Notes on style

1. There are two main characters in this story: Le Ros and the narratоr, i. e. the person telling the story (also called "the I of the story"). The narrator is an assumed personality and should by no means be confused with the author of the story. It would be as naive to associate the narrator of this story with Max Beerbohm as to associate the boy on whose behalf "How We Kept Mother's Day" is told with Stephen Leacock. The character of the narrator is frequently intro­duced in fiction. It is a stylistic device, especially favoured by short-story authors (see "A Day's Wait" by Hemingway or "A Friend in Need" by W. S. Maugham), which helps the reader to look at the described events as if "from within".

2. Inversion (change of the usual order of words) may be used for stylistic purposes either to focus the read­er's attention on a certain part of the sentence or to achieve an emotional effect, е.g.... and framed in the window of the railway-carriage, was the face of our friend...

3. Repetition is another stylistic device used for the purposes of emphasis. It may consist in repeating only one word, so that with each repetition the emotional tension increases, e.g.... but it was as the face of a stranger — a stranger anxious to please, an appealing stranger, an awk­ward stranger.

The repetition of the same syntactical pattern twice or several times is called syntactical parallelism, е.g. It prevents them from feeling out of it. It earns them the respect of the guard. It saves them from being despised by their fellow-passengers.

ESSENTIAL VOCABULARY (I)

Words

banker n final adj obedience n

bureau n guess υ obedient adj

departure n impress υ obey υ

disobedient adj impressive adj platform n

earn υ light υ prevent υ

envy υ move υ serve υ

familiar adj mystery n service n

fellow-passenger n sociable adj

Word Combinations

to see smb. off to wave farewell to smb.

to break the silence to shuffle from foot to foot

to pass the time to make (leave, produce)

to be familiar with smth. (to smb.) an impression on smb.

in the old days (in the olden days) to put out the light

a letter of introduction to serve smb. right for...

to earn one's living