Sonny

Raphael, Rick, 1919-1994Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.7

Word count: 34K 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.Sonny by Rick RaphaelAuthor: Raphael, Rick, 1919-1994,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Dec 29, 2009

Editor's review

Sonny is a short novella by science fiction writer Rick Raphael (1919–1994), released as a free eBook by Project Gutenberg. Raphael was active during the mid-twentieth-century golden age of American science fiction magazines, and his work is typically marked by brisk, clean narrative and technological speculation with social overtones. The book is short and serves well as an entry point to the English-language science fiction short story of that era. The Gutenberg edition preserves the original text and includes author and classification information for readers who wish to trace it further. For researchers, it can serve as a sample of popular texts from the American science fiction magazine era; for general readers, it is more of a light reading experience, finishable on a commute or in a short sitting. Note that this is the original English edition and a public-domain eBook that has not undergone modern editorial work; its typesetting and diction bear the marks of its time, and it should be approached as textual archaeology rather than contemporary genre fiction.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in mid-twentieth-century American science fiction short stories
Enthusiasts who want a short sample of the style of the science fiction magazine era
Teachers or researchers in need of English public-domain eBook material
Readers accustomed to finishing a complete story in fragments of time such as a commute

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting long-form worldbuilding or contemporary hard science fiction
Readers unaccustomed to reading unedited English original texts
Beginners hoping for detailed introductions and annotations

Reading tips

Read the opening paragraphs first to gauge the language difficulty, then decide whether to read closely or straight through.
Consult the classification and publication information on the Gutenberg page to understand the text's provenance.
After each story, jot down period diction and technological speculation for later reference.
If used for teaching, excerpt passages and compare them with science fiction short stories of the same era.

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

Is this book a novel or a short story?

According to the Gutenberg record, Sonny is a short work, suitable for reading in one or two sittings rather than as a long serialized novel. The exact page count varies with eBook formatting; refer to the actual file.

What English level is needed to read it?

The text is original mid-twentieth-century English, with diction and syntax characteristic of its time, roughly at an intermediate level or above. If you can read English short stories smoothly, you can usually go straight in; otherwise, try the opening paragraphs first.

What are the features of the Gutenberg edition?

The Gutenberg edition is offered as a free eBook, preserves the original text, and includes metadata such as author, language, classification, and release date. It has not undergone modern editorial work and may show differences in typesetting or period diction; it is suitable as a public-domain text for reading and research.

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About the author

Raphael, Rick, 1919-1994 Author

Rick Raphael (1919–1994) was an English-language writer about whom little biographical information is publicly available; his nationality, education and professional career are not reliably documented. According to library records, five works are attributed to him: A Filbert Is a Nut, Code Three, Make Mine Homogenized, The Thirst Quenchers and Sonny. The titles show a marked humorous and colloquial flavor, often tied to everyday objects, technological settings and light banter, suggesting that he wrote popular short fiction, likely for mid-twentieth-century pulp magazines. Because biographical details are scarce, readers' knowledge of the man and his work rests mainly on these stories themselves; though modest in number, they retain a certain recognizability among comparable short fiction for their brisk subjects and lively tone.