Show Business

Ellanby, BoydProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 15K words
Chapters: 2

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.Show Business by Boyd EllanbyAuthor: Ellanby, Boyd,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Oct 6, 2009

Editor's review

Show Business is a short work by Boyd Ellanby, digitized by Project Gutenberg and circulated as a free e-book. Classified under American and Canadian literature, it is brief enough for a single sitting. Set in the entertainment industry, the story revolves around performance, fame, and the business behind the stage, carried by the brisk, light touch of pulp magazine fiction: scenes shift cleanly, relationships unfold around life in front of and behind the curtain, and there is a measure of observation on the glitter and the chill of show business. Its appeal lies in its brevity and quick entry—readable on a commute or in an afternoon—suited to readers who want an easy introduction to American pulp short fiction of the early twentieth century. The limits are equally clear: as a public-domain e-book it offers no modern introduction or author background, leaving context to the reader; plot and characterization lean toward popular entertainment rather than depth. Read it as a small window onto a side of mass entertainment in that era, not as a strict literary classic.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want to finish an English short story in spare moments
Readers interested in the entertainment industry and behind-the-scenes stories
E-book readers collecting public-domain American short stories from Project Gutenberg
Intermediate English learners looking for short texts to practice reading

Not a good fit for

Serious readers expecting deep literary analysis and complex characterization
Beginners who need a Chinese translation or detailed background notes
Readers who prefer long-form narratives and fully built worlds

Reading tips

Set aside about thirty minutes for a complete read and keep track of the scene changes.
Note the contrast between onstage and backstage, and record clues to the author's attitude toward show business.
After reading, look up common tropes of American pulp magazine fiction of the period and compare.
For English study, choose a passage of dialogue for close reading and retelling.

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

How long is this story, and how long does it take to read?

It is a short work, brief enough to finish in a single session of about thirty minutes. It suits commutes, lunch breaks, and other spare moments, and works as practice material for reading English short fiction. Page counts vary with the e-book's formatting.

Is the story set in the real entertainment industry?

The story uses the entertainment industry as its backdrop and has the brisk, light quality of pulp magazine fiction, with some observation of life on and behind the stage. It is fiction, however, and should not be read as industry history; it is better taken as a literary glimpse of mass entertainment in that era.

Will the lack of an author introduction make it hard to read?

Public-domain e-books usually include no biography or introduction, but the story stands on its own and is not hard to follow. To grasp the context better, first learn about the common subjects and styles of early twentieth-century American pulp magazine fiction, then read the text.

Comments

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About the author

Ellanby, Boyd Author

Boyd Ellanby is an author about whom very little public information is available; neither nationality, dates of birth and death, nor true identity can be reliably confirmed, and the only verifiable facts are the five works published under this name. Judging from titles such as Category Phoenix, Chain Reaction, The Star Lord, Show Business, and What Do You Read?, his writing tends toward science fiction and speculative themes, often taking a hypothetical premise and tracing the chain reactions between technology, society, and human nature. The plots are tightly paced and show a clear taste for genre fiction. These works have yet to receive systematic translation or introduction in the Chinese-speaking world, and readers know little about the author or his writing; further study would still depend on the original texts and overseas bibliographic sources to sketch the shape of his creative output.