The Venus Trap

Evelyn E. SmithProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 56K words
Chapters: 6

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.The Venus Trap by Evelyn E. SmithAuthor: Smith, Evelyn E., 1922-2000,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Mar 10, 2010

Editor's review

The Venus Trap is a short work by Evelyn E. Smith, made freely available as an eBook by Project Gutenberg and belonging to the mid-twentieth-century American tradition of popular science fiction and fantasy. Smith's writing often handles gender relations, consumer society, and interstellar contact with a light ironic touch, and this piece is no exception: beneath its science-fictional shell lie interpersonal gamesmanship and irony. It is concise, suited to being read as a short story that conveys both the pleasures and the limits of Golden Age magazine science fiction. As a public-domain eBook, its value lies more in textual accessibility and its significance as a specimen of genre history than in grand narrative. Readers may see it as a small window onto the mid-twentieth-century American science fiction magazine ecosystem, and, together with an understanding of Project Gutenberg itself, can also observe the preservation forms of early electronic texts. One need not expect a complex world; the focus may be placed on narrative tone, reversals in character relations, and the imprint of period attitudes.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in mid-twentieth-century American magazine science fiction
Readers who enjoy short ironic science fiction and want a light single-sitting read
Readers studying public-domain eBooks and the history of the science fiction genre
Intermediate and advanced learners who wish to practice extensive reading with the English original

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting hard science fiction settings and rigorous technological extrapolation
Readers who prefer long, complex worldbuilding and series narrative
Readers sensitive to the period gender attitudes found in early science fiction

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the plot reversal, then revisit the ironic foreshadowing in the dialogue.
Read alongside other Project Gutenberg science fiction shorts to observe magazine science fiction conventions.
The English original is not long; suitable for daily close reading and vocabulary notes.
After reading, note the period attitudes reflected in the work as part of genre-history notes.

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

Does this book need to be read in series order?

No. This is a standalone short work with no prior series requirement; you can start directly with it without affecting your understanding of the plot.

How difficult is the English, and what level is it suitable for?

The work is in mid-twentieth-century popular magazine style; sentences are not complex, but it contains period usage and ironic expressions. Readers with a college English reading foundation or intermediate level and above will find it relatively smooth.

Where does the electronic edition come from, and what should I note when reading?

This edition is released by Project Gutenberg as a free public-domain electronic text. The layout is mainly plain text, and some formatting may differ from a paper book; focus on understanding the content when reading.

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About the author

Evelyn E. Smith Author · American · 1922–2000

Evelyn E. Smith (1922–2000) was an American writer of science fiction and mystery fiction, born in New York, who also worked as a crossword puzzle constructor. In the 1950s she published numerous short science fiction stories in magazines such as Galaxy Science Fiction and Fantastic Universe. Her representative works include "The Blue Tower," "The Venus Trap" and "The Doorway," along with "The Most Sentimental Man," "Collector's Item," "The Princess and the Physicist" and "The Man Outside"; seventeen of her works are held in this collection. Her short stories often treat alien contact, gender relations and consumer society with wit and humour, showing neat plotting and a satirical edge. Under the pen name Delphine C. Lyons she also wrote Gothic romances and the "Miss Melville" mystery series. Public information about her life is limited, and discussion of her work focuses mainly on these magazine stories and her genre fiction.