"Swat the Fly!": A One-Act Fantasy by Eleanor Gates

Read now or download (free!)

Choose how to read this book Url Size
Read online (web) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65912.html.images 64 kB
EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65912.epub3.images 275 kB
EPUB (older E-readers) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65912.epub.images 275 kB
EPUB (no images, older E-readers) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65912.epub.noimages 97 kB
Kindle https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65912.kf8.images 312 kB
older Kindles https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65912.kindle.images 302 kB
Plain Text UTF-8 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65912.txt.utf-8 45 kB
Download HTML (zip) https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/65912/pg65912-h.zip 288 kB
There may be more files related to this item.

About this eBook

Author Gates, Eleanor, 1875-1951
LoC No. 15008838
Title "Swat the Fly!": A One-Act Fantasy
Note Reading ease score: 89.2 (6th grade). Easy to read.
Credits D A Alexander, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
Summary "Swat the Fly!" by Eleanor Gates is a one-act fantasy play written in the early 20th century. The story unfolds in a garden behind a laboratory for animal experimentation, highlighting the ethical dilemmas surrounding vivisection and animal rights. The play explores themes of compassion, cruelty, and the interconnectedness of all living beings through a humorous yet poignant narrative. The plot centers on a confrontation between a doctor experimenting on animals and a woman inspector who questions his methods. A boy enters to feed the animals, believing they're being mistreated, which leads to a debate over the morality of animal testing. While the animals express their grievances against the doctor, they ultimately discover that a common fly is the real threat, carrying diseases that necessitate the doctor's work. In a twist, they decide to team up against the fly, realizing that it is the source of their troubles, resulting in a comical yet insightful resolution where they resolve to "swat the fly" instead of the doctor. The play cleverly uses anthropomorphic animals to discuss serious issues, blending humor with a message about the responsibility humans have towards animals and nature. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Language English
LoC Class RC: Medicine: Internal medicine
LoC Class PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature
Subject American drama -- 20th century
Subject Flies as carriers of disease
Category Text
EBook-No. 65912
Release Date
Copyright Status Public domain in the USA.
Downloads 47 downloads in the last 30 days.
Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free!