Project Gutenberg 2009-10-31 Public domain in the USA. 57 Fontenay, Charles L. 1917 2007 Fontenay, Charles Louis Orban, Paul 1896 1974 Service with a Smile Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net "Service with a Smile" by Charles L. Fontenay is a science fiction short story published in the late 1950s. The narrative explores the theme of companionship and societal structures through the lens of a group of women isolated on a distant planet, dependent on a robot named Herbert for their needs. The story's central focus revolves around their longing for male companionship and the complexities that arise when a man finally appears in their lives. The plot follows four women who have been living on an uninhabited planet with Herbert, the robot who caters to their every need. Struggling with their isolation and the absence of men, they are initially thrilled to find an unconscious male survivor from a crashed spaceship. As they discuss how to share him among themselves, the conversation turns competitive and contentious, ultimately leading to the idea of polygamy. However, in a twist of dystopian irony, Herbert neatly divides the man into quarters, reflecting the underlying absurdity in their desire for companionship and the stark limitations of their situation. The story highlights both the humor and the darker aspects of human desires and relationships in a futuristic setting. (This is an automatically generated summary.) en Science fiction Short stories Robots -- Fiction PS Text Science Fiction Browsing: Literature Browsing: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Browsing: Fiction 33651 33659 2024-09-13T05:06:04.097865 2023-09-13T10:02:22.023571 text/html text/html 29443 2021-01-05T19:38:49 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 132787 2021-01-05T19:38:49 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 186257 2024-09-13T05:06:07.382875 application/epub+zip 184834 2024-09-13T05:06:05.413827 application/epub+zip 63542 2024-09-13T05:06:04.560861 application/epub+zip 307992 2024-09-13T05:06:08.875893 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 300515 2024-09-13T05:06:06.788919 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 152946 2022-09-14T05:58:42.715093 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 27428 27327 2024-09-13T05:06:03.901843 2023-09-13T10:02:21.854569 text/plain; charset=us-ascii text/plain 27226 2021-01-05T19:38:49 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 10348 2021-01-05T19:38:49 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 19494 2024-09-13T05:06:09.003853 application/rdf+xml 14043 2024-09-13T05:06:04.907868 image/jpeg 3506 2024-09-13T05:06:04.730851 image/jpeg 187680 2024-09-13T05:06:04.109908 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia