Review: There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury
I encountered There Will Come Soft Rains when I was a little kid. I was reading high school level novels in grade school, eventually graduating to college textbooks on astronomy and science when I was nine years old.
I read this short story and it did something that shocked me. When I was done I had tears on my face. I didn’t understand why, but something in this story had found a way through the maze of my mis-wired brain and triggered an emotional response.
Short answer: “There Will Come Soft Rains” is a Ray Bradbury short story about an automated house that keeps cooking, cleaning, and announcing the date after a nuclear blast has killed its family. It first appeared in Collier’s on May 6, 1950, and a revised version became the chapter “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains” in The Martian Chronicles.
Quick facts about “There Will Come Soft Rains”
| Fact | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Ray Bradbury | ISFDB title record |
| Form | Short story, not a novel | ISFDB (type: short fiction; length: short story) |
| First published | Collier’s, May 6, 1950 issue (vol. 125, no. 18, starting on page 34) | ISFDB; Wikipedia) |
| Length in Collier’s | Described as a one-page short story | Wikipedia) |
| In a book | Revised as the chapter “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains” in The Martian Chronicles (Doubleday, 1950); the book and the magazine came out about two days apart | Wikipedia: the story); Wikipedia: The Martian Chronicles |
| Setting | Allendale, California. In the original Chronicles version, the house announces, “Today is August 4, 2026” | Wikipedia) |
| Later date change | The 1997 edition of The Martian Chronicles moved every date forward 31 years, retitling the chapter “August 2057: There Will Come Soft Rains” | Wikipedia); ISFDB (variant titles) |
| Title source | Sara Teasdale’s poem “There Will Come Soft Rains,” first published in Harper’s Monthly Magazine in July 1918, which the house recites in the story | Wikipedia: the poem) |
How many pages is it? That depends on the book in your hands. Collier’s ran it as a one-page story, and anthologies and textbooks set it in their own type and layout, so check the table of contents of your edition rather than trusting a single number.
My review
Two things within the story made me sad enough to show it, and unlike most folks who would think it would be the dog in the story, it was the odd things that set me off – the shadow of the family burned into the side of the house when they were playing catch, and the house itself, still doing its best to fulfill its primary function and reason for existing. The bright, chipper language that nobody would ever hear again announcing the daily schedule while it cleaned up and made the meals that nobody would eat. The way the house battled for its life against the flames.
This story made me realize just how powerful the written word can be.
Why it still lands in 2026
Bradbury’s lyrical style still rings true more than 75 years after the story was first published. Everything within the story can still theoretically happen, and we’ve now caught up with the date on the house’s calendar: August 4, 2026, in the original edition of The Martian Chronicles. When I first wrote this review in 2017, that date was still nine years away. In the 1950s, it seemed that we’d be off to see the stars (or at least living on the moon or Mars) by this time. The next millennium was so far off that it was like Star Trek or Lost in Space, or at least something cheesy like This Island Earth or Destination Mars.
It’s a few generations later and we still are worried about things like a nuclear holocaust while our space program has withered from neglect. It seems we’ve dropped the ball, but once in a while we see a glimmer of hope like private space corporations and the flybys of Pluto, Saturn, and Jupiter that were in the news when I first wrote this.
Soft Rains suffers from a common problem in science fiction: using dates that eventually come and make the stories, well, dated. I see this less now than from the pulp and ‘golden age’ eras because authors want to make their stories relevant beyond a particular date range. Back in 2017, I warned that in nine years Soft Rains would succumb to the unrelenting forces of time catching up. Time has now caught up. The 1997 edition of The Martian Chronicles advanced every date by 31 years, so newer copies say August 2057, but pick up an older copy and the house’s last voice still repeats, “Today is August 5, 2026.” We’ve lived past that morning, and the story hasn’t lost a bit of its sting. Tick-tock! Time to wake up.
A later note: Bradbury’s house
In January 2015, I read that Bradbury’s house had been sold and torn down, and my first thought was that it should have been turned into a museum. Then I remembered this story about a house that dies, and I figured Ray, a futurist to the end, would understand. For some reason, when I read this story in The Martian Chronicles, it really impacted me on an emotional level (which was surprising, since I was an Asperger kid before the definition was finalized).
If I had my druthers, I would hope that someone saved the pay-for-use typewriter he used to bang out Fahrenheit 451. That piece of history does belong in a museum, both as a testament to his tenacity as an author and to a man I personally admire.
Frequently asked questions
What is “There Will Come Soft Rains” about?
It follows an automated house in Allendale, California, after a nuclear blast has wiped out the city and the family who lived there. The house keeps making breakfast, cleaning, and announcing the schedule to no one, until a fire destroys it. No living person appears; the house is the main character.
When was “There Will Come Soft Rains” first published?
It first appeared in the May 6, 1950 issue of Collier’s. A revised version came out the same month as a chapter of The Martian Chronicles, published by Doubleday.
How many pages is “There Will Come Soft Rains”?
It’s a short story, not a book. Its Collier’s appearance is described as one page, but the page count in an anthology or textbook depends on that edition’s layout, so check your copy’s table of contents.
Is “There Will Come Soft Rains” in The Martian Chronicles?
Yes. It’s the chapter “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains” in the original 1950 edition and “August 2057: There Will Come Soft Rains” in the 1997 edition, which moved all the book’s dates forward 31 years.
Where does the title come from?
From Sara Teasdale’s poem of the same name, first published in July 1918, during World War I. In the story, the house reads the poem aloud to its absent owner, and the poem’s picture of nature carrying on without us is the whole story in miniature.
What year is the story set in?
It depends on the version. The original edition of The Martian Chronicles sets it on August 4, 2026, and the 1997 edition moves it to 2057. Wikipedia reports that the Collier’s magazine version was set on April 28, 1985.
Where to go next
If this review hit home, you can read more about me, browse my bibliography, or pick up one of my books. I write horror, science fiction, and fantasy, and I’m still chasing the kind of story that leaves a kid with tears on his face.