G-r-r-r...!
Robert Donald LockeProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019
Rating 2.3- Word count
- 17K words
- Chapters
- 2
Tags
English Originals Science Fiction Animal AnticsQuirky AdventureEmotional ReleaseLight ReadingSound PlayHumor ReliefShort EssaysRead AloudParent-Child ReadingOnomatopoeia FunSummary
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.G-r-r-r...! by Robert Donald LockeAuthor: Locke, Robert Donald,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jun 21, 2009Editor's review
This is a short piece by Robert Donald Locke published in an early science fiction or pulp magazine, now reissued by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain eBook. The onomatopoeic title itself hints at something grotesque, tense, or humorous, and the story typically revolves around an unexpected encounter, a scientific whim, or a human quirk. Locke's prose bears the distinctive marks of mid-twentieth-century American genre fiction: fast pacing, concentrated scenes, skilled use of suspense and reversal, and high information density despite its brevity. As a public-domain eBook, it has no modern commercial-publishing introduction or notes, so readers must enter the textual context on their own. It suits reading on a commute, before sleep, or whenever a short burst of reading stimulation is wanted, and it also serves as a sample for readers interested in early science fiction, pulp literature, and the history of eBooks. There is no need to seek deep interpretation; treat it as a window into the narrative pleasures of the old magazine era.Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in mid-twentieth-century American pulp science fiction short stories
- Commuters who want to read public-domain eBooks in fragmented time
- Literature enthusiasts studying the narrative conventions of early genre fiction
- Casual readers who enjoy short, punchy stories with a suspenseful edge
Not a good fit for
- Deep science fiction readers expecting a long-form worldview and complex character arcs
- Beginner readers who need modern notes, introductions, or translations
Reading tips
- Read through once to grasp the plot, then revisit the echo between the title and the ending.
- Read it alongside other public-domain short stories to appreciate common pulp science fiction conventions.
- Do not over-research the background; keep the freshness and suspense of a first reading.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971Project 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.
Contents
- 1
- 2
FAQ
Is this a novel or a short work?
Judging from the Project Gutenberg catalog information and the style of the title, it is a short popular genre work, suitable for reading in one sitting or over two or three sessions. The exact page count varies with eBook formatting; refer to what your reader displays.Do I need to know the author's background to understand it?
No. The story itself can usually be read independently; the author's background only helps with understanding the period context. If you are interested afterward, look up other public-domain works by Robert Donald Locke for further reading.What is the reading experience like in electronic form?
The Project Gutenberg edition is a plain-text public-domain eBook with simple formatting and no commercial introduction, suitable for reading directly on a phone or e-reader. Adjust the font size and line spacing to reduce fatigue during long reading sessions.This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
Robert Donald Locke Author · AmericanRobert Donald Locke was an American science fiction writer who served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. In 1952 he published his first science fiction story, "Demotion," in Astounding Science Fiction, and went on to publish about twelve short stories in magazines such as Imagination and Amazing Stories through 1961. In 1956 he released the novel The Immortal Ones under the pen name Roger Arcot. Works including Next Door, Next World, G-r-r-r...!, and Deepfreeze were later made available as ebooks by Project Gutenberg. Because public information is limited, details of his life and the full scope of his work remain to be further explored, and existing accounts center mainly on the short stories and novel mentioned above.