The short story under analysis is called The Dream and is written by William Somerset Maugham.

One day the narrator travels from New York to Petrograd and changes for a train in Vladivostok. At the station restaurant he meets a fat Russian man, who tells him the story of him and his wife. She is a possessive woman and, being jealous of everyone and everything around her husband, she makes his life unbearable. Once she has a dream that he kills her and tells him that. He starts to think about it a lot. Then she has this dream again. Finally, she dies the same way it has been in her dream, but it remains a mystery for the narrator if the Russian has had something to do with it.

The atmosphere in the story is dramatic and somewhat ironical, which is typical of Maugham. We face the irony at the very beginning, when the author portrays the Russian, creating a comical and grotesque image of him. For that purpose Maugham uses epithes ... Читать дальше »

The Man of Destiny is a play written by George Bernard Shaw in 1895. Shaw (1856–1950) was a prominent playwright who was born of an impoverished middle-class family in Dublin. He became a socialist in 1882 and two years later joined the Fabian Society, an organization of petty bourgeois intellectuals. In his plays he criticized the vices of bourgeois society. He is famous for his brilliant dialogues, full of witty paradoxes and often bitterly satirical.

In The Man of Destiny Shaw depicts Napoleon as a practical business-like man who makes his career at the cost of human lives. The action takes place in a little inn in North Italy. First, we see a lieutenant who has been sent for the letters and dispatches, but has been wound round his little finger by an unknown youth. It turns out that the unknown youth is actually a lady. Napoleon tries to get the letters from her by all means, but she is strong. Finally, she gives him the letters, but asks for one ... Читать дальше »

The Happy Man is a short story written by a well-known English novelist William Somerset Maugham. His famous works include Of Human Bondage, The Moon and Sixpence, and The Theater. His style of writing is clear and precise, the language is simple and all the words are used only in their direct meaning. His speech is not ornamented, which helps the reader concentrate not on the form, but on the meaning. He always puts a question and leaves it to the reader to answer it.

In the short story under analysis a visit to the narrator is described. The visitor is a doctor who wants to ask whether he should leave for Spain or not, to succeed in his life. The narrator answers that it can be difficult for him, but he should do that. The visitor leaves. Fifteen years later, the narrator goes to Spain where he meets his visitor and hears from him, that his life is really good, though he is not rich.

From the story, we can see that we should not ... Читать дальше »

The Apple Tree (1917) is a long short story written by a prominent English novelist, playwright and short story writer John Galsworthy. His most famous novels are The Man of Property, A Modern Comedy and The Forsyte Saga. In his works, he gives a truthful picture of English bourgeois society at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. The Apple Tree is called "most finely crafted, most symbolic, and most poetic tale".

The extract under analysis shows us two no-longer-students Frank Ashurst and Robert Garton who want to get to Chagford, Ashurst having an aching knee. On their way, they decide to put up for a night on some farm. They see a girl who invites them in her aunt's farm and whom Ashurst find quite attractive. On the farm, they ask for a stream to have a bath and are told about one near an apple tree.

In the given extract, there is no conflict; it is only an exposition of the story, ... Читать дальше »

The story Art for Heart's Sake was written by Reuben Lucius Goldberg (1883-1970), an American sculptor, cartoonist and writer. His best works include Is There a Doctor in the House? (1929), Rube Goldberg’s Guide to Europe (1954) and I Made My Bed (1960).

The story under analysis is uncomplicated in its essence. Mr. Ellsworth is in hospital after suffering from heart attack, which was caused by the purchase of a railroad. He does not want to fulfil his doctor's prescriptions. Then Doctor Caswell decides to engage him in drawing and hires a young man for teaching him. Mr. Ellsworth is encouraged, he draws things, but does it bad, and asks about museums and galleries. One day he decides to exhibit one of his drawings in the gallery. To everybody's surprise, the drawing gets the first prize, because Mr. Ellsworth has bought the gallery.

What does this story tell us about? It comprises a number of ideas. First of all, ... Читать дальше »

E.R. Braithwaite was born in 1912 in British Guyana. After the war colour prejudice precluded him from obtaining the kind of job for which his scientific qualifications fitted him, so he decided to work as a school teacher. In 1959 Braithwaite won the Ainsfield Wolff Literary Award for To Sir, with Love, a book about his experiences as a teacher in a school in London's East End. He also is an author of such books as A Kind of Homecoming (1961), Paid Servant (1962), A Choice of Straws (1965), and Reluctant Neighbours (1972). His writings primarily deal with the difficulties of being an educated black man, a black social worker, a black teacher, and simply a human being in inhumane circumstances.

The extract under analysis, Chapter 8 of the book To Sir, with Love, is about a black man, as well, who begins teaching at a reform school in London's East End. Once a week the whole school writes a review, where they can p ... Читать дальше »

Isaac Asimov was a professor of biochemistry at Boston University and a famous American science fiction writer. There are a lot of works which have come from under his pen: I, Robot, The Gods Themselves, Foundation's Edge and so on. He was one of the most prolific writers, having written or edited more than five hundred books. Amongst the stars there is even an asteroid named after him.

The Fun They Had is one of the short stories written by Isaac Asimov. In this story the author touches the problem of technology influence on the teaching process, showing us a future we will never see - the story takes place in 2157. A boy and a girl find an old book about school. They discuss what they have read in there and compare these things from the past with those they have now. At the end, it is time for them to go to their mechanical teachers, but they still want to learn more about the school of old times, because they like it.

The te ... Читать дальше »

Jerome K. Jerome was born in Walsall, Staffordshire, England on May 2, 1859. He is a well-known English author, who has written such novels as Three Men in a Boat, Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, Novel Notes, and Three Men on the Bummel. He is famous for his art of story-telling, his vivid style and his humour expressed in laugh-provoking situations often based on misunderstanding. With sparkling humour he criticized the weak sides of human nature.

The extract under analysis gives us a story of three friends roaming about Sonning. George suggests going to the river and making an Irish stew out of remains of food they have. While cooking they see their dog with a dead water-rat. Harris wants to put it into the stew. However, it seems to have no sense for George. The story ends with their having supper. The stew seems to be a great success.

The main characters of the story are Harris, George, and the nameless narrator (and their dog ... Читать дальше »