Precious Jeopardy

by Lloyd C. Douglas

A delightful little story (64 pages) which begins on Christmas Eve when there is no money available for gifts. Philip (dad) Garland has already lost his engineering position. He is so despondent he cares nothing for helping Shirley (wife) decorate the tree while Polly and Junior (children) are in bed. In his den, Philip considers the suicide route other bankrupt business leaders have taken recently. He knows he can't do that. While in his den, he steps on a needle, driving it deep into his foot. He is able to finally get hold of it and pull it out with pliers, but only half the needle is removed. Phil decides the remaining half of the needle will soon take his life and his family will be provided for through his life insurance. He avoids doctor treatment, but tells nobody. Since Phil no longer is looking to the future, only one day at a time, his spirit is lifted, he again interacts with his family, he even acquires a day job, leading to more work. He know, however, it is only a matter of time till his life ends. Tomorrow, likely. This carries on for a year and the story ends at the next Christmas Eve. I'll stop here, because it's too good an ending to spoil the story. (on-line review)

Genres: Christmas, Fiction

68 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1933

About the author

Lloyd C. Douglas was a noteworthy American minister and author. He spent part of his boyhood in Monroeville, Indiana, Wilmot, Indiana and Florence, Kentucky, where his father, Alexander Jackson Douglas, was pastor of the Hopeful Lutheran Church. He died in Los Angeles, California.
Douglas was one of the most popular American authors of his time, although he didn't write his first novel until he was 50.
His written works were of a moral, didactic, and distinctly religious tone. His first novel, Magnificent Obsession, was an immediate and sensational success. Critics held that his type of fiction was in the tradition of the great religious writings of an earlier generation, such as, Ben-Hur and Quo Vadis.
Douglas is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Reviews

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Precious Jeopardy by Lloyd Douglas is a Christmas story from the worst years of the Great Depression. The story starts with an out of work business man considering suicide while his wife frets over not being able to provide nice Christmas gifts for their two children: Junior and Polly. A misstep on a sewing needle stops Philip from taking his life and gives him a reason to live.

The needle breaks and Shirley can only pull out half of it from his foot. Rather than spend money they don't have on a trip to the doctor, Philip decides to let the needle seal his fate. If it kills him, his wife and children will benefit from his insurance. While he waits, he will live in the moment and enjoy what remaining days he has.

Mostly though the story focuses on how the Depression forces Philip and Shirley to change. They like the characters in The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans end up finding work with a wealthy benefactor. The Garlands go to work on a farm that is hoping to bring back the old ways of doing things for a higher quality of product at a cheaper production price. The work though not great in pay revitalizes their marriage, puts food on the table and raises their self respect.

In a time when I'm unemployed and we're suffering with a tight budget and bills to pay and I'm dreading this year's Christmas, A Precious Jeopardy spoke to me. It is a relevant now as it was in 1933.

[Katya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this little book. This author makes you think...about choices, life and the value of those people in your life and around you on a daily basis. We so often look past the little things in life and miss the big picture. This was oddly very interesting and made me think about my own life.

[Cindy Lou Poquette · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an unexpectedly charming and lovely little book. I am only sorry I did not sit down with it every Christmas season for the past decades. It was real about misplaced anger and fear, love blossoming in the midst of anguish, rediscovering the practical and heartwarming practices of rural living. Being from a very rural area (and being one who grew up with hot water or other things that were considered necessities at the time) I readily identified with the wisdom of the book. Just a wonderful read!

[JW van der Merwe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Precious jeopardy - a romance story set in a economic depression. A story of hope and woman's romantic heart and love for husband. Her intuition and the story of the needle....A very good command of the English language make it that I rate it a 4 but the story is really from an author with "too" an innocent nature nevertheless well written.

[Jae Hodges · Rating 4 out of 5]

While not a traditional Christmas story, it is one for the ages.

[Longfellow · Rating 3 out of 5]

A read-in-one-sitting short story with a Christmas setting.

Within the context of the economic struggles of the early thirties, Precious Jeopardy traces briefly one year of the life of a family, from one Christmas to the next. In the tradition of Christmas stories, the change the main character undergoes is more one of perspective than of situation, though a change of situation is relevant.

It was intriguing to see that even as long ago as 1933 technology had already influenced agricultural settings: one of the characters rails against the modern methods of feeding and milking cows and of raising chickens. Pretty precious.

An easily recognizable truth is expressed poignantly at one point, as follows: "Having now been dispossessed of his future, he could borrow nothing more from it, either of promise or threat. He was done with it. There was nothing it could do for him; and, what was still more important, there was nothing it could do to him. This conviction left him free to take a square look at Today, and appraise it on its own merits with no expectations or forebodings to distract his mind." Ultimately, Phil learns to live each day as if it is his last chance to make the best choices for his life, and this is all the difference, the "precious jeopardy," I suppose, that Douglas's title references.

[Jeri · Rating 5 out of 5]

When a businessman believes his life is in constant jeopardy because of a fluke accident, he learns to live his life to the fullest, savoring every hour.

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Started out pretty depressing and grew, gradually, into a beautiful flower.