ABOUT THE AUTHOR Raymond Douglas Bradbury was born in 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois; and his boyhood in the American “heartland” greatly influenced his later writings, filled as they are with nostalgic visions of a simpler time (some of which offer great solace and joy; others—as in The Martian Chronicles—become dangerous lures and illusions that …
One minute it was Ohio winter…. And then a long wave of warmth crossed the small town…. Rocket summer…. The rocket lay on the launching field, blowing out pink clouds of fire and oven heat. The rocket stood in the cold winter morning, making summer with every breath of its mighty exhausts.—“Rocket Summer,” p. 1>The …
Although it is set in what was, when Bradbury wrote it, “the future,” The Martian Chronicles is largely concerned with the theme of coming to terms with the past. The human colonization of Mars is the arena in which both individual human beings and the species as a whole must wrestle with what lessons to …
The planet Mars itself is the most dominant symbol in The Martian Chronicles. Bradbury’s Mars bears little resemblance to the actual planet; rather, in the text, Mars is an ancient, mysterious, and dignified world that comes to symbolize a challenge to humanity, mostly portrayed in the book as younger upstarts than the Martians: how will …
Mr. and Mrs. K are the first native Martians we meet in The Martian Chronicles. Mrs. K, Ylla, experiences telepathic, dream-like communication with Captain Nathaniel York of the First Expedition from Earth—a relationship tinged with romance and eroticism that drives her husband, Yll, jealous… jealous enough, in fact, to kill York and his fellow human …
April 2026 (“The Long Years”) Summary: A rocket commanded by Captain Wilder of the Fourth Expedition lands on Mars. Wilder and his current crew are greeted by one of Wilder’s former crew, Hathaway. Hathaway invites Wilder and the crew to dinner with Hathaway’s family. At the meal, Wilder notes that Hathaway’s children appear not …
2004-05 (“The Naming of Names”)—April 2005 (“Usher II”) Summary: Emigration to Mars continues, and settlers reshape and rename the red planet to their liking, including one William Stendahl, who uses his vast fortune to build an elaborate “haunted house”: a mechanically operated reproduction of the gothic edifice in Edgar Allan Poe’s story, “The Fall …
February 2002 (“The Locusts”)—August 2002 (“Night Meeting”) Summary: The pace of emigration from Earth to Mars intensifies, and settlers begin building homes and towns. These pioneers, however, show little interest in learning about their new home world as an alien world; instead, they go to great extremes to shut the real Mars out, making …
March 2000 (“The Taxpayer”)—April 2000 (“The Third Expedition”) Summary: As Earth (so some fear) moves closer toward atomic war at home, a third expedition to Mars is mounted, with a crew of 17 men commanded by Captain John Black. One of the crew dies in transit. The survivors touchdown in what, impossibly, appears to …
The Martian Chronicles: Summary:2000 march April Read More »
August 1999 (“The Summer Night,” “The Earth Men”) Summary: At a Martian concert, the singer begins singing a strange new song in an unknown language (“She walks in beauty, like the night…”). Even the singer is shocked. Martian children begin singing strange nursery rhymes (“Old Mother Hubbard”). Women across the planet begin waking up …
