The analysis of the story: From W.S. by L.P. Hartley Leslie Poles Hartley (1895—1972), the son of a solicitor, was educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford and for more than twenty years from 1932 was a fiction reviewer for such periodicals as the Spectator, Sketch, Observer and Time and Tide. He published his first book, a collection of short stories entitled "Night Fears" in 1924. His novel "Eustace and Hilda" (1947) was recognized immediately as a major contribution to English fiction; "The Go-Between" (1953) and "The Hireling" (1957) were later made into internationally successful films. In 1967 he published "The Novelist's Responsibility", a collection of critical essays. L.P. Hartley was a highly skilled narrator and all his tales are admirably told. "W.S." comes from "The Complete Short Stories of L.P. Hartley" published posthumously in 1973. At the beginning of the story the author introduces the main character of it who is Walter Streeter. The first postcard he receives is from Forfar and is anonymous. Usually he answers to the letters but this one didn’t have any address so Walter was relieved that he doesn’t need to answer to it. The photograph of Forfar was uninteresting and he tore it up. About ten days later, Walter receives another postcard, but this time it was from Berwick –on –Tweed. After reading the second letter Walter began to wonder if the sender was a woman or a man. After some time he dismissed the stirrings of curiosity that he felt, because he wasn’t a man to experience with acquaintances. Further on he threw the postcard of Berwick –on –Tweed in his November fire. The third postcard appeared from York Minster. It said that Walter was interested in cathedrals, but he didn’t know how could W.S. know about that. For the first time Walter noticed that the initials were his own, but he thought that these initials might have anyone. He supposed he had been writing postcards to himself. Walter showed the postcard to a friend of his, and that one said the admirer is a lunatic woman. He also added that Walter should not pay attention to those postcards if they worry him. He tried to destroy the postcard like the others, but something in him wanted to preserve it. The last postcard came from Coventry. It said the admirer was getting nearer. For the first time he noticed that each postcard came from a place geographically closer to him than the last. After all, Walter decided to show the postcard to an alienist, but soon he changed his mind and went to the police. The police said those postcards were a hoax and that the sender would never show up in flesh. The story ends with the police asking Walter to let them know if further postcards come. Speaking about the structure of the story, we see that there is no exposition in it, because it begins with the first letter that Walter received from the anonymous sender. The plot itself consists of all 4 letters that are sent to Walter. The climax of the story is when Walter was in panic because for the first time he noticed that all the letters came from a place geographically closer than the last one. And the denuma of the text is when Walter goes to the police and shows the letters to them. There are two main characters in this story: Walter Streeter and W.S. Both of them are not characterized directly, but due to the actions that are made by them. Walter Streeter was a novelist. He was a conscientious person, due to the fact that every time when he receives a letter from someone he answered it. Even if at first sight the letters were somehow banal, for Walter Streeter they were very significant, because each of them made him think of himself and even judge himself in some cases. Every letter had at least one question in it which lingered in Walter’s mind for a long time and even frighten him because of their message. When he noticed that the initials of the sender of the letters were his own he thought that he was writing letters to himself which made us think that he is a little bit strange. Also, he thought that he is a lunatic person, due to the conclusion made by his friend when Walter showed him the letter. He was in panic when he found out that the sender was getting nearer to him and made him even go to the police. Another main character of this story is W.S., who is the sender of the letters. He is also described indirectly, through the letters that he sends to Walter Streeter. We know that he is travelling around the country and is getting nearer to Walter. Due to the message of the letters he writes, we understand that at first sight he is a friendly person, communicative one, but further on, we can see that his messages are frightening Walter somehow and that is not so friendly as he seemed to be at the beginning of the story. He knows everything about Walter and every time he tries to give advises to Walter. The idea of the story is the responsibility of a novelist, because any person should be aware of what he is writing and doing in general, should think about what consequences can happen after his actions. There are a lot of stylistic devices in the story, like metaphors: fruitful conflict, stirrings of curiosity, metonymy: borderline case, epithets: November fire, antithesis: perfection of ordinariness, simile: "A woman, a little mouse-like creature, who had somehow taken a fancy to him!", etc, which are used to make the text more literal, expressive and to attract the reader’s attention. There are some inner conflicts in this story. All of them are happening in our main character’s mind: after he reads each letter he thinks of the message that is written in it and about what shall he do: to believe all that is written there, to change himself, or maybe all those sentences are just an allusion to his mind and are making him more confused, and that’s why he doesn’t know what to do. To my mind, through this story the author tries to keep every reader in suspense while reading it, with nobody expecting such a strange end. In general, the author is trying to touch upon different strange themes in all his stories which are totally different from other writers’ stories that are making him famous.