Synopsis

Dave purchases a new housekeeper robot, the latest model.

History

First publication: Astounding December 1938

1939 RetroHugo finalist for best short story.

Review

This is an early SF story, and a very early story for Del Rey. So it isn’t surprising that it is kind of simple in it’s style. It also isn’t surprising that the characters aren’t very deep. And the characterization of Helen is very 1930s. Yet there is still a lot to this story. All of the arguments over AI right now are brought to mind when reading this. The story was written at a time when robots were not seen sympathetically, making this the first to seethem as anything other than monsters, I believe. For all of it’s simplicity of writing it is still enjoyable. So it stands as a classic.