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História de um Rapaz Mau
In a time when children's books were populated with well-behaved little gentlemen, Thomas Bailey Aldrich dared to present an alternative point of view - childhood as he remembered it. Tom Bailey is no angel. At times a bully, a vandal, and a troublemaker, he has a healthy zest for life and a perhaps over-developed love of mischief. The book follows Tom as he engages in a series of adventures which take him from his New Hampshire hometown to New Orleans and beyond. A fictionalized account of the author's own childhood, The Story of a Bad Boy was controversial when it first appeared in 1869, but is now hailed as the precursor to other 'bad boy' stories such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. It stands in its own right as a hugely enjoyable tale.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1869
56 people are currently reading
421 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
728 books14 followersAldrich travelled with his father in his early years. He returned to Portsmouth to study for college, but his father's death in 1852 required that he earn a living; first in a business office in New York, then, as a journalist. He contributed to numerous magazines and newspapers. Among them, the New York Illustrated News. In 1865, he moved to Boston where he was editor of Ticknor & Fields' Every Saturday magazine. In 1881, Aldrich was brought in as editor at the Atlantic Monthly, a position he held until 1890. He was a talented poet and published many volumes of verse.
Aldrich died at Boston on March 19, 1907. His last words were "In spite of it all, I'm going to sleep."
Aldrich died at Boston on March 19, 1907. His last words were "In spite of it all, I'm going to sleep."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
March 23, 2011
The most delightful book I have read in a long, long time! 150 years after it was conceived and written, I couldn't help laughing out loud and reading passages to anyone within earshot from just about every paragraph...just ask those who were within earshot while I was reading.
This is an old, forgotten classic which was very difficult to locate through local bookstores and libraries. Researchers think of Tom Bailey as a predecessor of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, and I believe "The Story of a Bad Boy" to be even better than any of Samuel Clemens' novels which would follow. It definitely leads up to some of the greatest accomplishments of subsequent writers, especially in terms of local color and style of story-telling, but it also contains elements that seem sadly lost on the future.
The primary charm of "The Story of a Bad Boy" is the way it invites every character and reader to laugh at himself. The story is universal across time and, most impressively, across the United States of the day. There was nothing that I couldn't understand without a basic understanding of history. It achieves the innocent sincerity of a child's way of speaking while developing a wry, gentle sarcasm so subtle that it is almost invisible to a careless reader! The subtlety of Aldrich's style, and his humor in particular, create an unfailingly positive tone even as he doles out thorough criticism of life in Boston and New Orleans, on board ships and trains, in schools, homes, churches, and public places, through the eyes of young and old, etc. The mind, the voice, and the circumstances all belong to a young boy of the mid-1800s, but the narrator analyzes everything with a maturity that any adult, modern-day author, or reader might wish to have. The story is an emotional journey but free of the least anger or bitterness.
I had the pleasure of discovering author and novel through a visit to the house where he grew up, which is also the basis of the book's setting (currently part of Strawbery Banke historic area, Portsmouth, NH). It is a fiction very close to autobiography, set in "Rivermouth" rather than Portsmouth, relating the exploits of "Tom Bailey" rather than Thomas Bailey Aldrich, and adjusting countless other details. The name "Rivermouth" (not to mention the name of its newspaper, the "Rivermouth Barnacle"!!) is a perfect example of the humor wielded masterfully in every sentence of the book. It is a childish play on words coming from anyone else, but in Aldrich's hands, it is a silly mistake, a jab at the self-importance of certain classes of New England and Southern society, an interesting anecdote (for example, as the history of the name Rivermouth might reflect the history of the name Portsmouth), and a delightfully unique act of creation all in one. A young boy grows up in a relatively normal fashion, and there you have the plot. It is Aldrich's details, his setting, the completely understandable nature of every character, his tight weave of foreshadowing-action-reflection which make a masterpiece out of something that wouldn't even make an interesting diary in another author's hands.
This is an old, forgotten classic which was very difficult to locate through local bookstores and libraries. Researchers think of Tom Bailey as a predecessor of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, and I believe "The Story of a Bad Boy" to be even better than any of Samuel Clemens' novels which would follow. It definitely leads up to some of the greatest accomplishments of subsequent writers, especially in terms of local color and style of story-telling, but it also contains elements that seem sadly lost on the future.
The primary charm of "The Story of a Bad Boy" is the way it invites every character and reader to laugh at himself. The story is universal across time and, most impressively, across the United States of the day. There was nothing that I couldn't understand without a basic understanding of history. It achieves the innocent sincerity of a child's way of speaking while developing a wry, gentle sarcasm so subtle that it is almost invisible to a careless reader! The subtlety of Aldrich's style, and his humor in particular, create an unfailingly positive tone even as he doles out thorough criticism of life in Boston and New Orleans, on board ships and trains, in schools, homes, churches, and public places, through the eyes of young and old, etc. The mind, the voice, and the circumstances all belong to a young boy of the mid-1800s, but the narrator analyzes everything with a maturity that any adult, modern-day author, or reader might wish to have. The story is an emotional journey but free of the least anger or bitterness.
I had the pleasure of discovering author and novel through a visit to the house where he grew up, which is also the basis of the book's setting (currently part of Strawbery Banke historic area, Portsmouth, NH). It is a fiction very close to autobiography, set in "Rivermouth" rather than Portsmouth, relating the exploits of "Tom Bailey" rather than Thomas Bailey Aldrich, and adjusting countless other details. The name "Rivermouth" (not to mention the name of its newspaper, the "Rivermouth Barnacle"!!) is a perfect example of the humor wielded masterfully in every sentence of the book. It is a childish play on words coming from anyone else, but in Aldrich's hands, it is a silly mistake, a jab at the self-importance of certain classes of New England and Southern society, an interesting anecdote (for example, as the history of the name Rivermouth might reflect the history of the name Portsmouth), and a delightfully unique act of creation all in one. A young boy grows up in a relatively normal fashion, and there you have the plot. It is Aldrich's details, his setting, the completely understandable nature of every character, his tight weave of foreshadowing-action-reflection which make a masterpiece out of something that wouldn't even make an interesting diary in another author's hands.
June 1, 2020
Was Tom Bailey the prototype for Tom Sawyer et al? There is little doubt. Even Bart Simpson owes a debt to this book.
February 18, 2022
Finally got to read this -- no wonder the kids loved it at that age. So fun and a lot of life lessons too.
October 8, 2017
https://osrascunhos.com/2017/10/08/a-...
História autobiográfica, o rapaz aqui retratado não é propriamente mau. Antes endiabrado, inicialmente mais centrado em si próprio e com uma lógica deturpada de quem pouco conhece o mundo. Assim chega a Rivermouth onde irá, pela primeira vez, frequentar a escola.
Após firmar o seu lugar entre os colegas, nem que para tal tenha tido de andar ao murro com um rapaz maldoso que agredia outros mais jovens e indefesos, Thomas envereda por uma série de diabruras explosivas em conjunto com os restantes rapazes da terra. Juntam dinheiro, compram pólvora e com ela fazem, por exemplo, explodir mais de uma dezena de canhões antigos espalhados pela cidade como peças de museu.
De ideias fixas e correcto na forma de agir apesar das travessuras, é um rapaz que, como qualquer outro da sua idade, se revela incapaz de prever as consequências dos actos que perpetua. Por vezes mau aluno, mas na maioria das vezes na média dos restantes, cresce na ausência dos pais, na casa do avô a quem tem um enorme respeito.
Divertido e caricato, A História de um Rapaz Mau apresenta-se sob a perspectiva da própria personagem principal, um jovem curioso que gosta de explosões e de armas, como era usual, não faltando os episódios de grandes batalhas entre grupos rivais e o ocasional interesse na componente feminina da juventude.
História autobiográfica, o rapaz aqui retratado não é propriamente mau. Antes endiabrado, inicialmente mais centrado em si próprio e com uma lógica deturpada de quem pouco conhece o mundo. Assim chega a Rivermouth onde irá, pela primeira vez, frequentar a escola.
Após firmar o seu lugar entre os colegas, nem que para tal tenha tido de andar ao murro com um rapaz maldoso que agredia outros mais jovens e indefesos, Thomas envereda por uma série de diabruras explosivas em conjunto com os restantes rapazes da terra. Juntam dinheiro, compram pólvora e com ela fazem, por exemplo, explodir mais de uma dezena de canhões antigos espalhados pela cidade como peças de museu.
De ideias fixas e correcto na forma de agir apesar das travessuras, é um rapaz que, como qualquer outro da sua idade, se revela incapaz de prever as consequências dos actos que perpetua. Por vezes mau aluno, mas na maioria das vezes na média dos restantes, cresce na ausência dos pais, na casa do avô a quem tem um enorme respeito.
Divertido e caricato, A História de um Rapaz Mau apresenta-se sob a perspectiva da própria personagem principal, um jovem curioso que gosta de explosões e de armas, como era usual, não faltando os episódios de grandes batalhas entre grupos rivais e o ocasional interesse na componente feminina da juventude.
February 27, 2017
Hilarious and touching
This is an excellent book for children and adults should also enjoy. Some of the stories related by the author about his childhood are ao funny I found myself laughing out loud. The description of childhood during the period in the northeast before the civil war are fascinating. Children then had so much more latitude!
This is an excellent book for children and adults should also enjoy. Some of the stories related by the author about his childhood are ao funny I found myself laughing out loud. The description of childhood during the period in the northeast before the civil war are fascinating. Children then had so much more latitude!
March 22, 2021
Twain was inspired to write about imperfect boys by this classic written by his good friend, Thomas Aldrich.
As a teacher I found it fascinating to see what a school week and curriculum was like in the 1830s.
As a teacher I found it fascinating to see what a school week and curriculum was like in the 1830s.
April 19, 2021
I really enjoyed this 19th-century boyhood romp through a fictionalized Portsmouth, NH. Despite it's age the writing is quite fresh and a quick read. I was distracted, though, by all the wealthy white male privilege from the boys' prospects to their treatment by law enforcement.
November 8, 2022
We came across an excerpt from this book recently in my son's language arts curriculum. It sounded like a fun read, so I found a copy to buy. I'm so glad I did! My sons and I enjoyed reading this together. We laughed, we cried (okay that was me), and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know this "bad boy," who really felt like any other boy prone to getting into lots of mischief.
July 28, 2017
A forgotten classic. Kind of a yankee precursor to Tom Sawyer (though not the masterpiece that Sawyer is). Written by a man Mark Twain ruefully asserted was the wittiest alive, this account of a New England boyhood could not be more delightful--at least to this particular New England boy.
October 12, 2020
This is a charming tale of growing up in 1850s New Hampshire, with enough drama to make it real and enough fun to make it enjoyable. Perhaps it was a simpler time, in any case it seems less complicated than growing up today and I enjoyed reading about it.
December 6, 2018
Thomas Bailey Aldrich was born in Portsmouth NH in 1836, moved with his parents to New Orleans LA, then back to his grandfather's home in Portsmouth when he was 10, then to New York a few years later after his father's death. There he became a successful writer and poet and editor of the Atlantic Monthly. His most famous book is this one, The Story of a Bad Boy, written in 1870 about a boy named Tom Bailey who lived with his grandfather in Rivermouth, NH in the late 1840's. So the book is based on the author's childhood memories, a "semi-autobiographical novel", written from young Tom Bailey's viewpoint (so no mention of the Civil War). It tells of school, secret societies, pranks involving fire and explosives, snowball wars lasting several days, and even young love. It is a hoot. Sometimes it is a little too precious (like whenever he mentions his pony). But mostly it's fun and an interesting look at a boy's life 170 years ago.
I first visited Portsmouth last summer and toured the house where TBA lived with his grandfather and great-aunt. (The building is very accurately described in the book.)
I purchased the Kindle edition which is based on scanning a print copy. This process resulted in enough mis-scans to irritate (especially e read as c, easy to understand when "the" becomes "thc", but sometimes startling when "ear" becomes "car" as when a snowball hit Tom in the car) but not enough to make it hard to read.
I first visited Portsmouth last summer and toured the house where TBA lived with his grandfather and great-aunt. (The building is very accurately described in the book.)
I purchased the Kindle edition which is based on scanning a print copy. This process resulted in enough mis-scans to irritate (especially e read as c, easy to understand when "the" becomes "thc", but sometimes startling when "ear" becomes "car" as when a snowball hit Tom in the car) but not enough to make it hard to read.
September 26, 2022
I first picked this book up after a visit to Strawbery Banke, a living history museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the site of the author's boyhood home. It's touted as the book that inspired the "bad boy" genre in literature and Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was directly inspired by this. It's also published in the same year as "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott (only one of my favourite books ever)!
Aldrich's book is semi-autobiographical and provides an in-depth look into 19th-century life for children. From improvised plays to pony rides and fort fights, Aldrich and his friends certainly knew how to have a good time. And for lack of a better description, Aldrich captures that idyllic essence of childhood - that sense of not having to be too responsible and of just larking around in the pleasure of being alive and testing what's possible.
But as most children's literature go, the child has to grow up at the end and you can imagine (or read the book for yourself) how that detail unfolds. It's a sobering bump back to reality for the reader as well, that as much as childhood is beautiful and fun, it is also transient.
Aldrich's book is semi-autobiographical and provides an in-depth look into 19th-century life for children. From improvised plays to pony rides and fort fights, Aldrich and his friends certainly knew how to have a good time. And for lack of a better description, Aldrich captures that idyllic essence of childhood - that sense of not having to be too responsible and of just larking around in the pleasure of being alive and testing what's possible.
But as most children's literature go, the child has to grow up at the end and you can imagine (or read the book for yourself) how that detail unfolds. It's a sobering bump back to reality for the reader as well, that as much as childhood is beautiful and fun, it is also transient.
March 25, 2025
This story was penned a few years before Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and is definitely a story for boys. It takes place in the 1850s in New Hampshire and is more or less autobiographical telling of the scrapes he got into and the happenings in the small sea-side community. The stories on the whole are delightful, some are heartwarming, and there are also a few of a more serious or somber nature, just like life itself. It is a fascinating insight into life of the 1850s.
October 6, 2020
I have read a lot of "kid books" in my Newberry reading quest and more than once, I've asked myself "Honestly, what kid would like this?" In this book, written long before Newbery awards, I'm saying to myself, "Every kid would like this!" It has everything--daring and sometimes hilarious adventures, an energetic and interesting group of friends, but there's also some very sad heartbreak. Although the story centers around boys, l can imagine girls would enjoy it too. (I did). This book proves age is irrelevant.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 5, 2023
A brief bit of happy childhood in the life of Thomas Bailey Aldrich who chronicles a brief period in his life living with his grandfather, an elderly aunt, and a housekeeper in New England while his parents settled their affairs in New Orleans. Aldrich's time here was short, but it's mark upon his life was huge. He experiences the tragic loss of a young friend and leaves the town when his family experiences financial loss and then the loss of his father. A good look at the 19th century in New England through the eyes of an adolescent.
August 11, 2020
This is the story of Thomas Bailey Aldrich's early adolescence in Portsmouth, New Hampshire where he lived for a period of 3 years after spending his childhood in New Orleans. It is an amusing book full of exploits and adventures of a youth that is not really bad but one that sometimes does not clearly think through the consequences of his actions. It has been said that this book written about a time before the American Civil War was an inspiration for Mark Twain.
December 10, 2021
A very good homespun small town story
You will just love the characters in this charming tale there are a couple of sad moments but on the whole it is a very uplifting story that you will be sorry to see it end.
You will just love the characters in this charming tale there are a couple of sad moments but on the whole it is a very uplifting story that you will be sorry to see it end.
August 20, 2022
i visited the home of the author in new hampshire, with interior design inspired by the novel. this greatly enhanced my experience as a reader.
however…
nothing really happened in this book. i love the writing style, but the actual plot was lacking.
however…
nothing really happened in this book. i love the writing style, but the actual plot was lacking.
January 14, 2026
The story gets better each time I read it. It takes place in the early 1900s in New Hampshire. The tales of an active boy who turns out not so bad after all (as he tells the reader in the beginning. A family favorite read many times over.
December 8, 2018
Livro agradável e entretido, para quem gosta do género Huckleberry Finn (aliás, é mesmo tido como fundacional desta linha).
Read
January 9, 2020My favorite autobiography to date. A funny tail of a young boy and his adventures.
March 30, 2021
Quite an old fashioned and sad story around 1870 when a young boy is sent to live with his grandfather because his parents were in financial troubles.
Want to read
January 4, 2022FRom REddit, It looks like this may be the book I read as a child and loved.
March 13, 2023
Why did boys in the 1800s have such overabundant access to gunpowder and explosives?
October 9, 2023
What a delightful read! I laughed out loud often.
December 26, 2023
Đọc quyển này nhiều chỗ ko nhịn được cười, đúng là nhất quỷ, nhì ma, thứ ba học trò
October 19, 2016
Delivers more than it promised
An innocent tale cleanly told, I enjoyed the window into a world long lost but linked to the present through the adventures of a teenager
An innocent tale cleanly told, I enjoyed the window into a world long lost but linked to the present through the adventures of a teenager
July 25, 2010
It took me a little while to get into this book, which is written in a style I haven't had to read in a while - the New England child's story of the 1860's/70's doesn't come up a lot in my bedside book pile. There is a faint sense of Twain, and of lost moralistic books as well, in these stories of a boy transplanted to the home of his New England grandfather, going to school and getting in trouble.
There are a few shocks in the book as well - horrible racism towards Black people as well as Irish people, both played for laughs at their innocence/stupidity are the most startling. Children's books now are so often censured for being too dark - but this book is frank about the death of a playmate for which the main character and his friends may be partly to blame, as well as the death of the main character's father and his subsequent need to go to work instead of to college. Of course, this is less a children's book than a book that might be read by adults or children. It's too easy to forget how many fewer barriers there were between fiction for grownups and fiction for children before marketing really took off.
It's funny that these stories of bad boys and girls seem to come into vogue occasionally. There is a bit in Emily of New Moon, I think, where she is inspired by a book called "A Bad Boy's Diry" and the adult novel written from the child's point of view even resurfaces now - Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time is just one of the most recent. The Story of a Bad Boy seems part of this genre as well and must have been a read-aloud kind of book.
Worth reading if you like to understand the background to children's lit. My copy is a reprint from the Riverside Bookshelf, 1951: "An ideal library of the best books for boys and girls, illustrated in color by noted artists." It includes the hilarious title She Blows! and Sparm at That! Anyone looking to write about student reading achievement ought to look at some of the titles on the Riverside list as they contemplate Lexile leveling and what their grandparents might have been reading as children!
There are a few shocks in the book as well - horrible racism towards Black people as well as Irish people, both played for laughs at their innocence/stupidity are the most startling. Children's books now are so often censured for being too dark - but this book is frank about the death of a playmate for which the main character and his friends may be partly to blame, as well as the death of the main character's father and his subsequent need to go to work instead of to college. Of course, this is less a children's book than a book that might be read by adults or children. It's too easy to forget how many fewer barriers there were between fiction for grownups and fiction for children before marketing really took off.
It's funny that these stories of bad boys and girls seem to come into vogue occasionally. There is a bit in Emily of New Moon, I think, where she is inspired by a book called "A Bad Boy's Diry" and the adult novel written from the child's point of view even resurfaces now - Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time is just one of the most recent. The Story of a Bad Boy seems part of this genre as well and must have been a read-aloud kind of book.
Worth reading if you like to understand the background to children's lit. My copy is a reprint from the Riverside Bookshelf, 1951: "An ideal library of the best books for boys and girls, illustrated in color by noted artists." It includes the hilarious title She Blows! and Sparm at That! Anyone looking to write about student reading achievement ought to look at some of the titles on the Riverside list as they contemplate Lexile leveling and what their grandparents might have been reading as children!
September 25, 2009
I took a trip up to Portsmouth, NH and visited Strawberry Banke which is a historically preserved site in the vein of Williamsburg, VA and Sturbridge, MA. One of the past occupants of a house wrote a book about his childhood which interested me. This was it.
In it the book characterizes what it was like to grow up in a waspy New England town during the mid 1800's. He covers his initial migration from New Orleans, leaving behind his parents, to live with his Grandfather (last name Nutter, and yes, he was a nutter - just kidding). You see his father had investments that were rolling around the toilet bowl ready to be flushed at any moment so they sent the kid away.
On with the review. He talks about the normal kid stuff - school, teachers, bullies, girls, etc, the hijanks of bored kids like fusing old cannons to fire off in the middle of the night, or sending a burning coach down through the middle of town. It's mostly light-hearted, simple, but very adult fun by today's standards.
One story illustrates the difference in times. The author, with 2 other buys, save up to buy a boat and sail to an offshore island one day. Now, these boys are not even 13... well, a storm comes up, and one of the boys dashes off to keep the boat from being washed away. The boy made it into the boat... and was washed away with it. Life went on.
The author was a friend of Mark Twain (the original Sammy-boy)and this book predates that of the monkeyshines of ol' Huck and Tom. I wonder if Mr. Aldrich & Twan (nee Clemens) sat in rockin' chairs on an outdoor porch sipping their lemonade and sharing their past childhood glories.
I can see it now: "In my day we never had day. We had morning, whipping, schooling, beating, bleeding and sleeping, and if IF we were lucky we got 1/4 teaspoon of sugar. No more. No less. It was so wonderfully sweet. Not like chewing the bark off of trees. that gives you indigestion. Tho it does toughen the alimentary..."
In it the book characterizes what it was like to grow up in a waspy New England town during the mid 1800's. He covers his initial migration from New Orleans, leaving behind his parents, to live with his Grandfather (last name Nutter, and yes, he was a nutter - just kidding). You see his father had investments that were rolling around the toilet bowl ready to be flushed at any moment so they sent the kid away.
On with the review. He talks about the normal kid stuff - school, teachers, bullies, girls, etc, the hijanks of bored kids like fusing old cannons to fire off in the middle of the night, or sending a burning coach down through the middle of town. It's mostly light-hearted, simple, but very adult fun by today's standards.
One story illustrates the difference in times. The author, with 2 other buys, save up to buy a boat and sail to an offshore island one day. Now, these boys are not even 13... well, a storm comes up, and one of the boys dashes off to keep the boat from being washed away. The boy made it into the boat... and was washed away with it. Life went on.
The author was a friend of Mark Twain (the original Sammy-boy)and this book predates that of the monkeyshines of ol' Huck and Tom. I wonder if Mr. Aldrich & Twan (nee Clemens) sat in rockin' chairs on an outdoor porch sipping their lemonade and sharing their past childhood glories.
I can see it now: "In my day we never had day. We had morning, whipping, schooling, beating, bleeding and sleeping, and if IF we were lucky we got 1/4 teaspoon of sugar. No more. No less. It was so wonderfully sweet. Not like chewing the bark off of trees. that gives you indigestion. Tho it does toughen the alimentary..."
March 18, 2015
"This is the story of a bad boy. Well, not such a very bad, but a pretty bad boy; and I ought to know, for I am, or rather I was, that boy myself.
Lest the title should mislead the reader, I hasten to assure him here that I have no dark confessions to make. I call my story the story of a bad boy, partly to distinguish myself from those faultless young gentlemen who generally figure in narratives of this kind, and partly because I really was not a cherub. I may truthfully say I was an amiable, impulsive lad, blessed with fine digestive powers, and no hypocrite. I didn't want to be an angel and with the angels stand; I didn't think the missionary tracts presented to me by the Rev. Wibird Hawkins were half so nice as Robinson Crusoe; and I didn't send my little pocket-money to the natives of the Feejee Islands, but spent it royally in peppermint-drops and taffy candy. In short, I was a real human boy, such as you may meet anywhere in New England, and no more like the impossible boy in a storybook than a sound orange is like one that has been sucked dry. But let us begin at the beginning."
Lest the title should mislead the reader, I hasten to assure him here that I have no dark confessions to make. I call my story the story of a bad boy, partly to distinguish myself from those faultless young gentlemen who generally figure in narratives of this kind, and partly because I really was not a cherub. I may truthfully say I was an amiable, impulsive lad, blessed with fine digestive powers, and no hypocrite. I didn't want to be an angel and with the angels stand; I didn't think the missionary tracts presented to me by the Rev. Wibird Hawkins were half so nice as Robinson Crusoe; and I didn't send my little pocket-money to the natives of the Feejee Islands, but spent it royally in peppermint-drops and taffy candy. In short, I was a real human boy, such as you may meet anywhere in New England, and no more like the impossible boy in a storybook than a sound orange is like one that has been sucked dry. But let us begin at the beginning."
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