Tag Archives: shelfari.com

The Ransom of Red Chief by O. Henry – A Short Story Review

Posted on by
Reply

This story came recommended by a family member, so I knew the story would be a bit quirky but in the end very well done. The story was about two desperate men who plotted a kidnapping with the goal of getting a ransom. They carefully picked the richest man in town, a mortgage financier, and stole his child, bringing him out of town to a mountain cave where they were unlikely to be found. Little did they know that they were kidnapping a hellion.

The kid immediately started playing Indians where he was Red Chief, the terror of the plains while his two captives were Old Hank, the Trapper, and Snake-Eye the Spy. The kid beat up on Old Hank pretty good when Snake-Eye would leave to take care of business. He gave him cuts, bruises, and eventually tried to scalp him the following morning. He also put a red-hot potato down his back and kicked it, mushing the burning potato into his skin. It became increasingly evident that little Red Chief had no intentions of going home and things were getting worse by the minute for the kidnappers.

They wrote an elaborate ransom note for $1500, taking $500 off their initial price because they simply wanted to get rid of this kid. The rebuttal note they got back from the kids father basically said, “Hey I’ll cut you a deal, if you bring the kid back and give me $250, I’ll agree to take him off your hands for you.” They were blown away that the kids father would demand money instead of pay it out. However, things were getting desperate, the kid was playing David and Goliath and slinging rocks at Old Hank’s head. Finally they decided the only way to get rid of this kid was to pay out the cash. So they brought him back home, paid the $250, and ran out of town as fast as possible.

I liked this story because it was very simple yet with a plot I didn’t expect. It’s definitely a story you could tell to a younger child because its plot, characters, language, etc are easy to digest. It has adventure, danger, and mischief with a twist plot. I definitely recommend reading it, especially reading it to a younger sibling/neice/nephew/son/daughter/etc.

About the Author O. Henry:
William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910), known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American writer. O. Henry’s short stories are known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings. (Courtesy of Amazon.com)

To see more of the books I’ve read and reviewed, check out my virtual bookshelf from Shelfari.com:

The Nightingale and the Rose by Oscar Wilde – A Short Story Review

Posted on by
Reply

It seemed almost as if this story was meant to be told orally. It was also told in a way that seemed fairy-tale esque with repetitive language and talking flowers, trees, insects, and birds. The gist of the short story is that a student is in love with a girl. The girl told him she would only dance with him if he brought her a red rose. He agonized over not having a rose for his true love. This agonizing was heard by the animals and trees around his house and it was especially heard by the Nightingale. So the Nightingale flew around from tree to tree to find a red rose so the student could please his true love. It found a white rose tree, a yellow rose tree, and finally found a red rose tree but it was dead from the winter’s frost. To each tree the Nightingale said that for the price of a rose it would sing to the tree its most beautiful song but the red rose tree just could not flower this year. There was however a way to make it flower but it would cost the Nightingale its life. In order to make the flower blossom, the Nightingale would have to sing all night under the moon and pierce its own heart with the rose’s thorn.  The song and blood of the Nightingale was the only way to make a red rose grow and bloom. The Nightingale decided that the cost of its life was worth the cost of true love so it sacrificed its life for the Student. The sacrifice was all for naught however, because when the Student presented the rose to his true love, she turned him away saying another boy had brought her jewels which were obviously worth more than that of a rose. The boy then threw the rose on the ground where it was run over by a cart.  Cursing the logic of love he walked away to continue his studies.

As I said earlier, I really liked the way this story was told. It was a bit fanciful in that the animals and trees could speak to one another and a bit fair-tale-esque with talks of true love, sacrifice, and death. It is a story that could easily be memorized and retold orally.

About the Author Oscar Wilde:
Oscar Fingall O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford where, a disciple of Pater, he founded an aesthetic cult. In 1884 he married Constance Lloyd, and his two sons were born in 1885 and 1886.  His novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and social comedies Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895), and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), established his reputation. In 1895, following his libel action against the Marquess of Queesberry, Wilde was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for homosexual conduct, as a result of which he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), and his confessional letter De Profundis (1905). On his release from prison in 1897 he lived in obscurity in Europe, and died in Paris in 1900. (Courtesy of Amazon.com)

To see more of the books I’ve read and reviewed, check out my virtual bookshelf from Shelfari.com:

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber – A Short Story Review

Posted on by
Reply

Walter Mitty’s life is something I’m afraid of. As an old man, his day to day has become so mundane, not to mention he’s got a nagging wife who is always on his case for mundane things. She complains about how fast he drives, she tells him he should buy overshoes to keep his shoes nice, wear his gloves while he’s driving, pick up dog treats at the A&P, pick me up after my hair appointment, etc. “You’re not a young man anymore”. I hear this kind of stuff all the time at work from my older coworkers who have slowed down and let old, married lives get the best of them. “I better do X or else I’ll hear it from my wife” or when I ask what they did over the weekend they’d say, “Oh just went to Home Depot to pick up some tile for the bathroom/grass seed for the lawn/dog treats for my dog/etc. Ugh. In order to escape from the monotony and incessant nagging, Walter Mitty escapes to several different fantasy worlds where he becomes a commander on a Naval ship, a trauma surgeon with unique skills no one else has, a man on trial for murder, a Captain in a WWII bomber and others. The story ends while he’s smoking a cigarette outside of the drug store waiting for his wife to pick up some medication, which was likely for his “daydreams”. It started to rain, he finished his cigarette, put his shoulders back against the wall, snapped his heels against the wall, put his head up, and slipped into another fantasy where he faced the firing squad. He died “proud and disdainful, undefeated, inscrutable to the last.” This is where the story ends but I can imagine that when his wife came out of the store she made a remark about his aloofness and he snapped out of his daydream, forced to live out his reality as an old man in an unfulfilling, uncreative, and mundane life. All three of those things are some of my biggest fears: unfulfilled, uncreative, and mundane. So I don’t blame Walter Mitty for wanting to escape to something more interesting and engaging, I just hope it never gets to that point for me.

About the Author James Thurber:
James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American author, cartoonist and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his cartoons and short stories, published mainly in The New Yorker magazine then collected in his numerous books. One of the most popular humorists of his time, Thurber celebrated the comic frustrations and eccentricities of ordinary people. (Courtesy of Amazon.com)

To see more of the books I’ve read and reviewed, check out my virtual bookshelf from Shelfari.com:

All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury – A Short Story Review

Posted on by
Reply

A selected group of the Human Race was sent to live on Venus. It seemed like a miserable place because it literally rains all year long with about 20 minutes of sunshine each year. The story was set in a elementary school classroom where most of the children didn’t even know what it was like to see the sun, for most it was just a yearly abnormal phenomenon when the sun would peak out. One girl however, knew of the sun quite well because she had lived on Earth only a few years prior. It was very clear that she was depressed because of the unrelenting rain and darkness on venus. She was especially happy this day because the scientists said the sun would come out. The other school children bullied her for a while and then stuffed her in a closet. Lo and behold the sun did indeed come out. The children went out and played, even getting a little sunburned. 20 minutes later the clouds came back and the rain started again. No more sun for 364 days, 23 hours, and 40 minutes. While they were out playing they had forgotten about the girl in the closet. Sheepishly they went to let her out, all feeling bad that she had missed the sun she was so looking forward to.

This is how the story ended. It didn’t leave time for the reader to see the reaction of the little girl. It didn’t have to, the expressions and emotions of the other children told the story quite well enough. It was a very a very sad and shameful feeling. My heart ached for the little girl. Not only had she been correct and smarter than the other students, she was the most excited about seeing the sunlight. After having been bullied and stuffed in a closet by her peers, she missed the only thing she looked forward to each year. I would definitely recommend reading this short story. As with The Tell Tale Heart, I found it as a free pdf online instead of going to the Boston Public Library.

About the Author Ray Bradbury:
Ray Bradbury has published some 500 short stories, novels, plays and poems since his first story appeared in Weird Tales when he was twenty years old. Among his many famous works are ‘Fahrenheit 451′, ‘The Illustrated Man’ and ‘The Martian Chronicles’. (Courtesy of Amazon.com)

To see more of the books I’ve read and reviewed, check out my virtual bookshelf from Shelfari.com: