Project Gutenberg
2010-04-21
Public domain in the USA.
116
Marks, Winston K. (Winston Kinney)
1915
1979
Marks, Winston Kinney
Brown John's Body
Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
"Brown John's Body" by Winston K. Marks is a science fiction short story originally published in a magazine during the mid-20th century, specifically in January 1955. The tale explores themes of isolation, human-animal relationships, and the darker side of human nature. The narrative revolves around Erd Neff, a man deeply distrustful of humanity, who prefers the company of a rat named John over other people. The story follows Erd Neff as he manages a cash vault filled with currency while living a solitary life, mainly interacting with his pet rat, John, whom he has trained to communicate in rudimentary sounds. Neff's life takes a tense turn when two young intruders break into his warehouse, incapacitating him with a dangerous gas and leaving him tied up. As he struggles to breathe and escape, he calls upon John for help, attempting to motivate the rat to chew through his bonds. However, in a grim twist, John's instincts drive him to consume Neff's flesh in a desperate bid for survival. This harrowing ending underlines both Neff's emotional disconnect and the primal nature of survival instinct in the face of death. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
http://book.klll.cc/files/32076/32076-h/images/cover.jpg
Reading ease score: 95.3 (5th grade). Very easy to read.
en
Short stories
Horror tales
Rats -- Fiction
PS
Text
Science Fiction
Category: Short Stories
Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy
53654
2025-08-13T07:29:01.566133
text/html
49860
2010-04-21T06:26:02
text/html
123930
2025-08-13T07:29:03.303123
application/epub+zip
122729
2025-08-13T07:29:01.897153
application/epub+zip
58040
2025-08-13T07:29:01.717164
application/epub+zip
159962
2025-08-13T07:29:04.553144
application/x-mobipocket-ebook
152364
2025-08-13T07:29:03.120155
application/x-mobipocket-ebook
88672
2022-09-14T16:17:02.379957
application/x-mobipocket-ebook
46001
2025-08-13T07:29:01.436140
text/plain; charset=us-ascii
45909
2010-04-21T06:26:02
text/plain; charset=us-ascii
18757
2025-08-13T07:29:04.674143
application/rdf+xml
23062
2025-08-13T07:29:01.779184
image/jpeg
4447
2025-08-13T07:29:01.748144
image/jpeg
131609
2010-04-21T06:26:16
application/octet-stream
application/zip
18449
2010-04-21T06:26:16
application/octet-stream
application/zip
138657
2025-08-13T07:29:01.589141
application/octet-stream
application/zip
Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at
https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog