‘‘Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment’’ begins Dr. Heidegger has four old acquaintances meet him in the study of his home. They are Mr. Medbourne, a once-prosperous merchant who has lost his fortune; Colonel Killigrew, who ruined his body with food and drink; Mr. Gascoigne, a former politician who has fallen into obscurity; and the Widow Wycherly, who…
Tag: Summary
A Day Goes By by Luigi Pirandello – Plot Summary
As the story opens, the main character is on the ground in a dark, deserted train station, having been thrown off the train, though he has no memory of how or why. In fact, he cannot remember why he was on the train in the first place, or where he was going. He leaves the…
Beware of the Dog by Roald Dahl – Summary
‘‘Beware of the Dog’’ begins with the description of the view from the cockpit of a plane in flight: ‘‘Down below there was only a vast white undulating sea of cloud. Above there was the sun, and the sun was white like the clouds, because it is never yellow when one looks at it from…
The Witness for the Prosecution by Agatha Christie – Summary
‘‘The Witness for the Prosecution’’ begins with a conversation between Mr. Mayherne, a lawyer who often catches himself mindlessly cleaning his spectacles, and his client Leonard Vole, a thirty-three-year-old man who is accused of murder. Mayherne stresses to his client the gravity of the situation in which he finds himself; the younger man seems dazed,…
With All Flags Flying – Summary
As ‘‘With All Flags Flying’’ opens, an eighty-two-year-old man named Mr. Carpenter lives alone in a two-room house located on the last bit of farm property he owns near a superhighway in Baltimore County. He has felt weaker recently and household chores have been neglected. He has come to the conclusion that he can no…
The Treasure of Lemon Brown – Story – Summary
‘‘The Treasure of Lemon Brown’’ opens with a disappointed young man, Greg Ridley, sitting on the front steps of his apartment building in Harlem, New York. A storm is coming, and the narrative emphasizes that the dark weather and emerging winds reflect Greg’s own frustrated mood. The story almost immediately flashes back to a scene…
Tears of Autumn by Yoshiko Uchida – Summary
‘‘Tears of Autumn’’ begins with young Hana Omiya standing on the deck of a steamship making its way from Japan to the United States through a ‘‘turbulent November sea.’’ Rather than being excited about the arrival in America, Hana wishes she were not going. She is seasick and nervous, and her thoughts lead her back…
A Retrieved Reformation – Summary
When ‘‘A Retrieved Reformation’’ opens, Jimmy Valentine is working in a shoe shop in prison. He is called into the warden’s office, where he learns that the governor has pardoned him. Jimmy expected the pardon much sooner because of his numerous friends on the outside. Because he is pardoned, he only had to serve ten…
An Outpost of Progress – Summary
‘‘An Outpost of Progress’’ takes place at a trading station in an unnamed African location, presumably at the end of the nineteenth century. After the station’s founding agent dies from fever, the director of the trading company assigns an employee named Kayerts to be in charge of the station, with another man—Carlier—to serve as second-in-command….
The Jewels by Guy de Maupassant – Summary
The plot of ‘‘The Jewels’’ is very simple, as is the case with all of Maupassant’s work. The author lays out the bones of the story and the reader is left to interpret its meaning. The reader is first introduced to the story’s protagonist, Monsieur Lantin, a clerk in a government ministry. Right away it…