"Legal Rites" is a fantasy short story by Isaac Asimov, originally published in the September 1950 issue of Weird Tales, and included in the 1972 collection The Early Asimov. It is a fantasy rather than science fiction tale and based on an idea from his friend, the author/agent/writer Fred Pohl. Asimov was unable to sell the story and gave it to Pohl, who rewrote it (under the nom de plume of James MacCreigh) and changed the title from 'Legal Rights'. He sold it some years later after Asimov had forgotten about it.
It is one of several Asimov stories that centre about a courtroom drama, such as Galley Slave.
Read more about Legal Rites: Plot Summary
Famous quotes containing the words legal and/or rites:
“No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.”
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“As if the musicians did not so much play the little phrase as execute the rites required by it to appear, and they proceeded to the necessary incantations to obtain and prolong for a few instants the miracle of its evocation, Swann, who could no more see the phrase than if it belonged to an ultraviolet world ... Swann felt it as a presence, as a protective goddess and a confidante to his love, who to arrive to him ... had clothed the disguise of this sonorous appearance.”
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