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Agatha Christie
“The case of discontented husband”
O Henry
“Witches’ loaves”
Roald Dahl “Parson's Pleasure”
Roald Dahl “Parson's Pleasure”
Elisabeth Grierson
“The Brownie O’Ferne-Den”

Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born on 15 September 1890 in Torquay, England. All her education was through part-time schooling and French finishing schools. She also trained as a singer and pianist .
In 1912 Agatha met Archie Christie, her future husband, a qualified aviator who had applied to join the Royal Flying Corps. After a tempestuous romance, they married on Christmas Eve 1914.
She’s always dreamed about career of a writer and it took several years to get her first book The Mysterious Affair at Styles .
Agatha’s happiness was complete when Rosalind, her only daughter was born on 5th August 1919 but by 1926, her life was in tatters: Christie’s mother Clara died and Archie left her for another woman. In 1930 In Bagdad she met her second husband Max Mallowan. Agatha accompanied Max on his annual archaeological expeditions for nearly 30 years.
She continued to write, both at home and on field trips. She and Max were happily married for 46 years. After a hugely successful career and a wonderful life Agatha died peacefully on 12 January 1976.

Interesting facts:
Agatha also wrote six romances under the name Mary Westmacott;
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. Her novels have sold roughly 4 billion copies, and her estate claims that her works rank third, after those of William Shakespeare and the Bible, as the world's most widely published books;
According to Index Translationum, Christie is the most translated individual author, and her books have been translated into at least 103 languages.
In 1971, she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.

The case of discontented husband.
This story about detective Parker Pyne was wrote by Agatha Christie in 1932. This is the fourth “case” after stories about middle-aged wife, discontented soldier and distressed lady.
The plot of the story consist on that Parker Pyne is visited by Mr. Reginald Wade.
His wife wants him to give her a divorce so that she can marry another chap. She’s unhappy with him and gives him 6 months to change her mind and male her love him again.
The detective talk to him that he can help him. He advices Mr. Wade to have a flirtation with another woman. Parker Pain suggests to use his assistant beautiful Madeleine de Sara.
In the end Mr. Wade changes his choice and asks for a divorce with Iris because he fell in love with Madeleine. He proposes her to marry him but she refuses. Parker Pyne fails his case.
From my point of view, Agatha wanted to show how inconstant may be behavior of people in their relativities. Today you love one person, tomorrow – another. She tried to show how change family in our time. A divorce is usual thing today. I think, this situation is very grievous. Furthermore, I’ve learned one thing from this story - if I’ll have problems with my future wife, I never ask detective to help me. I will better ask psychologist or will try to find out the solution by myself. This case has shown to me explicitly what I shouldn’t do if I would have problems in family.
Anyway, Christie wrote this with a big part of humor. I think she tried to describe how character and behavior of men seems to women. That all men are like a “sly dog Reggie”.
In conclusion I'd like to say that I have never read Agatha Christie stories and I can't compare style of her writing in this book with any of her other books. But I'm positive that I'll read all of them because I’ve totally enjoyed this one.

Roald Dahl was born in Wales on 16th September 1916 to Norwegian parents. His father died when he was 3 years old and he was raised by his mother. He had a fairly unhappy time at boarding school which provided some of the inspiration for his later stories.
After leaving school he worked for the Shell Oil Company based in Africa until the outbreak of World War II, when he signed up with the Royal Air Force. Unfortunately he was injured in action and eventually returned home as an invalid. He was then sent to Washington DC to work as an attaché where, almost by accident, he started his writing career. When he was interviewed for an article about his time in action he offered to write about his experiences. His piece was published in the Saturday Evening Post, who signed him up to write more articles.
In 1943 he wrote his first children’s book, The Gremlins, which was originally intended to be made into an animated film by Walt Disney. The film was not made and instead Dahl turned to writing adult fiction, not writing another children’s story until the 1960s.
By this time he was a father himself and had started making up stories to entertain his own children. From this came the stories of James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He went on to write 21 children’s books including Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, The BFG, Matilda, and The Witches, all of which have been made into films. Roald Dahl died on 23rd November 1990.

Parson’s Pleasure.
Dahd’s stories are known for their unexpected endings, and his children's books for their unsentimental, often very dark humor.
“Parson's Pleasure” is a short story written by Dahl, first published in the April 1958 in Esquire. It is included in his 1960 short story collection “Kiss Kiss”. This story tells us about Mr. Ciryl Boggis and his business. . He is an antiques dealer and earns money by bilking and makes a profit each year by buying valuable furniture cheaply from unsuspecting country people. One day Cyril has a trip to Buckinghamshire. There he finds a very rare Chippendale Commode in a farmhouse – Rummins and Bert. Boggis realizes that if he has this commode, he will become a very rich person. That’s why he starts to use his tricks to wangle this very valuable furniture. At last, he manages to get Rummis to sell Chippendale Commode to him for twenty pounds. Local man agrees on this arrangement because Mr. Boggis says him that he need a new set of legs for a table he owns. But while Boggis gets his vehicle the three men decide to help the parson. They assume that he has not a big car to carry so big and heavy furniture. They decide to cut out legs from the commode and then smash it on pieces at all.
I think Roald Dahl tried to write story in a light, simple and relaxing style to his readers who don’t want tauten in reading this writing. From my point of view, he managed to do it because, for example, I have got a lot of pleasure in studying this work.
The writer tries to show us that it isn’t matter how much tricks and talents you have, it’s no matter how are you succeed because if you do wrong, illegal this, then requital will follow you.
As you have already been told, Roald Dahl liked to use lots of humor and put to use unexpected endings in his stories. And this one is not an exception.
In conclusion I'd like to say that I have never read Dahl stories and I can't compare style of her writing in this book with any of her other books. But I'm positive that I'll read all of them because I’ve totally enjoyed this one.

O. Henry (1862-1910) was originally born William Sydney Porter in Greensboro, North Carolina.As a young man, he moved to Austin, Texas where he worked as a bank teller. He moved again to Houston, Texas in 1895 and became a newspaper columnist.
In 1896, however, he was called back to Austin, where he was charged with embezzling money from the bank where he had worked. Not wanting to go to prison for his crime, O. Henry fled to Honduras, and stayed there for six months before returning to the United States.
Upon his return, the court tried him and put him in an Ohio prison for three years. While in prison, he began writing short stories and it is there that he took the pen-name O. Henry for his writings.
After his release from prison in 1901, he moved to New York, which is the setting for many of his stories. He is the author of over 250 stories and is most famous for his use of surprise or 'twist' endings. Notice the twists and surprises in the endings to "The Last Leaf", "The Green Door", and perhaps his most famous story, "The Gift of the Magi".

Pseudonym.
No one knows how he chose his pen name.
Theories:
The European chemist O. Henry, as seen in farmacy magazines;
African-American ranch-hand, an excellent storyteller, named Old Henry;
Cowboy song with the line, “Oh Henry, what sentence have you got?”
Costumer at bank named Henry who was frequently called back to the counter with “Oh, Henry!”
Wharf master in Honduras whom others called “Oh Hennery.”
Captain of prison guard whose name was O. Henry in the account books;

“Witches’ Loaves”
That story about two persons - Miss Martha Meacham and Blumberger. She is forty, she possesses two false teeth and a sympathetic heart. She also keeps the little bakery on the corner. He’s an architectural draughtsman who speaks English with a strong German accent. He is middle-aged man, wearing spectacles and beard trimmed to a careful point. Blumberger is a permanent consumer of Martha’s bakery and that Miss Meacham is interested in him. He always buys two loaves of stale bread. She is sure that Blumberger is an artist because she saw a red and brown stain on his fingers. Then Martha notices that he begins to look thinner and decided to help him. One day when the man visits the bakery and Martha inserts butter into his loaves.
After a few days the artist and young man smoking a pipe come in. Blumberger abuses Miss Meacham so his friend drags him out at the door. After that he explains all for Martha. Now she knows that he’s a draughtsman and uses handfuls of stale breadcrumbs to rub out pencil lines on his works. That’s better than india-rubber. That means that Miss Martha’s action destroyed all his work.
I think that the moral of the story is that you should no live in illusions instead of real life. One day your illusions will be broken.
After reading this story I have also learned that if you decide to make something, then you’ll look before you leap.
I would like to advice you to read “Witches’ Loaves” and others O. Henry’s stories. They’re absolutely not difficult and very nice for reading. The most surprising thing is that William Porter was in a prison when he had started to write short stories. I think O. Henry had a very strong character and it helped him to write such humorous stories in such a terrible place.

The folktale is a story, passed down verbally from generation to generation. Each storyteller told the stories a little differently, making them more interesting and fascinating as the ages passed. Different folktales bear the characteristics of the culture, folklore and customs of the people from which they originated.
The Celts were a group of tribal societies in ancient Europe who spoke Celtic languages and had similar culture. Present day Celts live in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and small parts of France and England.

The Brownie O’Ferne-Den
Brownies are said to inhabit houses and aid in tasks around the house. However, they do not like to be seen and will only work at night, traditionally in exchange for small gifts of food. Among food, they especially enjoy porridge and honey. They usually abandon the house if their gifts are called payments, or if the owners of the house misuse them. Brownies make their homes in an unused part of the house.
This folk tale is about the Brownie from the o’Ferne-Den glen. He helps a farmer in working about the farm when he can’t manages to finish all the job. All that farmer and his wife has to do is to put down a bowl of new milk on the doorstep for Brownie’s supper. However, everyone about the place was afraid of him and would rather go a couple of miles round about in the dark than pass through the glen , and run the risk of catching a glimpse of him. Only farmer’s wife doesn’t afraid the kind Brownie.
One night this gentle lady was taken very ill. Everyone agrees that it would be better to send off for an old woman who lives about seven miles away on the other side of the river, who was known to be a very skilful nurse. The farmer dare not leave his wife alone and servants afrads to go because of the terrible Brownie. He hears all their talks and decides to go by himself. He takes down a dark coat and rides to the old woman’s house be a horse. The Old woman dare not to refuse to help the farmer’s wife and rides back with the Brownie to the farm. In the end the cloak slips down and the old lady sees her rider. He tells her to go her way into the house and tell servants that she just had to be content to ride behind the Brownie o’Ferne-Den.
I think that his folktale let us see clearly how wrong people could be when they estimate somebody only because of his look and that behind of a terrible outside can hide beautiful soul and boundless kindness.