The short read, The Landlady, is about a teenager named Bill. He traveled from London to Bath on a train, and by the time he arrived, it was about nine o’clock at night, and it was pretty dark out. He wanted to go to a hotel to sleep for the night that wasn’t too far away. He never went to Bath before, and didn’t know anyone who lived there. That means that he didn’t know the directions or couldn’t ask anyone for them. He saw a sign labeled “Bed and Breakfast,” and decided to go there since the name was pretty straightforward. Once inside, a lot of weird things happen, and the woman seems a bit out of her mind.
The theme for this story is to not be too quick to trust your surroundings or others. When he saw the animals in the hotel at first, they seemed to be alive, and he thought that animals were usually a good sign. But he didn’t know that those animals were actually dead and stuffed. He also didn’t think about how the lady was acting a bit too polite. She was also acting weird, trying to take care of almost everything. She forgot many things easily too.
Then, she talks about how his features were better than the 2 other guests, called Mr. Mulholland and Mr. Temple. Also, when he said he was seventeen, she said it was the perfect age, which was also very weird. She also asked him to write his name in a book so she could remember it later on. She said that the two people were living upstairs, but there was no sign of anyone else living there other than Bill and her.