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If You Touch Them They Vanish
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: ? Joy ? Joy! And he did not understand why she in her turn kept calling, Martha ? Martha ? come quick ? come quick! He knew best that she suddenly stopped running, and turned and waited for him, and that as he fell forward she caught him in her arms and began to drag him toward a bright light. It was a most vivid hallucination. And when he woke in his bed, so warm and all, and Martha bending over him, the first thing he told her ? smiling sleepily ? was that he had mistaken her for Miss Jocelyn Grey. It was the realest sort of an hallucination, he said, she caught me as I was falling ? and of course she was you. She suddenly stopped running, and turned and waited for him. How do you feel, Deary ? We ? I had a devil of a time with ye. But the Poor Boy's mind was still upon the vision of Miss Grey. I saw her, he said, and there was a look in her eyes that told me she 'd never ? never believed I 'd done it. ... And I was so glad, I tried to run to her for comfort, and all the time she was you. It was all so real ? so real. It was a lot realer than some things that really did happen to me yesterday ? yesterday morning, before I began to get snow-foolish. Twas the day before yesterday ye came home, said Martha. And all yesterday ye raved like a lunatic until night, when ye fell asleep, and I knew that all was well. Have you sat up with me all the time? Ye forget I have an old female to help me. We took turns. You must thank her for me, Martha. I'll do that. Tell her I am grateful to her, and I think we should give her quite a lot of money, don't you? THE Poor Boy could not get Miss Jocelyn Grey out of his head, nor that look which she had had of belief in him. The episode was a rejuvenation, and there were days w...
60 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1913
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 23, 2013
Fascinating book....honestly took a bit to figure out what the book is about. But when you do find it out...it's beautiful and simple to empathize with the main character.
August 25, 2020
A weird novella that is both a visual and a literary experience. It was a delight as an overall work of art, but it is a bit of a challenge to classify, describe, or to read.
The best way to summarize it is that a wealthy young man with a touch of psychosis, only referred to as "Poor Boy," is living with an elderly maid in an isolated Canadian lodge, withdrawn from polite society because he was abandoned by all his friends after being accused of a crime. His imagination and his friendship with his employee, who has cared for him since a child, are his only coping mechanisms with the increasing loneliness.
This book is full of strange transitions in perspective, forcing the reader to pay attention. For example, there is an abrupt anthropomorphizing of the birds singing outside Poor Boy's window. Similarly, the transition into the boy's accusation is not done in the course of traditional narrative. We are not told he was accused of anything or given any lead up to the point of his sentencing. In one moment we are learning about his youth, and the next he is pleading "not guilty" to an unknown crime. These are clever tools that do away with lengthy exposition, but can leave the reader disoriented.
The illustrations by Charles S. Chapman are also unusual. They are examples of the artist's singular "water-oil" technique, where he floats various oils in water onto the page, then overlays his canvas to absorb the color. The result is unique and mesmerizing, like photographs of a child's mind while listening to a fairytale.
And this book certainly has the feel of a fairytale, as supernatural elements are suggested, but overall it is a quaint and touching character study with a touch of romance. Give it a try.
The best way to summarize it is that a wealthy young man with a touch of psychosis, only referred to as "Poor Boy," is living with an elderly maid in an isolated Canadian lodge, withdrawn from polite society because he was abandoned by all his friends after being accused of a crime. His imagination and his friendship with his employee, who has cared for him since a child, are his only coping mechanisms with the increasing loneliness.
This book is full of strange transitions in perspective, forcing the reader to pay attention. For example, there is an abrupt anthropomorphizing of the birds singing outside Poor Boy's window. Similarly, the transition into the boy's accusation is not done in the course of traditional narrative. We are not told he was accused of anything or given any lead up to the point of his sentencing. In one moment we are learning about his youth, and the next he is pleading "not guilty" to an unknown crime. These are clever tools that do away with lengthy exposition, but can leave the reader disoriented.
The illustrations by Charles S. Chapman are also unusual. They are examples of the artist's singular "water-oil" technique, where he floats various oils in water onto the page, then overlays his canvas to absorb the color. The result is unique and mesmerizing, like photographs of a child's mind while listening to a fairytale.
And this book certainly has the feel of a fairytale, as supernatural elements are suggested, but overall it is a quaint and touching character study with a touch of romance. Give it a try.
December 3, 2023
That was so very cute
October 4, 2022
✔️ Published in 1913.
Wild. This is a novel that really tests the imagination of readers, and I like it for that. I enjoyed reading this.
The version I found on The Project Gutenberg has the color illustrations; Kindle does not have any illustrations.
🟣Kindle version.
🟤The Project Gutenberg.
Wild. This is a novel that really tests the imagination of readers, and I like it for that. I enjoyed reading this.
The version I found on The Project Gutenberg has the color illustrations; Kindle does not have any illustrations.
🟣Kindle version.
🟤The Project Gutenberg.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews