Kerfol 1916
()
Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton was born in 1862 to a prominent and wealthy New York family. In 1885 she married Boston socialite 'Teddy' Wharton but the marriage was unhappy and they divorced in 1913. The couple travelled frequently to Europe and settled in France, where Wharton stayed until her death in 1937. Her first major novel was The House of Mirth (1905); many short stories, travel books, memoirs and novels followed, including Ethan Frome (1911) and The Reef (1912). She was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature with The Age of Innocence (1920) and she was thrice nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was also decorated for her humanitarian work during the First World War.
Read more from Edith Wharton
The Custom of the Country Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mother's Recompense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Son at the Front Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Age of Innocence Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Glimpses of the Moon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Touchstone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Children Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Writing of Fiction: The Classic Guide to the Art of the Short Story and the Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Reef Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Maid: The 'Fifties Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Works of Edith Wharton. Illustrated: The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome and others Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRoman Fever and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manhattan Noir 2: The Classics Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Collected Short Stories of Edith Wharton Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roman Fever: Short Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Custom of the Country Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Backward Glance: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Morocco Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/550 Feminist Masterpieces you have to read before you die (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Greatest American Short Stories: 50+ Classics of American Literature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHere and Beyond Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of Innocence: The Wild and Wanton Edition Volume 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Short Stories Of Edith Wharton - Volume I: Madame de Treymes & Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Morocco Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Kerfol 1916
Related ebooks
The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton — Part 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTwenty-Three Stories by Twenty and Three Authors Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKerfol: Short Classic Ghost Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKerfol Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKerfol: 1916 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEarly Fiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Short Stories Of Edith Wharton - Volume VI: The Bolted Door & Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton - A Ten-Volume Collection - Volume 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton - Part 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe House of the Whispering Pines Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMedusa's Coil Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe House in the Mist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of the Whispering Pines: Caleb Sweetwater - Volume 3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ghostly Rental Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe House of Whispering pines Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Novels of George MacDonald Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Top 10 Short Stories - The Central Europeans Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGhost Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Old Stone House and Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe old stone house and other stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men & Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Haunted House, and Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFor Sale: Old Manor House (Free Ghosts Included) A Caitlin McLeod Gothic Romance Book 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClassic Mystery and Detective Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Old Stone House & Other Stories: "The hand will often reveal more than the countenance …." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Harbor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House in the Mist: And Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Top 10 Short Stories - The German Language Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for Kerfol 1916
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Kerfol 1916 - Edith Wharton
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Kerfol, by Edith Wharton
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Kerfol
1916
Author: Edith Wharton
Release Date: January 17, 2008 [EBook #24350]
Last Updated: January 8, 2013
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KERFOL ***
Produced by David Widger
KERFOL
By Edith Wharton
Copyright, 1916, By Charles Scribner's Sons
Contents
I
You ought to buy it,
said my host; its Just the place for a solitary-minded devil like you. And it would be rather worth while to own the most romantic house in Brittany. The present people are dead broke, and it's going for a song—you ought to buy it.
It was not with the least idea of living up to the character my friend Lanrivain ascribed to me (as a matter of fact, under my unsociable exterior I have always had secret yearnings for domesticity) that I took his hint one autumn afternoon and went to Kerfol. My friend was motoring over to Quimper on business: he dropped me on the way, at a cross-road on a heath, and said: First turn to the right and second to the left. Then straight ahead till you see an avenue. If you meet any peasants, don't ask your way. They don't understand French, and they would pretend they did and mix you up. I'll be back for you here by sunset—and don't forget the tombs in the chapel.
I followed Lanrivain's directions with the hesitation occasioned by the usual difficulty of remembering whether he had said the first turn to the right and second to the left, or the contrary. If I had met a peasant I should certainly have asked, and probably been sent astray; but I had the desert landscape to myself, and so stumbled on the right turn and walked across the heath till I came to an avenue. It was so unlike any other avenue I have ever seen that I instantly knew it must be the avenue. The grey-trunked trees sprang up straight to a great height and then interwove their pale-grey branches in a long tunnel through which the autumn light fell faintly. I know most trees by name, but I haven't to this day been able to decide what those trees were. They had the tall curve of elms, the tenuity of poplars, the ashen colour of olives under a rainy sky; and they stretched ahead of me for half a mile or more without a break in their arch. If ever I saw an avenue that unmistakably led to something, it was the avenue at Kerfol. My heart beat a little as I began to walk down it.
Presently the trees ended and I came to a fortified gate in a long wall. Between me and the wall was an open space of grass, with other grey avenues radiating from it. Behind the wall were tall slate roofs mossed with silver, a chapel belfry, the top of a keep. A moat filled with wild shrubs and brambles surrounded the place; the drawbridge had been replaced by a stone arch, and the portcullis by an iron gate. I stood for a long time on the hither side of the moat, gazing about me, and letting the influence of the place sink in. I said to myself: If I wait long enough, the guardian will turn up and show me the tombs—
and I rather hoped he wouldn't