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The Pretender: A Story of the Latin Quarter
Excerpt from The Pretender: A Story of the Latin Quarter
But, after all, I went on to reflect, money is not so utterly a nuisance. Pleasant indeed to think that when most are pondering over the problem of the per manent meal - ticket, you are yourself well settled on the sunny side Of Easy Street. Poets have piped of Ar cady, have chorused of Bohemia, have expressed their enthusiasm for Elysian fields, but who has come to chant the praise of Easy Street? Yet surely it is the kindliest Of all? Behind its smiling windows are no maddening constraints, no irking servitudes, no tyranny Of time. Just sunshine, laughter, mockery Of masters - Oh, a thousand times blessed, golden, glori ous Easy Street!
Here I lighted a fresh cigarette and settled more snugly in that chair Of kingly comfort.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
But, after all, I went on to reflect, money is not so utterly a nuisance. Pleasant indeed to think that when most are pondering over the problem of the per manent meal - ticket, you are yourself well settled on the sunny side Of Easy Street. Poets have piped of Ar cady, have chorused of Bohemia, have expressed their enthusiasm for Elysian fields, but who has come to chant the praise of Easy Street? Yet surely it is the kindliest Of all? Behind its smiling windows are no maddening constraints, no irking servitudes, no tyranny Of time. Just sunshine, laughter, mockery Of masters - Oh, a thousand times blessed, golden, glori ous Easy Street!
Here I lighted a fresh cigarette and settled more snugly in that chair Of kingly comfort.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
360 pages, Paperback
First published April 30, 2008
7 people want to read
About the author
Robert W. Service
235 books121 followersThis author is the the British-Canadian writer of Yukon poetry. For the British historian of modern Russia, see Robert Service.
Robert William Service was born into a Scottish family while they were living in Preston, England. He was schooled in Scotland, attending Hillhead High School in Glasgow. He moved to Canada at the age of 21 when he gave up his job working in a Glasgow bank, and traveled to Vancouver Island, British Columbia with his Buffalo Bill outfit and dreams of becoming a cowboy.
He drifted around western North America, taking and quitting a series of jobs. Hired by the Canadian Bank of Commerce, he worked in a number of its branches before being posted to the branch in Whitehorse (not Dawson) in the Yukon Territory in 1904, six years after the Klondike Gold Rush. Inspired by the vast beauty of the Yukon wilderness, Service began writing poetry about the things he saw.
Conversations with locals led him to write about things he hadn't seen, many of which hadn't actually happened, as well. He did not set foot in Dawson City until 1908, arriving in the Klondike ten years after the Gold Rush, but his renown as a writer was already established.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Service.
Robert William Service was born into a Scottish family while they were living in Preston, England. He was schooled in Scotland, attending Hillhead High School in Glasgow. He moved to Canada at the age of 21 when he gave up his job working in a Glasgow bank, and traveled to Vancouver Island, British Columbia with his Buffalo Bill outfit and dreams of becoming a cowboy.
He drifted around western North America, taking and quitting a series of jobs. Hired by the Canadian Bank of Commerce, he worked in a number of its branches before being posted to the branch in Whitehorse (not Dawson) in the Yukon Territory in 1904, six years after the Klondike Gold Rush. Inspired by the vast beauty of the Yukon wilderness, Service began writing poetry about the things he saw.
Conversations with locals led him to write about things he hadn't seen, many of which hadn't actually happened, as well. He did not set foot in Dawson City until 1908, arriving in the Klondike ten years after the Gold Rush, but his renown as a writer was already established.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Service.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 23, 2023
It's far from the marge of Lake Lebarge to the Left Bank of the Seine / For a tale in prose of a writer's woes when he flees his accustomed domain. Thankyew! Who doesn't like ballads in iambic and/or anapestic heptameter? Service's post-Yukon nights spent slumming in pre-WWI Paris must have been the inspiration for this story of a successful writer of potboilers who gives up his well-upholstered life in New York for anonymity and poverty in the French capital. Object: finding his true self, and cultivating the artiste within.
It's all set to be a comic version of "Down and Out in Paris and London," and in fact starts off hilariously, but it eventually settles into a merely picturesque and occasionally sentimental tale of life in the garrets. One chapter, to Service's shame, rips off O. Henry's story "The Gift of the Magi," published 10 years earlier, but the author redeems himself with an attempted murder committed by varnishing the victim, decades before Auric Goldfinger had a similar idea. The ending is both a whiplash-inducing twist and a bit of a letdown. Now I want to read Service's "Ballads of a Bohemian," which apparently mines some of the same territory.
It's all set to be a comic version of "Down and Out in Paris and London," and in fact starts off hilariously, but it eventually settles into a merely picturesque and occasionally sentimental tale of life in the garrets. One chapter, to Service's shame, rips off O. Henry's story "The Gift of the Magi," published 10 years earlier, but the author redeems himself with an attempted murder committed by varnishing the victim, decades before Auric Goldfinger had a similar idea. The ending is both a whiplash-inducing twist and a bit of a letdown. Now I want to read Service's "Ballads of a Bohemian," which apparently mines some of the same territory.
Displaying 1 of 1 review