A Dark Brown Dog. By Stephen Crane A Dark-Brown dog and the accompanying illustrations were published in Cosmopolitan, March 1901. The story was probably written in the summer of 1893. A Child was standing on a street-corner. He leaned with one shoulder against a high board-fence and swayed the other to and fro, the while kicking carelessly at the gravel. Sunshine beat upon the cobbles, and a lazy summer wind raised yellow dust which trailed in clouds down the avenue. Clattering trucks moved with indistinctness through it. The child stood dreamily gazing. After a time, a little dark-brown dog came trotting with an intent air down the sidewalk. He stopped opposite the child, and the two regarded each other. This thing seemed to overpower and astonish the little dark-brown dog, and wounded him to the heart.
He looked so comical on his back, and holding his paws peculiarly, that the child was greatly amused and gave him little taps repeatedly, to keep him so. The child redoubled his exertions. No one was in. The Looking-glass by Anton Chekhov. NEW YEAR'S EVE. Nellie, the daughter of a landowner and general, a young and pretty girl, dreaming day and night of being married, was sitting in her room, gazing with exhausted, half-closed eyes into the looking-glass. She was pale, tense, and as motionless as the looking-glass. The non-existent but apparent vista of a long, narrow corridor with endless rows of candles, the reflection of her face, her hands, of the frame -- all this was already clouded in mist and merged into a boundless grey sea. The sea was undulating, gleaming and now and then flaring crimson. . . . Looking at Nellie's motionless eyes and parted lips, one could hardly say whether she was asleep or awake, but nevertheless she was seeing.
At first she saw only the smile and soft, charming expression of someone's eyes, then against the shifting grey background there gradually appeared the outlines of a head, a face, eyebrows, beard. Picture followed picture against the grey background. "For God's sake, for God's sake! " The Gift of the Magi: A Study Guide. Cummings Guides Home..|..Contact This Site. .Plot SummaryBy Michael J. Cummings...© 2006 ........On the day before Christmas, Della has only $1.87 in savings with which to buy a gift for her husband, James Dillingham Young. Flopping down on the couch of their apartment, she cries—howls, actually. .......She had squeezed every spare penny out of household expenses, and still there was not enough for the wonderful present she dreamed of getting for Jim. .......After shopping for two hours, she finds just the right gift, a platinum fob chain to replace the old leather strap attached to his watch. .Setting .......The action takes place in New York City in a very modest apartment and in a hair shop down the street from the apartment.
Characters Della Young: Pretty young woman who cuts off her beautiful long hair and sells it to buy a Christmas gift for her husband.James Dillingham Young:Husband of Della. Type of Work and Year of Publication ....... The Three Magi Three: A Magic Number ..Theme: Love. The Lottery. By Shirley Jackson Shirley Jackson's short story The Lottery was published in 1948 and is not in the public domain. Accordingly, we are prohibited from presenting the full text here as part of our short story collections, but here is a short summary of the story, followed by some commentary and explanations. It is important to have some historical context to understand this story and the negative reaction that it generated when it was published in the June 26, 1948 issue of The New Yorker.
The setting for the story, a village gathering, wasn't a fictional creation in rural America during the summer this story was published. Rural community leaders often organized summertime gatherings to draw people together in town centers to socialize and hopefully frequent some of the business establishments. It was thought to be good for the businesses and good for the community. On a warm summer day, villagers gather in a town square to participate in a lottery. The night before Mr. Mr. New Feature! Three Questions by Leo Tolstoy.