By Any Other Nerd

Title:  The Hack Driver  Author:  Sinclair Lewis Summary The narrator after working his way through law school finds himself working in a law office that is sending him out to serve a summons, which he thinks is below him.  He travels out by train to New Mullion to find this person.  Upon arrival, he finds he needs to get around and find this person so he talks to the first person he encounters.  He says he is looking for Oliver Lutkins and hopes the man can help him.  The man, Bill Magnuson, says he saw him a brief while ago and that he would be happy to drive him around to find the man.  The narrator knows the man is trying to get some money out of him and he is ok with that so long as they find Lutkins.  Over the course of the next few hours, Bill brings the narrator all over town where they keep missing Lutkins by a briefer periods of times.  Eventually, Bill brings him to Lutkins mother who also spins a tale of frustration abo...

Title:  The Lost Decade Author:  F. Scott Fitzgerald Summary Orrison Brown works odd jobs at a newspaper.  One day, he is directed to take Louis Trimble out to lunch.  The editor explains that Trimble has been away for nearly a decade.  Brown is instructed to take him to 21.  Trimble attempts to decline the invitation but the editor insists.  Brown begins to inquire about Trimble's past.  He explains that he was last present when they had begun the Empire State Building.  Brown keeps trying to get him to reveal where he has been but Trimble doesn't give it away directly.  When asked if he's been out of civilization for a while, Trimble says he has in sense, which makes Brown wonder if he was in prison or an asylum.  They arrive at 21 and Trimble says he remembers when that name became famous.  He suggests they try some other place.  Brown continues to guess at Trimble's background and current needs.  Through the...

Title:  The Unknown Quantity Author:  O. Henry Summary Septimus Kinsolving captured the market on flour in New York and thus became insanely rich by increasing the price of bread.  After Kinsolving's death, his son, Dan is left with the fortune.  He goes to a good friend, Kenwitz who was a watchmaker and a socialist for advce.  He explains that he learned his father's fortune earned by nickel and diming already poor folk.  He now wants to make amends for this crime.  Kenwitz explains that it's impossible for him to do it.  Kenwitz directs him to charities, but Dan wants to give it directly back to the people who it was taken from.  Kenwitz slowly explains that it isn't that easy because the loss of income had exponential impact on people.  Too much damage had been wrought by his father's actions.  When Dan challenges him to point out examples, Kenwitz identifies how people had to cl...

Title:  The Ferry of Unfulfilment Author:  O. Henry Summary A Man from Nome arrives in New York.  He wanders the city and eventually finds a beautify woman.  However, not just any beautiful woman but one that fit with his concept of beauty.  He begins to follow her through the city.  The woman, a sales woman in a department store, is Claribel Colby.  She is making her way through the city to ferry to New Jersey.  She has had a very long day and was exhausted.  She finds a seat alone and sits.  The Man from Nome approaches and begins to talk to her.  She chides him at first, tired of being harassed by men.  He tries to explain that he is not like the rest and that he followed her from the street.  She is hesitant but also tired.  He compliments and tries to explain how much he likes her.  However, as he begins to explain that he is also rich and wants to share his life with her, she falls asle...

Title:  A Retrieved Reformation  Author:  O. Henry Summary Jimmy Valentine has just left prison after receiving a pardon in his tenth month of his four year sentence for safe-cracking.  He banters with the warden about his innocence and then returns home and visits his friend Mike who gives Jimmy access to his safe-cracking tools.  Soon after his release, Jimmy returns to his antics and one officer, Ben Price is trying to catch him, again by tracking his movements and burglaries.  During this time, Jimmy finds himself in the town of Elmore, where he comes across a beautiful woman that he follows.  He discovers the woman's name is Annabel Adams, the daughter of the owner of the Elmore Bank.  Jimmy changes his name to Ralph D. Spencer and starts up a shoe-store.  He slowly makes his way into Annabel's heart and is likable by all he meets.  Within a year, he is engaged and making future plans.  He writes a letter t...

Title:  The March of Progress  Author:  Charles Waddell Chestnutt Summary The black community of Patesville find themselves at a moral quandary in determining who the next teacher should be.  The three school committee members represent different parts of the community including a barber, a blacksmith, cart driver.  The two applicants include Henrietta Noble, who had been teaching for fifteen years since Reconstruction.  She was a white woman from New England who had made her life in Patesville.  Unbeknownst to the town, she is also recovering from a costly illness and therefore needs the job more than ever.  The second candidate is Andrew Williams, a star student of Noble and who had gone onto college.  With degree in hand, Williams needs a job but is unlikely to be hired elsewhere.  The committee begins to deliberate who shall be hired.  One member explains that in the name of progress, it see...

Title:  A Respectable Woman  Author:  Kate Chopin Summary Mrs. Baroda learns that her husband's friend, Gouvernail is spending some time with them on their plantation.  She is somewhat displeased by this as they had been doing much entertaining and she hoped for a break.  She had never met the man but had heard much about him.  She quickly takes a liking to him upon his appearance.  However, she finds he has a mystery about him that she can't explain and regularly tries to make sense of.  She tells her husband that she will be better when the man is gone because he is unlike other visitors and this perplexes her.  She decides that she will leave until he has left.  That night, she sits outside on a bench reflecting on why he makes her feel so strange.  Gouvernail encounters her at night and says that her husband gave him a scarf to give to her while she is outside.  After some remarks, the two sit in silence.  He beg...

Title:  The Giant Wistaria Author:  Charlotte Perkins Gilman Summary The story begins in the past.  A woman begs for her child and she is told to be quiet.  It's clear the people around her do not want her with her child or to speak of her child.  The parents discuss the young woman and her baby, upset and wishing that the boat they had taken should have sunk to spare them the shame.  They plan to leave soon after leaving the child with some town and then have the daughter marry a willing cousin.  The mother acknowledges that he is a rough fellow but that there is nothing else they can do.  Unbeknownst to them, the daughter was listening.   Many years later, a group of couples encounter an abandoned house with elation and hoping they can rent it.  They find a woman on the premises who says she isn't sure if it can be rented.  The owners are in Europe and do business through a lawyer.  They begin to explore the house a...

Title:  Miss Tempys Watchers Author:  Sarah Orne Jewett Summary Mrs. Crowe and Ann Binson have been delegated as watchers for Temperance Dent's corpse, their childhood friend.  They spend the evening and night together in her home and in preparation of the funeral in the following day.  The nature of the event lends the two of them to share intimate thoughts and secrets.  The two are of different social standing.  Mrs. Crowe has money and is married while Miss Benson must work hard to support her widowed sister and six children.  In fact, Miss Tempy's plan was to have these two share this time together to better understand one another's social situation.  Miss Tempy was deeply loved by her friends and family for her generous nature.  Mrs. Crowe explains that she always chided Tempy because she gave too much without concern for herself and that humans have "a duty to ourselves."  Mrs. Crowe further explains that it's harder for he...

Title:  An Honest Soul Author:  Mary Wilkins Summary Martha Patch lives alone in a very small house removed from the road.  She is old and pieces together her living by doing odd jobs, mostly sewing and stitching.  She has two orders from Miss Bliss and Miss Bennet that she has received, which will provide her with money and food enough to get through the next few months. As she gets to work on the dresses, she finds her time filled up well, except when she occasionally thinks about having a window out the front of the house with which to see the road.  She cannot afford it and must settle for the rear window which looks out across the field.  She soon realizes that she has mixed up the orders from Bliss and Bennet and must undo everything that she has done.  She also needs to make sure she knows whose material is whose, so she takes a long trek to Miss Bennet's home to confirm.  She works long and hard, tirelessly and wi...