The Lake is my favorite Ray Bradbury story by far, followed closely by The Emissary, both of which I have in my slightly battered copy of October Country bought when I was a teenager in the 50’s. I also read what I believe to be Ray’s original version of The Lake as it appeared in one of the old Derleth horror collections, borrowed from the library. (Sleep No More? Maybe. I despise book stealers but that is one book I wish I had never returned. It must be a collectible by now. Those fabulous Lee Brown Coye illustrations!)

The Lake is moody and melancholy and was perfectly suited to my own young moodiness and melancholy at the time of first reading. I am still haunted by it. It is a unique and beautiful thing. I noticed later on that the writing was awkward compared to Ray’s later, more polished style but decided that that was one of its beauties. The fact that it sounds as if it were written by a sensitive boy or very young man adds a lot to its searing poignancy. I often imagined the boy telling the story even though the latter part of the story makes clear that the adult is speaking.

Bradbury has said that there were tears in his eyes when he finished writing it. To this day, I have tears in my eyes after reading it.

Over the years I decided that the story would be almost impossible to film properly, and the adaptation for the Bradbury Theater confirmed it for me. I was very disappointed. But the story is still there to be read.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Freeleigh,

Okay, I see that I said "favorite..by far" and then said "followed closely by.." It is permissible to have it both ways, right?
I should watch that stuff when in the presence of people who care about the language!

Oh, and the Derleth collection was "Who Knocks?" not "Sleep No More."

quote:

Originally posted by Freeleigh:
Okay, I see that I said "favorite..by far" and then said "followed closely by.."

It's good - I enjoyed a chuckle.

Can you Guide Us where we can find "The Lake Story ". either provide us the link of Downloading it or Kindly post the Party of story here itself.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: philnic,

Hi @Kemar Ellis. We can't post the story or a download link, because the story is in copyright and is not available in digital form.

You can find the story in the book THE STORIES OF RAY BRADBURY, which you can obtain from any good bookseller or library. Amazon sells it, too:

http://www.amazon.com/Stories-...id=1327422910&sr=8-1

Perhaps The Lake lacks the polish of his later work, but it's the story that touched me the most when I first read it in The October Country anthology when I was 16. Yes, it's highly unlikely that a body pulled from a lake bed after ten years would be so well preserved as to hair and facial features (fish and parasites would devour the flesh) but it is more of a ghost or spirit that he sees when the lifeguard opens the sack to show him his childhood love's face. On other boards, a few folks wondered how the adult Harold could so coldly disrespect the love that he found with his newlywed spouse as he returns to the smiling "strange woman" waiting. But it's simply an expression of how this first love still lives in his heart and its something he cannot share with the woman he was attracted to as an adult.

I felt that way about the first love thing, too. The wife was not being disrespected.