Dec 18, 2009

Instructions for John Howell | Instructions for John Howell

At a glance:

Author: Julio Cortazar
First Published: 1966
Type of Plot: Fantasy
Time of Work: The late 1960's
Setting: London, England
Principal Characters: Rice, An actor, An actress, Flora, An actor, The tall man
Genres: Short fiction, Fantasy
Subjects: Acting or actors, Politics, Art or artists, Reality, Hallucinations or illusions, Drama or dramatists
Locales: London, England

The Story

The title of the story, “Instructions for John Howell,” is ambiguous, for the identity of John Howell is only tentative. John Howell is a fictional character in a play that Rice attends. John Howell is also the actor who appears in the role, and, during the second and third acts of the four-act play, John Howell is Rice himself.

During the first intermission of the play that Rice is attending at the Aldwych Theater, a man in gray invites him backstage, gives him a costume and wig, and instructs him to act the part of John Howell. When Rice protests that he...

[The entire page is 1468 words long]

Instructions for John Howell | Instructions for John Howell

At a glance:

The Story

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