Dream Town

Slesar, Henry, 1927-2002Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 23K words
Chapters: 3

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.Dream Town by Henry SlesarAuthor: Slesar, Henry, 1927-2002,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jun 21, 2009

Editor's review

Dream Town is a short story in English by Henry Slesar, released free through Project Gutenberg. Slesar was known for short suspense and fantasy fiction, and he excelled at driving narratives through spare dialogue and unexpected twists. This piece is brief and serves as a good entry point for understanding the style of short fiction in twentieth-century American popular magazines. The story revolves around a “dream town,” with a touch of light satire and imagination; it reads briskly and shows how genre fiction can create suspense and reversal within a limited space. Since the electronic edition includes no introduction, readers might treat it as an exercise in observing short-form narrative technique: notice how the opening establishes the rules, how the middle builds pressure, and how the ending resolves. For English learners, the text is moderately difficult and is suitable material for practicing short reading and plot retelling.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English-language readers who enjoy short suspense and fantasy stories and want something they can finish quickly
Learners who want to practice reading and summarizing plots with a shorter English text
Genre-fiction readers interested in short stories from twentieth-century American popular magazines

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting a long, complex world and multi-stranded narrative
Readers who cannot read English at all and need a ready-made Chinese translation

Reading tips

Read straight through the first time for plot and twists; read again to look back at foreshadowing and dialogue design
After reading, try retelling the story in three to five sentences to check whether you have grasped the core turn
If using it for English study, mark colloquial expressions and short-sentence rhythm and imitate them

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 language is this work in?

The original is in English, with an electronic edition released by Project Gutenberg. It suits readers with some English reading ability; readers who rely entirely on Chinese will need another translation or辅助 tools.

Is the story long?

The materials indicate it is a short work, suitable for reading in one or two sittings. The exact page count varies with the electronic layout, but overall it is light reading and does not require the time commitment of a novel.

What are the characteristics of Slesar’s writing?

Public-domain materials show that he was an American short-story author whose work is often placed in the popular-fiction tradition. As you read, notice how the short story uses concise scenes and dialogue to create suspense; this is key to understanding his narrative technique.

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About the author

Slesar, Henry, 1927-2002 Author

Henry Slesar (1927-2002) was an American writer best known for his short science fiction and suspense stories. Reliable public information about his life is limited, and readers in China know relatively little about him. Eight of his works are included in this collection: My Father, the Cat, Brainchild, The Delegate from Venus, The Stuff, The Success Machine, Reluctant Genius, Heart and Dream Town, most of them short or novella-length pieces. These stories often use science-fictional premises while blending suspense and satire; their plots move briskly and end with striking twists, and they use everyday situations to expose human weaknesses and the absurdities of a technological society. Their subjects range from family relationships and mistaken identity to alien visitors and machine intelligence, reflecting a sharp eye for the anxieties of modern life. Slesar's tightly structured, ingeniously conceived short stories have been enjoyed by genre readers and have had some influence on later science fiction and suspense writing.