Smart Lit Summary

               Katherine Mansfield was born in New Zealand in 1888. She was a famous short story writer well known for her The Garden Party and A Cup of Tea. She passed away at the age of 34 in 1923, because of Tuberculosis.             The Doll’s House is a short story about the class discrimination prevailing in the minds of children and adults. The story opens with Mrs Hay gifting a beautiful doll’s house to the Burnell children. The Burnells are wealthy people and they have three daughters namely Isabel, Lottie and Kezia.             The school has all classes of students ranging from the richest to the poorest. The Kelveys are the poorest and nobody knows the whereabouts of Mr Kelvey. It is assumed that he is in the prison. Mrs Kelvey makes little income by working as a washerwoman in the neighbourhood. She borrows the excess...

  O. Henry is the pen name of William Sydney Porter, a famous American short story writer. He was born in 1862 and has written several short stories like The Last Leaf, The Gift of the Magi and The Ransom of the Red Chief. His stories are famous for the surprise endings. This short story, The Skylight Room, traces the life of a young woman named Miss Elsie Leeson, who struggles because of poverty and unemployment. The young woman seeks the boarding house rented by Mrs Parker. But, Mrs Parker loves only to have elite people in her boarding house. She treats the poor people indignantly and to them her coloured maid Clara shows the rooms. Along with Miss Leeson, there live men and women from different walks of life in the boarding house. All the men love Miss Leeson for her cheerfulness and positive nature. The young women Miss Dorn and Miss Longnecker are jealous of Miss Leeson for the attention she receives from the men. Miss Leeson is a tiny, beautiful woman with long hair. S...

Elizabeth Bishop was born in 1911 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her father passed away when she was just 8 months old, after which her mother became psychologically ill, hence institutionalised when she was 5 years old. She has received several awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1956. One Art is an autobiographical poem which was published in 1976. In this poem, Elizabeth Bishop tries to present “losing” as art. She says that the loss of different things and people hurt us momentarily, but towards the end we get a collection of experiences. The loss described in this poem ranges from a bunch of keys, time and watch to loved ones. The intensity of the loss is different. She starts with less important things and moves on to more significant ones. The poem is a villanelle, thus consists of 19 lines. The first line repeats as the last line of 2 nd & 4 th stanza; Third line repeats as last line of the 3 rd , 5 th & 6 th stanza ; Opening line & third line of...

       Hans Christian Anderson was a 19th Century   Danish author. He has penned several plays, travelogues , novels, and poems, but he is best remembered for his Fairy Tales.  Andersen's  Fairy Tales  consists of 156 stories in nine volumes  and is translated into more than 125 languages.      This is a fairy tale about a dying little girl’s wishes and her visions. The harsh reality of poverty, hunger and lack of parental care is presented in this story.       The story begins on a freezing New Year’s Eve. A small, poor girl is shivering and bareheaded. She had lost her mother’s big slippers, hence barefooted too. She tries to sell match sticks in the street, but she is unable to get even a cent.      Despite the harsh weather, she is afraid to go home because her father usually beats her for the unsold matches. As it is New Year’s Eve, all the houses are bright with lights she is tempted by ...