Title: Outstanding short stories

Publishing house: Longman

Grade:  five

Novellist:  H. G. Wells, O. Wilde, P. G. Wodehouse, K. Mansfield, E. A. Poe, A. Trollope, W. S. Maugham

Characters:

-Mr Foteringay= the man who could work miracles

-Mr Mayding= a policeman

-Hughie= the model millionaire

-Laura= Hughie's girlfriend

-Lord Emsworth= a gentleman

-Gladys= a beautiful girl

-Lord Mountdrago= a conceited man

-Mr Audlin= a doctor

-Susan Bell= a beautiful girl that moves to Saratoga Springfield

-Kezia= the youngest of the Burnell sisters

Settings:

-San Francisco

-London

-New York

-Saratoga springfield

Themes: These seven stories are of the very best authors of fiction in English between 1850 and 1940. Some of these stories are funny, some are sad but all are outstanding in some way.  The mains themes are about : love, family,crazy, embarrassment and fidelity.

The stories

The Man Who Could Work Miracles by H. G. Wells

Fotheringay is an ordinary man. One evening, during a discussion at an inn about the feasibility of miracles, he finds that he can perform them himself. Later he accidentally has a policeman sent to San Francisco and, feeling contrite, decides to speak with the local minister, Mr Maydig, who is amazed and wants Fotheringay to use his powers. But a problem with the wording Fotheringay uses to order the earth to stop turning, produces a chain of natural catastrophes which only Fotheringay survives. The story closes with the same scene with which it opened.

The Model Millionaire by Oscar Wilde

Hughie is a charming, good looking young man with an income of £200 a year and a beautiful fiancée, Laura. They love each other but Laura's father won't hear of marriage unless Hughie has £10,000 of his own money. Trevor is one of Hughie's friends, a painter who does well with his art. One afternoon Hughie pays a visit to Trevor at his studio and finds a beggar modelling for him. Moved, Hughie gives him the only pound he has in his pocket. But the beggar is no beggar; he is one of the richest men in London, and rewards Hughie with a £10,000 cheque.

Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend by P. G. Wodehouse

The gentleman, Lord Emsworth, is a weak, unhappy man, unable to oppose both his sister, Constance, who presses him into the formalities of the ‘Blandings Annual School Treat', and his head gardener, McAllister, who rules over Lord Emsworth's gardens. During the fair, Lord Emsworth meets Gladys who rescues him from her dog and innocently tells him how she, has faced up to McAllister. Later, when escaping from the tea-tent, Lord Emsworth meets Gladys again in a hut. She has been punished by Constance for taking food for her brother. Amazed at the sight of a girl who can do what he can't, Lord Emsworth invites her for tea and lets her pick flowers from his gardens. When an infuriated McAllister approaches to defend his flowers, Lord Emsworth, encouraged by Gladys's hand taking his, stands up to both the gardener and his sister.

The Doll's House by Katherine Mansfield

The Burnell girls receive a wonderful doll's house as a present. They are fascinated and can't wait to show it off at school. Kezia, the youngest, particularly likes the lamp. The doll's house and its lamp becomes the topic of conversation at school. All the girls are invited to see it except the Kelveys, daughters of a washerwoman. The Kelveys are not only isolated but also bullied, and silently endure their circumstances. Despite her parents' explicit banning of the Kelveys, Kezia invites them to see the doll's house. They are soon told to leave by the Burnell girls' aunt, but they have finally seen the house and the lamp.

 The Courtship of Susan Bell by Anthony Trollope

After the death of her husband, Mrs Bell moves to Saratoga Springs with her daughters, where she rents rooms and they all live a dull life. Aaron Dunn, a young engineer from New York rents a room. After several evenings together in the sitting room, Aaron decides to open a conversation with Susan, the younger daughter. Susan and Aaron fall in love, but Aaron is called back to New York. He declares his love to Susan and leaves. While he is away, Hetta becomes engaged to Mr Beckard, a minister whom Mrs Bell trusts. When Aaron is back, Beckard, asked by Mrs Bell for advice, disallows the relationship because Aaron's job isn't stable. Hetta agrees, Susan is grief-stricken and Aaron has to leave. Time passes with no news from Aaron and Susan's health declines. After some months, Aaron, now with a permanent post on a railway line, comes for Susan.

Lord Mountdrago by W. Somerset Maugham

Mr Mountdrago is the Foreign Minister, and a conceited man. He sees Dr Audlin, a reputable psychiatrist, because he is having difficulty in sleeping. He systematically dreams about situations in which he is humiliated and there is always the same witness: Griffiths, a member of the House of Commons. The problem is that every morning following a dream, Griffiths makes a comment that seems to suggest that he has been in the dream. Mountdrago thinks that what happens in the dreams has an effect on reality and, in his desperation, thinks of either killing himself or killing Griffiths in a dream. As the psychiatrist manages to make him speak more openly, Mountdrago admits that he has politically destroyed Griffiths' political career by humiliating him in Parliament. One evening Audlin reads in the newspaper that the Foreign Minister has fallen under an underground train and died. On another page, he reads that Griffiths has also died.

New words or verbs:

- sordid: sporco

-Basement: piano terra

-landlady: proprietaria di casa

-mat: pallidoto

-to lick: leccare

-rascal: birbante

-to limp: zoppicare

-Curtains: tende

-semblance: apparenza

-oath: giuramento

-Dead-eyed: finestre oscurate

-Wiped: pulite

-bleak: rigido

-to maintain: mantenere

-to impede: impedire

-cadre: quadro

-to reach: raggingere

-Guilty: colpevole

-to bear: sopportare

-Awkward: imbarazzato

-Handkerchief: fazzoletto

-to fitted: rispecchiare