First Love, Last Rites (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Ian McEwan
- First Published: 1975
- Type of Plot: Realism
- Time of Work: The twentieth century
- Setting: A city in England
- Principal Characters: The unnamed narrator, Sissel, Adrian, Sissel's father
- Genres: Short fiction
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Factories, Adolescence, Love or romance, Twentieth century, Poverty or poor people, England or English people, Rivers or waterways, Cruelty, Apartment houses, Western Europe or western Europeans, Rats or mice
- Locales: England
The Story
“First Love, Last Rites” is told by an unnamed narrator who lives with his girlfriend in a quayside apartment in England. Both are seventeen or eighteen years of age. It is early summer, and the lovers, filled with youthful passion, make love regularly on a mattress-covered table in front of a big, open window. Once, while they are lying on the table, the narrator becomes aware of clawing sounds behind the wall; shortly afterward, Sissel also hears the noise.
Sissel's ten-year-old brother, Adrian, comes to visit them. The narrator becomes acquainted with...
[The entire page is 1360 words long]
