Resumen
Resumen de La Luna de Ladrillo y otros relatos
Para quién es
For readers who love early science fiction, nineteenth century American life, and gentle humor with a practical streak. It also suits anyone curious about stories of satellites.
De qué trata este libro
The Brick Moon, and Other Stories gathers short fiction by Edward Everett Hale, an American minister and writer from Boston. The title story first appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in 1869. It tells how a group of friends plan to build an artificial moon out of bricks and send it into orbit above the earth. Readers of space history still point to it as one of the earliest stories about a man-made satellite. Hale wrote it as a plain, sensible account, and that calm tone is part of its charm.
The rest of the book shows the range of a busy public man who wrote for magazines. Hale was a preacher, a reformer and an editor, and he liked to put an odd idea into an ordinary American setting. Here you meet inventors, small-town people and a minister whose duties pile up faster than he can meet them. The stories are humorous, kind and curious about new machines and new ways of living. Let us begin with the man behind them and the world he wrote in.
En este resumen
- 1Hale wrote for a changing AmericaFree
- 2A moon of bricks could guide ships
- 3Big dreams meet practical problems
- 4A busy minister hires a double
- 5Other tales turn on small wonders
- 6A plain voice makes wonders believable
Idea clave 1 de 6
Hale wrote for a changing America
Edward Everett Hale lived through a period when America changed fast. Railroads crossed the land, telegraph wires linked cities, and new machines appeared every year. Hale was a Unitarian minister in Boston, and he was also a lecturer, a magazine writer and a campaigner for good causes. He believed that stories could carry ideas and make people think about how a community should live.
His best-known single work is The Man Without a Country, from 1863, a patriotic tale that made his name. The stories in this collection are different in mood. They are lighter and stranger, and many of them started life in magazines such as the Atlantic Monthly. Magazine readers of his day liked a good puzzle, a joke and a sense of wonder, and Hale gave them all three.
A reader will notice his habit of treating the unlikely as fact. He does not write like a dreamer. He writes like a man giving a report to a committee, with names, costs and small difficulties. This makes the strange premises feel close to home, and it gives the humor a dry edge.
The collection as a whole shows a mind that is hopeful about progress but also alert to human weakness. People in these stories are generous and well meaning, yet they are also tired, hurried and sometimes foolish. Keep that mix in mind as you meet the first and most remarkable story, the one that gives the book its name.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about La Luna de Ladrillo y otros relatos
What is The Brick Moon about?
A group of friends plan to build a huge sphere of bricks and launch it into orbit as a second moon. Sailors could use it to fix their longitude at sea. The story is told as a sober, detailed account.
Is The Brick Moon the first story about a satellite?
It is often named as one of the earliest stories about an artificial satellite. It appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in 1869, long before real satellites, and it explains a practical use for one.
When was The Brick Moon written?
Edward Everett Hale published it in the Atlantic Monthly in 1869. It was later gathered with other stories into a book bearing its name. The tale is fiction, though told in the manner of a factual report.
What is My Double and How He Undid Me about?
It is a comic story told by a busy small-town minister named Frederic Ingham. Overwhelmed by duties, he finds a look-alike to take his place at public occasions, and the plan brings trouble of its own.
Is The Brick Moon hard to read?
No. Hale writes in clear, plain nineteenth century prose with a dry sense of humor. The stories are short, the ideas are simple, and the tone is friendly.