The Truth About Pyecraft - Short Story Summary and Review

Readability: 8/10

Entertainment: 7/10

Thought-provoking: 6/10

Setting: London

Style: Humor

Mr Pyecraft is the owner of a club in London who is obese and quite old. He usually pesters Mr Formalyn, but he bothered Mr Formalyn too much that he decides to write a true story about Pyecraft, which reveals an embarrassing yet unbelievable secret that both of them know.

Pyecraft is bothering Formalyn with his boring stories and especially his troubles with obesity. Soon after Formalyn tells him about this weight-loss recipe from his great-grandmother who was Hindu. Pyecraft tries the recipe and called Formalyn to his house, where Pyecraft’s housekeeper tells him that Pyecraft has locked himself in his room for the past full day. Pycraft remained as big and round and meaty and chunky as ever, but he is floating in the air near the ceiling.They found out that the recipe reduces weight but not mass.

Formalyn helps him by coming up with some smart and clever ways to Pyecraft to move around his room while floating. For example, Pyecraft gets down from the bookcase by taking out a couple of heavy tomes of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Some time later, it occurs to Formalyn that Pyecraft's garments could be stuffed with heavy lead pieces to keep him on the ground; he even remarks that Pyecraft could sail without fear of a shipwreck, for he could just hover ashore after removing some of the weight.

Pyecraft returns to the club with Formalyn's assistance, though without change to his porcine habits. Initially, the two of them agree to keep the embarrassing secret of Pyecraft's weightlessness, but the obsessive Pyecraft soon starts to annoy him too much.

Monkey’s Paw - W. W. Jacobs

  This story is a classic, one which has been retold and rewritten countless times by others. If you’re a heavy reader, this worn-out plot might become predictable and boring to you. However Monkey’s Paw is the original story, the standard horror story format which every authour follows. A simple man, Mr.White, is warned of the dangers the blessed talisman may bring him, but being his ignorant self, he still chooses to accept the monkey’s paw. The series of unfortunate events which follows, makes one think about how we should be grateful for what we have. Mr.White himself says that he already has all the world has to offer; why wish horror upon yourself while testing fate, if you’re already happy enough? Be careful what you wish for. 

Ratings:

     Readability: 9/10

     Entertainment: 4/10

     Thought-Provoking:  6/10

Total: 19/30

Cat in the Rain- Ernest Hemingway

Cat in the Rain review

Author- Ernest Hemingway
Genre- realistic fiction
Setting- Italy, around early 19^th century.
Characters- American girl, hotel owner, maid, George (the girl’s husband)
Style- Narrative
Structure- describes tension between the couple
Themes, ideas- bad relationships in families
 A typical Hemingway story about problems within families and a member with an unhealthy obsession for a certain object, this story is about an American couple who went to Italy for vacation, and what follows when the wife sees a cat under a table on a rainy day. This story was one of many stories included in Hemingway's collection of his own stories, "In Our Time". Very easy to read and understand, although not much depth is included in the plot, and is very straightforward and therefore not extremely though-provoking.

FINAL RATING
Readability- 8
Entertainment- 4
Thought-provoking- 3
TOTAL SCORE- 15/30.

 

'Harrison Bergeron’ Review

‘Harrison Bergeron’, written by Kurt Vonnegut tells a short story of the lives of a couple living in the perfect society in 2081 where everyone is equal. No one is smarter than anyone and no one is better looking than anyone. This short science-fiction story is both humorous and satirical as it brings out the stupidity of this perfect society. The world seems fair but people are living in a world where they can’t remember what they just said or what they just did. It creates a world that everyone dreams and imagines but it also brings out the silliness of this perfectness. 

Readability 9/10

Entertainment 5/10

Thought-provoking 5/10

The Machine that Won the War- Review

Readability: 6

Entertainment: 8

Thought-provoking: 8

The Sci-fi story The Machine That Won the War by American author Isaac Asimov, depicts a futuristic Earth, when the humans have just won a war against a race named the Denebians. In the relief of the war just won, one of the younger technicians named Henderson of the great machine that won the war named Multivac, admits that his algorithms were purely based on his own intuition to process the data. One thing leads to another and the other two characters, Jablonsky and Swift (a veteran of the war) confess their own retouching of the machine as well. It turns out, it may not have just been the “machine” that won the war.

A thought provoking and humorous story, the narrative presents an interesting message: How much should we rely on machinery to make big decisions, and is it the machines that are making the decisions after all?

"The Telephone Call" Review

This was a smartly written and entertaining short story by Dorothy Parker. Due to the fact that it was written in a first person narrative and were all thoughts of the female character’s mind, it was very easy to read. Therefore, the readability was a 10 out of 10. The story was about a woman obsessing over her lover not calling her, and how she was going hysterical. Her crazy thoughts were quite entertaining and surprising, thus the entertainment was 8 out of 10. When the story reached the end, it left an impression on the reader about how being in love can turn people into psychopaths, which for me, was quite thought-provoking. So, the thought-provoking mark was 7 out of 10. Overall, this was a very nicely written short story.

Readability 10

Entertainment 8

Thought-provoking 7

Dorothy Parker, A Telephone Call

Eight O’clock In The Morning Review

The story is good and simple to understand. The story is about a man called George Nada who is immune to the control of the Aliens that inhabit his world called fascinators. Throughout the story George is trying to save the normal humans from control by the Fascinators. However the only problem is that George receives a phone call from one of the Fascinators. The story is good as it captivates the readers attention through its action and horror. I would recommend the story to anyone who likes action or horror.

Readability: 8

Entertainment:8.5

Thought Provoking: 6.5