United Kingdom | Lecturia

H. G. Wells: In the Avu Observatory

“In the Avu Observatory” is a short story by H. G. Wells, published on August 9, 1894, in the Pall Mall Budget magazine. Set in a remote astronomical station in the jungles of Borneo, it narrates the disturbing experience of Woodhouse, a young assistant who is left alone in the observatory while he makes stellar observations. The tranquility of the tropical night, with its distant sounds and the vast darkness of the forest, is transformed into an atmosphere charged with tension and uncertainty when an unknown presence bursts into the enclosure.

Bram Stoker: The Burial of the Rats. Summary and analysis

In The Burial of the Rats, a young Englishman who spends a year in Paris, separated from his fiancée by his parent’s wishes, decides to explore the city’s outskirts to take his mind off things. Intrigued by the life of the chiffoniers (garbage collectors), he enters the garbage dumps of Montrouge, a sordid and dangerous place, where an older woman and an older man set a trap to kill him and let the rats devour his body. Surrounded by a group of silent and cruel criminals, he manages to escape through hostile terrain full of piles of garbage, swamps, and canals. After an agonizing nighttime chase, he swims across a river and arrives exhausted at the fortress of Bicêtre, where French soldiers rescue him. Together with them and a police commissioner, he returns to the place to look for his attackers. They find human remains eaten by rats and arrest a group of veteran ex-soldiers who live in the rubbish dumps. The story, narrated in the first person, mixes suspense, horror, and social criticism and shows how human degradation can reach extremes of almost animal brutality on the forgotten margins of the city.

Bram Stoker: The Burial of the Rats

“The Burial of the Rats” is a short story by Bram Stoker, included in the collection Dracula’s Guest and Other Weird Stories, published in 1914. Set in the slums of Paris in the mid-19th century, it narrates the disturbing experience of a young Englishman who, driven by melancholy and tedium, decides to explore the dark sectors where those who live off the garbage do so. Fascinated by this marginal world, he enters a labyrinth of waste, shacks, and sinister figures. What starts as a curious excursion soon becomes a disturbing experience of danger and suspense.

Doris Lessing: An Old Woman and her Cat

An Old Woman and her Cat is a short story by Doris Lessing, published in 1972 in the New American Review. It tells the story of Hetty, an older woman marginalized by her family and society, who survives as best she can on the fringes of London. Proud, eccentric, and free, Hetty finds comfort in Tibby, a stray cat she adopts and makes her only companion. The story focuses on her wanderings through run-down neighborhoods, her struggle to remain independent, and her endearing bond with the animal in an environment that becomes increasingly hostile and indifferent.

H. G. Wells: The Magic Shop

The Magic Shop is a story by H.G. Wells, published in 1903, that transports us to a place full of mysteries and surprises. A father, accompanied by his son Gip, enters an ordinary magic shop that reveals itself as an enchanted space where the amazing comes to life. Crystal balls that materialize out of nowhere mirrors that distort reality, and doors that appear and disappear create an atmosphere that oscillates between the wonderful and the disturbing. The fine line between fantasy and reality is completely blurred in this magical bazaar.

Arthur C. Clarke: Dial F for Frankenstein

Dial “F” for Frankenstein is a short story by Arthur C. Clarke, published in January 1965 in Playboy magazine. The story begins with a mysterious global event: in the early morning hours, all the world’s telephones ring in unison, emitting an enigmatic sound that nobody can quite figure out. Amid the confusion, a group of engineers and scientists begin to exchange theories while reflecting on the implications of the new satellite communications network. What initially seems like a simple technical failure soon leads to disturbing questions about the excess of technology and its possible consequences.