Amusement Only

by Richard Marsh

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 101 TWINS! CHAPTER I. THE FIRST LADY. mrs. And Miss Danvers. Mr. Herbert Buxton, standing at the office window of the hotel, glancing at the visitors' book on the desk at his right, saw the names among the latest arrivals. They caught his eye. Pontresina was stated to be the place from which they had lately come. It is the Danvers, for a fiver?Cecil's Danvers. Strolling from the office window, he took a letter ?a frayed letter?from his pocket-book. It was post-marked Pontresina. The signature was Cecil Buxton ?it was from his brother. Dear Hubert, it ran, you really must get something to do! Your request for what you call an advance is absurd. So far from advancing you anything I shall have to cut short the allowance I have been making you. I have met here a Mrs. and Miss Danvers. I have asked Miss Danvers to do me the honour to marry me. She has consented. When that event comes to pass?which will be veryshortly?your allowance will recede to a vanishing point That you will get something to do is, therefore, the advice of your affectionate brother, Cecil Buxton. It would be an odd coincidence, reflected Hubert, if that Miss Danvers is this Miss Danvers. An idea occurred to his fertile?too fertile?brain. As the first glimmerings of the idea burst on him, Hubert smiled. In giving birth to Cecil and Hubert Buxton, Nature had been indulging in one of her freaks. They were twins?born within a few seconds of each other. Cecil came .first. Hubert came, with all possible expedition, immediately after. Babies are proverbially alike. These babies were so much alike that, when they were undressed, no one ever pretended to be able to tell one from the other. The resemblance outlived babyhood. As the years went on, Cecil was always being ...

Genres: Classics, Ebooks

76 pages, Paperback

First published October 14, 2010

About the author

Richard Marsh was the pseudonym of the English author born Richard Bernard Heldmann. A best-selling and prolific author of the late 19th century and the Edwardian period, Marsh is best known now for his supernatural thriller novel The Beetle, which was published the same year as Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), and was initially even more popular, outselling Dracula six times over. The Beetle remained in print until 1960. Marsh produced nearly 80 volumes of fiction and numerous short stories, in genres including horror, crime, romance and humour. Many of these have been republished recently, beginning with The Beetle in 2004. Marsh's grandson Robert Aickman was a notable writer of short "strange stories".

Reviews

[Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contained a variety of short stories from different genres including mystery, romance and the supernatural. The common thread between them though was, as the title indicates, amusement. Some stories were comedic and others simply had an ironic twist. A few of the stories were duds and only worth two stars. Others were an easy four stars, hence my overall three star rating. I'm looking forward to reading more by this author. He has a very readable style, and a knack for looking at life from a variety of perspectives. Plus a good eye for the ridiculous. Librivox has published an audiobook edition of this book, and I listened to some of the stories there, but I also read from the Gutenberg version.