Bedside Manner

Samachson, Joseph, 1906-1980Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 35K words
Chapters: 4

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Bedside Manner by Joseph SamachsonAuthor: Samachson, Joseph, 1906-1980,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jun 17, 2010

Editor's review

This book is a short work by Joseph Samachson, released as an ebook by Project Gutenberg and classified under American and Canadian literature. Samachson was a biochemist by profession and also active in science fiction and popular fiction; his works often carry rational speculation and light wit. This piece is short and serves as a sample of mid-twentieth-century American genre short fiction, and can also be used for reading practice in the original English. It is not a weighty classic, but it has the clean rhythm of old-style magazine fiction, driven by dialogue and situation. For reading settings, it suits being finished in one sitting during fragmented time such as commuting or a lunch break, without extensive note-taking; if you are collecting lesser-known Gutenberg authors or want to see how a science fiction author handles everyday subjects, this piece is worth reading. Note that the ebook is in the original English, so Chinese readers need some English reading foundation, and the text is mainly for entertainment with limited academic reference value.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English learners who want to practice reading through short original English texts
Readers interested in mid-twentieth-century American genre fiction and popular magazine writing
Readers who like to finish a complete story in fragmented time
Ebook enthusiasts collecting lesser-known Gutenberg authors

Not a good fit for

Readers who need a Chinese translation or want zero-threshold reading
Readers seeking in-depth literary analysis or academic research material
Those who prefer long, continuous narratives and are dissatisfied with short length

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the plot, then revisit the dialogue passages to appreciate the author's pacing.
Guess unfamiliar words from context first, and look them up together after finishing a section.
Read alongside other mid-twentieth-century American short stories to observe common features of genre writing.
Increase the font size when reading on an electronic device to reduce eye strain during long English reading sessions.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What English level is needed to read this book?

As a mid-twentieth-century American short work, its sentence patterns and vocabulary are relatively plain, and roughly CET-4 level or above should be enough to read through. If you encounter unfamiliar slang or period expressions, you can skip them first to keep reading fluently and look them up afterward.

What kind of works does the author Samachson mainly write?

Samachson was a biochemist by profession and also wrote science fiction and popular short stories, often with rational deduction and light humor. This piece is not a long major work and is better as an entry point for understanding his short-form style and the magazine writing of the era.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg ebook edition?

Project Gutenberg is known for offering free public-domain ebooks, usually transcribed from the original text and proofread, suitable for personal reading and teaching. Editions generally do not include modern annotations or introductions, so readers need to supplement background information themselves.

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About the author

Samachson, Joseph, 1906-1980 Author

Joseph Samachson (1906–1980) is an author about whom little biographical information is publicly available, yet whose works show considerable variety in subject matter. The library holds 13 of his works, including Picture Bride, A Feast of Demons, The Weather on Mercury, Unwelcomed Visitor, Bedside Manner, The Hunters, Runaway, and Dead Man's Planet. Judging from these titles, his writing ranges across science fiction and fantasy, alien environments, strange visitors, and suspenseful human situations, often advancing the narrative through vividly imagined premises and combining imagination with the appeal of popular storytelling. Because public sources are limited, his nationality, full life story, and the concrete course of his writing career remain unknown; the existing entry relies chiefly on the titles and thematic features of these works to present his profile as a writer, offering readers a reference point when approaching his work.