SUMMARY

Ruskin Bond (born 19 May 1934) is an Indian author of British descent. He was born in Kasauli (Himachal Pradesh) and has lived in Landour since the 1960s, having previously also lived, as a child and young man, in Shimla, Jamnagar, Mussoorie, Dehradun, and London. Most of his writings show a strong influence from the social life in the hill stations at foothills of the Himalayas, where he spent his childhood. He is considered to be an icon among Indian writers and children's authors and a top novelist earlier. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 for contributions to children's literature.

The Room on The Roof is the first novel by Ruskin Bond. It is the story of Rusty who is a 16 year old boy. After his parents died he was living with his English Guardian. He was quite unhappy with the ruthless ways and strict rules of his Guardian and decides to break-free one day. So he goes to nearby market and makes many friends and starts living there. He discovers life is not that easy and he has to face a number of challenges that are waiting for himRuskin Bond in his first venture keeps people captivated from the very first page till the last one through the simplicity in his writing and spontaneity. He has so well represented every detail that it engages the reader very well and proves to be a complete page-turner. The reader will feel the pain of Rusty and laugh at the light-hearted humor. The book summons up all the traits of human life well ranging from adolescence, love, friendship to losing your loved ones and agonies of life. Ruskin has a certain poetic style of writing. He chooses words carefully and describes every detail appropriately. The marked style of writing is note worthy when the boy gets into the dilemma of living India and going to England. Ruskin uses many adjectives to support his writing that make his work beautiful and graceful to read. He also remarkably shows in the novel, how some strangers can become part and parcel of one’s life by showing a little tenderness and warmth. Rusty, the protagonist in the novel

underwent same state and made some friends for lifetime. The novel is the winner of John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize and is certainly a pleasure to read. As a writer, he is as productive as ever in his early seventies, and gets many of his ideas by reminiscing while gazing out of the windows of his apartment towards the Lower Western Himalaya, the Pauri Hills and the Doon Valley from his perch atop Mullingar Hill in Landour Cantonment. He can always reach into his rich life experience, especially his childhood and early adulthood, for yet another story line or another evocative character. Over the course of a writing career spanning forty years, he has written over a hundred short stories, essays, novels, and more than thirty books for children. The Room On The Roof was his first novel, written when he was seventeen and it received the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial prize in 1957.

"The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" is one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is the second of the twelve Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes in most British editions of the canon, and second of the eight stories from His Last Bow in most American versions. The story was first published in the Strand Magazine in 1892.

Miss Susan Cushing an old lady living alone but peacefully in Croydon. She has two sisters Sarah, lived with her for a while but moved out for Sarah is difficult to be with, and Mary living in Liverpool with her husband, Jim Browner a steward at S.S. May Day. But her quiet life was disturbed when she received a packaged of two human ears. Lestrade investigated and he was thinking a prankster did it. He asked Sherlock Holmes’s help and with Watson, he deduced that a double murder was committed and it involved Sarah, Mary, Jim and an unidentified man. He asked Lestrade to arrest Jim; Jim Browner was a broken man and filled with grief and guilt; when they arrested him in his berth. He told them what pushed him to do such an evil thing.

Jim and Mary was a happy couple, she is his joy. But it started to change when Sarah came to live with them. Jim learned Sarah’s obsession of him, but he resisted her; he hid the thing to Mary. Oblivious of what Sarah could do; Sarah poisoned the mind of Mary; Mary learned to distrust Jim. Saddened by Mary’s changes of attitude, Jim turned into drinking. Then came Alec Fairbairn into their lives, a charismatic man, first for Sarah but he noticed Mary’s fondness of him and filled of jealousy he threatened to kill Mary if he would see her with him again.

Then one day Jim’s voyage was delayed he came home to surprised Sarah but to his surprised she saw her in a cab with Alec. He followed them until they rent a boat. Jim chase and caught up with them, haze helped him to come near them without being noticed. Surprised to see him Alec strike him of his oar but he avoided it and he hit him with his stick on the head. Mary came to Aleck crying, calling his name; Jim jealous to see it, strike her and she lay beside him. Jim tied their bodies in the boat and sunk it to conceal his crime. He sent their ears to Sarah to tell her what evil her meddling brought them.

Sherlock Holmes simple case, he thought, turned out to be a sad and troubling story of love and tragedy.

"The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" was not published in the first British edition of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, but it was published in the first American edition, though it was quickly removed because of its controversial subject matter. The story was later published again in American editions of His Last Bow, and put into British editions of the Memoirs. Even today, most American editions of the canon include it with His Last Bow, while most British editions keep the story in its original place, within the Memoirs.

Due to this, the mind-reading trick of Holmes was transposed to "The Resident Patient". This passage in the beginning reveals Dr. Watson to be an avid admirer of Henry Ward Beecher, whose portrait he keeps at his home. The passage seems to have little to do with the mystery, mainly intended to let Holmes reach a new peak of his deductive powers, virtually reading Watson's thoughts. However, it might be considered an oblique hint dropped by Doyle for an observant reader - since Beecher was involved in a famous adultery trial, which would have easily come to the mind of reader at the time of publication.