The Hanging Stranger

Philip Kindred DickProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.8

Word count: 30K 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.The Hanging Stranger by Philip K. DickAuthor: Dick, Philip K., 1928-1982,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Dec 5, 2012

Editor's review

The Hanging Stranger is a novella-length science fiction story by Philip K. Dick, available as a free ebook from Project Gutenberg. The story revolves around a hanging corpse that appears in a small town; the protagonist finds those around him indifferent to this anomaly and begins to doubt the reality of the whole world. Dick excels at implanting cognitive cracks into everyday scenes, and this work continues his central motif of “what is real”; it is short yet tightly suspenseful, with a typically Dickian twist at the end. The English original is moderate in difficulty and suitable as an entry text for approaching Dick’s short fiction. While reading, pay attention to the narrator’s observations of others’ reactions—that is the fulcrum on which the suspense builds. It suits being read in one sitting on a commute or before bed, then savored for the unease wrapped in the surface of the everyday.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy science fiction short stories and want suspense and twists in a short time
Readers interested in Philip K. Dick who wish to start with his short fiction
Learners who want to practice English reading through free public-domain ebooks
Literary readers who prefer psychological suspense and cognitive dislocation

Not a good fit for

Hard science fiction readers expecting long-form worldbuilding and complex settings
Readers uncomfortable with dark suspenseful atmospheres who prefer light subject matter
Readers still at a beginner level in English who need extensive annotations

Reading tips

First read through to grasp the plot’s direction; do not look up every word, and revisit key passages afterward.
Pay attention to the protagonist’s observations of others’ reactions; these details are key to understanding the suspense.
After finishing, retell the ending twist to yourself to check whether you grasped the foreshadowing in the narrative.
If the English is difficult, read alongside a Chinese translation for comprehension, then return to the original for close reading.

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

About how long is The Hanging Stranger?

It is a novella-length work by Dick, released by Project Gutenberg as a free ebook; it can usually be read in one or two hours, and reading it continuously in one sitting helps maintain the continuity of suspense.

I haven’t read other works by Philip K. Dick. Can I read this one directly?

Yes. It is a standalone short story and does not depend on prior works. Dick’s short fiction is often brief with concentrated suspense, making it a suitable entry point for understanding his theme of “reality and illusion.”

How difficult is the English original?

The language is generally plain, mainly narration and dialogue, with moderate vocabulary difficulty. There are occasional expressions with a period flavor, but they do not hinder understanding the main line; readers with intermediate English reading ability can attempt it.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg provides free ebooks; this edition is an English public-domain text convenient for reading on electronic devices. It contains no scholarly annotations or introduction, making it suitable for readers whose aim is the story itself.

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About the author

Philip Kindred Dick Author · American · 1928–1982

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) was an American science fiction writer, born in Chicago in 1928 and died in 1982. Over his career he wrote more than forty novels and over a hundred short stories, including The Man in the High Castle, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and Ubik, and is regarded as one of the pioneers of cyberpunk literature. The collection here holds thirteen of his works, among them the short stories The Variable Man, The Defenders, Second Variety, Beyond Lies the Wub, Beyond the Door, The Crystal Crypt, The Hanging Stranger, and Mr. Spaceship. His writing often explores the boundary between reality and illusion, identity, consumer society, and technological alienation, in a cool, suspenseful style that begins in ordinary settings and gradually reveals the unreliability of the world, exerting a lasting influence on later science fiction and popular culture.