford — Review

The short story “The Upper Berth” by American writer F. Marion Crawford tells a story that happened with the narrator while he was sailing on the Kamchatka ship.

 

The narrator bought a ticket for a place in cabin number 105. As it turned out, two people had already committed suicide before him. On the very first night, a man who also happened to be there and occupied the upper shelf (above the narrator) suddenly ran out into the corridor and never returned ... And no one saw him again ...

 

Despite all the prejudice, the narrator decided to find out the secret of the 105th cabin ...

This is the link to the text of the story:

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0604221h.html

The Barber's Uncle by William Saroyan — Review

The short story “The Barber's Uncle” by William Saroyan tells about a teenager who feels the pressure of society. This feeling and the story about Uncle Misak who obeyed the circumstances and followed the social rules have a logical link between them.

Readers can decide what moral they could find in this story.

Here is the link to the story:
http://englishonlineclub.com/pdf/G.C.Thornley%20-%20British%20and%20American%20Short%20Stories%20%5BEnglishOnlineClub.com%5D.pdf

The Doll's House by Katherine Mansfield — Review

The story, “The Doll's House,” was written by one of the most famous New Zealand writers - Katherine Mansfield. The plot of this work was built around a wonderful doll’s house presented to children (three sisters) of the Burnel family.

 

The sisters “burned to tell everybody” their doll's house. The story opened showing readers the world of childhood, but the harmony of it was ruined by adults who displayed arrogant models of behaviour for children.

 

Only the youngest of the Burnell sisters was able to overcome powerful social barriers which adults built.

 

The main visual symbol of this story was a beautiful small lamp in the doll’s house. It was connected by the author to the beauty of the soul of one of the little girls.

 

Here is the link to the text of the story:

https://katherinemansfieldsociety.org/assets/KM-Stories/THE-DOLLS-HOUSE.pdf

 

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain — Review

The short story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” was the first publication of an unknown American writer (of that time), Mark Twain, in a famous magazine.

 

Mark Twain dedicated his story to one of the good-natured eccentrics. The idea of the story was that a world without eccentrics would be terribly boring.

 

The quote from the story “... all a frog wanted was education, and he could do most anything ... “ carries a humanistic and also deep meaning.

This is the link to the text of the story:

https://twain.lib.virginia.edu/projects/price/frog.htm