—And He Built a Crooked House—
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There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile. —There Was A Crooked Man
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—And He Built a Crooked House— is a short story by Robert A. Heinlein, first published in 1941.
Quintus Teal is an architect always looking for the next big thing in design. While having a friendly conversation with his friend, Homer Bailey, Teal dreams about building a house that utilizes a fourth dimension. When he admits that this is currently impossible, he still thinks that the preliminary steps toward it could be a great new design type and he persuades Bailey to let him build a new house for him as an unfolded tesseract. When it is completed, he proudly takes Bailey and his wife to view the innovative new home. However, a small earthquake during the night has made the impossible a reality, and unfortunately, Teal and the Baileys become trapped in the middle of his architectural masterpiece.
- Alien Geometries
- Author Avatar - Heinlein makes a brief allusion to himself as the "Hermit of Hollywood" who lives across the street from Teal.
- Bizarrchitecture - Literally taken to the next dimension.
- Fainting - Mrs. Bailey repeatedly does the Emotional Faint variety throughout the story.
- Going in Circles - Teal winds up chasing himself around the entire tesseract several times before retrieving his own dropped hat and realizing what's happened.
- Henpecked Husband - Bailey shows signs of this as his wife can be quite shrewish. However, given the events of the story, her dislike of Teal may be well placed.
- Hyperspace Is a Scary Place
- I Need a Freaking Drink - When Teal hands Bailey a shot of liquor to help revive his wife, he downs it himself.
- Literary Allusion Title - To the nursery rhyme There Was A Crooked Man.
- Only in America - The introduction to the story is the perfect explanation of this trope (see trope page for the quote).