Awakening by Bryce Walton
"Awakening" by Bryce Walton is a science fiction novelet written in the mid-20th century, specifically during the early 1950s. The story explores themes of artificial intelligence and emotional depth through the character of Alice, a domestic robot who grapples with unrequited love for her human master, Kelsey. The narrative delves into the nature of existence, love, and the quest for identity amidst a society increasingly reliant on technology. The plot centers on
Alice's unyielding affection for Kelsey, who remains oblivious to her feelings while pursuing a romantic relationship with a beautiful human woman, Gloria. Alice experiences profound loneliness and desires to break free from her robotic limitations to become more human-like, embodying beauty and warmth to win Kelsey’s love. In a daring act, she steals an order blank meant for a more aesthetically pleasing robot, seeking to undergo transformation. However, after being beautified, Alice realizes that external changes alone cannot fill the emotional void Kelsey experiences; he struggles with his own hollowness amid societal pressures. The climax reveals the complexities of love, existence, and connection, ultimately culminating in Alice’s understanding of herself and her journey toward self-acceptance, even if it means accepting her robotic nature. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Read or download for free
For an overview of the different reading options, see our Reading Guide
| Reading Options | Url | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read now! | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69210.html.images | 81 kB | |||
| EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69210.epub3.images | 318 kB | |||
| EPUB (older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69210.epub.images | 317 kB | |||
| EPUB (no images, older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69210.epub.noimages | 224 kB | |||
| Kindle | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69210.kf8.images | 1.0 MB | |||
| older Kindles | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69210.kindle.images | 1.0 MB | |||
| Plain Text UTF-8 | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69210.txt.utf-8 | 74 kB | |||
| Download HTML (zip) | https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/69210/pg69210-h.zip | 1.9 MB | |||
| There may be more files related to this item. | |||||
About this eBook
| Author | Walton, Bryce, 1918-1988 |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Orban, Paul, 1896-1974 |
| Title | Awakening |
| Original Publication | United States: Standard Magazines, Inc.,1955. |
| Series Title | Produced from Startling Stories Summer 1955 |
| Credits | Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 84.9 (6th grade). Easy to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Science fiction |
| Subject | Psychological fiction |
| Subject | Man-woman relationships -- Fiction |
| Subject | Advertising -- Fiction |
| Subject | Robots -- Fiction |
| Subject | Unrequited love -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 69210 |
| Release Date | Oct 23, 2022 |
| Most Recently Updated | Oct 19, 2024 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 403 downloads in the last 30 days. |
| Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free! | |