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At a glance
- Condition
- New
- Publisher
- RosettaBooks
- Accessibility
- Learn more
- Publication date
- January 21, 2002
- Language
- English
- File size
- 3.9 MB
- Screen Reader
- Supported
Description
From the iconic science fiction author of Fahrenheit 451, a chilling dystopian short story that became a classic episode of TV's Ray Bradbury Theater. The Playground, first published in the hardcover edition of Bradbury's legendary work Fahrenheit 451, tells the story of Charles Underhill, a widower who must protect his young son, Jim, from the horrors of the playground. Passing the playground on their daily walk brings Charles back the anguish of his own childhood—a nightmare of vulnerability and suffering. He will do anything to spare his sensitive son from the same torment. Charles's sister, Carol, who has moved in to help raise the young boy, feels differently. The playground, she believes, is preparation for life, and Jim will be more equipped to deal with the rigor and obligation of adult existence by facing it. Paralyzed by his own fear and his sister's invocation of reason, Charles learns of a way that Jim can be spared the playground. But it will come at a great cost . . . perhaps more than he can pay. Read more
Specs 9
| Publisher | RosettaBooks |
|---|---|
| Accessibility | Learn more |
| Publication date | January 21, 2002 |
| Language | English |
| File size | 3.9 MB |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Not Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
No specs match.
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Top Amazon Reviews
stay behind the line!
The story is great, that's perfectly known, just like the storytellers` talent of RB. My pleasure was to read it in the last days of his being near all of us on this planet, before his departure to Venus (actually, one of the most beutiful coincedences I've known about). That's hard to speak about this story without touching plot details and thus spoiling. I'd just say it's perfect road to the child fears of everyone. The door is always the same, some might be afraid of this, another - of that, not necessary playground is the thing, but these unpleasant moments, or, say, moments of terror (it depends) are hiding somewhere inside waiting for you to release ones some day. This book will turn you face to face with your personal child experience, just like with your flashbacks of your old good fears in your today when you're adult. reading it, you should be a bit scary, a bit fun, a bit closed to those around, a bit child and a bit - believer. Anyways, most likely you'll be greatefull reader. Hope so. `Cos I am.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2012 by Andriy Derevenko
"This is hell!"
I read Ray Bradbury's THE PLAYGROUND three times, underlining and highlighting words and phrases that has become an annoying habit, causing me to be a slow but thorough reader. Most people usually read a short story once, perhaps twice if they feel the caress or anxiety of its first impression. Those who have a special reason for a third reading of the story, as did I, will surely begin to understand that they were only water-skiing during the first two efforts. At the conclusion of my third reading I began to wonder if ... well, you don't really want a spoiler here, do you? THE PLAYGROUND tells us about Charles Underhill, recently widowed and raising his three-year-old son Jim with the help of his sister Carol. Because of his own experiences of being bullied at a local playground when he was a child, he is now firmly committed to ensuring that Jim will never know such cruelty. Carol, however, has other ideas. She feels that the playground will foster a spirit of competition and strength in the boy, and announces her intention to "start" him at the Playground tomorrow. Charles decides to check out the playground for himself, and the next day does just that, meeting a strange boy who ... oh, yes - the spoiler thing. Well, I suppose I could share an example of Bradbury's opulently sparse prose, simultaneously edging suggestively close to that spoiler alert: "But that was the very trouble! He had been through the mill already, he knew what it was to be a boy among lions, his own childhood had come rushing back to him in the last few hours, a time of terror and violence, and now he could not bear to think of Jim going through it all, those long years, especially if you were a delicate child, through no fault of your own, your bones thin, your face pale, what could you expect but to be harried and chased?" And: "I can't tell you outright," said the boy. "It has to do with the Playground. Any place where there's lots of evil, that makes power. You can feel it, can't you?" THE PLAYGROUND is a deceptively simple-worded story, or so it seems at first. But Bradbury has gleaned his way through the lexicon, choosing simple words to form a rich darkness that leaves the reader reeling ... wondering if he ever managed to get out his own youthful playground.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2012 by Kindle Customer...Tony Chiarilli
Ummm…
Format: Kindle
Possible Spoiler. * * * * * This was your typical deal with the devil story. Basically, Charlie is a helicopter parent and wants to protect his son from everything possible. He wants him to stay young, innocent, and sheltered. Charlie has his own trauma to deal with that he is basically projecting onto the world around him. I know this was a short story, but I needed more to really make the terror real. I would recommend, but it’s not for me. Maybe someone else will like it better.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2024 by Shernina B
You'll Never View Childhood or Parenthood the Same After This
"When you have two precious bits of porcelain and one is broken and the other, the last one, remains, where can you find the time to be objective, to be immensely calm, to be anything else but concerned? No, he thought, walking slowly, in the hall, there seems to be nothing I can do except go on being afraid and being afraid of being afraid." -Charles Underhill Do you remember what it was like to be a kid? The fears of children are varied and this novelette by Ray Bradbury crystallizes the hardship of children through the expressed fear of the Playground by Charlie, the parent, in a tight, disturbing, trippy story that will send a shiver up your spine. "Are all playgrounds like this?" Underhill said. "Some," replied the boy on the playground. "Maybe this is the only one like this. Maybe it's just how you look at it, Charlie. Things are what you want them to be." And in this story, the Playground is hell, the place where children go to be bullied and beaten, and it is this fate, that of living a childhood of torment, that Charlie wants to save his son from experiencing. The bottom line: Mr. Bradbury takes the traditional viewpoint--that childhood is the best time of our lives--and flips this notion on its head, holding a mirror to the reader that says, "No, it isn't! Here's why!" This was my first Ray Bradbury story and it won't be the last. -Raeden Zen
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Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2013 by Raeden Zen
A story that's hard to forget.
This short story, The Playground, made a friend's list of his top 10 reads of the year, so I tried it out. It's an oldie but a goodie! Quick read, 10 minutes and you're on the last page. But the ending stays with you for days, just twinkling at the back of your mind. What if ...
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2013 by Pamela Thomas
The best gangster novel that I've read in a very long time.
This novel took me on an incredible journey and I never knew that it was possible for a writer to be so knowledgeable in as many areas as Carmichael Wolfe is. I mean there's everything from domestic terrorists to an unknown phenomena that's taking place in the Dominican Republic. This book should definitely be made into a movie because it tells an incredible and never before told story about the mean streets of Los Angeles. And wait until you find out what Lady B and Lucifer's collective secret is. It will blow your socks off and especially when you find out that it's based in reality. Plus the TOGTGO (The Organization of Gangsters Thieves and Government Officials) has a secret of its own and you will be left speechless once you read this book in its entirety because there's a prophecy that relates to the 44th President of the United States of America and there's also an important message for young people that are contemplating a life of crime and this is the only book that I know of that tells the unabridged truth about the gangster world and this is why I recommend The Playground to everyone that's interested in knowing the truth. There's a message to law enforcement that will help them combat terrorism and that will make us Americans safe.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2011 by Nathaniel Armstrong Jr.
This was how Ray Bradbury did horror.
Format: Kindle
The element of this story that makes it most scary is that it centers around a conceptually ordinary event—a dad taking his young son to the neighborhood playground. But then it twists into something bleak and dark, not by the introduction of a vampire or werewolf, but by an unexpected answer to a basic question of parenting: what would you do to keep your child safe?
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Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2024 by William Merrill
Beautifully written and quite disturbing
I will admit up front, that I am a serious Bradbury fan. This short story did not disappoint, and I find myself again in awe at Bradbury's ability to create a mood without any overt language doing so. The whole story put me on edge and I found it to be thought-provoking and quite sad. I don't want to give away any part of the story, as the discovery is part of what makes it so disturbing, but if you enjoy Bradbury, good writing, mysterious characters and situations, and can appreciate seeing everyday things from a very different perspective, than I highly recommend it! It's a good read for a tiny price!
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Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2012 by Sambone