Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More


Feb 11

8

A Telephone Call by Dorothy Parker

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on February 8, 2011
Posted in Short Story Read in 2011  | 7 Comments

John of The Book Mine Set reviewed A Telephone Call a couple of weeks ago and made me curious.  He said, “A Telephone Call is an interesting, funny, sad and annoying story all at once.”

It is about a young woman waiting for her boyfriend to call her.  He told her he would call her at 5:00PM but it is now past 7:00 PM.  The poor girl is going crazy waiting for him to call.

“Please, God, let him telephone me now. Dear God, let him call me now. I won’t ask anything else of You, truly I won’t. It isn’t very much to ask.”

She had called him at work earlier today and he called her, “darling” twice so he must care about her.  Right?  She’s wonders if he has been in an accident. 

“I never picture him run over. I never see him lying still and long and dead. I wish he were dead. That’s a terrible wish. That’s a lovely wish.”

She ties to make different deals with God.  She will count to 500 in fives. God is to let him call then.

“Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twentyfive, thirty, thirty-five.…”
The story is a bit dated as she uses words like “gay”.  I haven’t heard that word since The Flinstones.  LOL!  However, I think it stand true today.  Probably this minute there is a girl willing her cell phone to ring or to at least receive a text message.

This is a funny story in parts.  I could sympathize with the girt to a point but I kept thinking as I was reading it, “get a life, don’t base your entire future on a man.”  She soon started to grate on my nerves.  As John said, “annoying”.  
That said, I am interested in reading other Dorothy Parker stories.  This was my first.  You can read the story here.
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If you would like to participate in Short Story Mondays, go to John of The Book Mine Set. He has a short story review every Monday and a place for you to link your short story review. Come join in the fun!

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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Feb 11

1

The Shelfish Giant by Oscar Wilde

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on February 1, 2011
Posted in Short Story Read in 2011  | 6 Comments

I read another Oscar Wilde story.  It was a very short,5 page fable like story.  I don’t usually read fantasy but this was a nice little change of pace.
There was a beautiful garden where all the children in the village played.  It was the giants garden but he had been out of town for years.  
One day, the giant returned and yelled at the children that it was his garden to play in, not there’s.  He built a wall around the garden so no one could come inside his garden again.  

Winter came and persisted month after month, well past when spring and then summer should have arrived.  Can you guess what happened?

The moral of the story was very obvious to me right away but I am sure Wilde wrote this for children.  I still enjoyed it a short and sweet bed time story.  You can read it here.

If you would like to participate in Short Story Mondays, go to John of The Book Mine Set. He has a short story review every Monday and a place for you to link your short story review. Come join in the fun!

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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Jan 11

25

The Sphinx Without a Secret by Oscar Wilde

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on January 25, 2011
Posted in Short Story Read in 2011  | 6 Comments

It’s back to the classics for me this Monday.  After reading The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, I vowed to read more by Oscar Wilde.

Back in July, 2009 I won a copy of ‘The Model Millionaire’ by Oscar Wilde from Jessica over at The Blue Stocking Society.  It’s a collection of short stories. I know it been awhile since I won it but I finally cracked it open and read the first story.

The Sphinx Without a  Secret is a very short story, all of seven pages.  It opens at a outdoor cafe in Paris. 
Lord Murchison was walking by and saw an un-named friend sitting at a table and joined him.  He told his friend a strange story about a woman he had intended to marry.  
She was very secretive about where she went so, one day Lord Murchison followed her.  To his disbelief, he followed her to a boarding house  Of course, Lord Murchison assumed she had a another lover and confronted her.  She confessed that she rented a room at the boarding house but denied that she was meeting another man there.  Lord Murchison didn’t believe her and broke off their engagement.  He later finds out…

I enjoyed this story.  It was a sedate little piece but was well written and quite clever. You can read it on the web, here.

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish writer, poet, and prominent aesthete. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London’s most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Today he is remembered for his epigrams, plays and the tragedy of his imprisonment, followed by his early death.

If you would like to participate in Short Story Mondays, go to John of The Book Mine Set. He has a short story review every Monday and a place for you to link your short story review. Come join in the fun!
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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

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