Much Darker Days
By Andrew Lang
()
About this ebook
Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang (1844-1912) was a Scottish editor, poet, author, literary critic, and historian. He is best known for his work regarding folklore, mythology, and religion, for which he had an extreme interest in. Lang was a skilled and respected historian, writing in great detail and exploring obscure topics. Lang often combined his studies of history and anthropology with literature, creating works rich with diverse culture. He married Leonora Blanche Alleyne in 1875. With her help, Lang published a prolific amount of work, including his popular series, Rainbow Fairy Books.
Read more from Andrew Lang
Classic Children's Stories (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Complete Fairy Books of Andrew Lang Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Illustrated Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeauty and the Beast – All Four Versions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5ARABIAN NIGHTS: Andrew Lang's 1001 Nights & R. L. Stevenson's New Arabian Nights Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5King Arthur: Tales from the Round Table Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Arabian Nights or One Thousand and One Nights (Andrew Lang) + New Arabian Nights (R. L. Stevenson) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHistory of English Literature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Blue Poetry Book Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fairy Books of All Colours - Complete Series: Books 1-12 (Illustrated Edition): 400+ Tales in One Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Arabian Nights: One Thousand and One Nights: New Revised Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFolklore and Mythology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Twelve Color Fairy Books Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales of Troy and Greece Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Story of Joan of Arc Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFables and Fairy Tales: Aesop's Fables, Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales, Grimm's Fairy Tales, and The Blue Fairy Book Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOxford Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMyth, Ritual And Religion, Vol. 2 (of 2) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChristmas Carols & Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Much Darker Days
Related ebooks
Much Darker Days Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Arrow of Gold: A Story Between Two Notes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Pair of Blue Eyes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Case of Mr Lucraft Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Guilty River Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMRS. RAFFLES and R. HOLMES & CO. – 20+ Stories of the Amateur Cracksman's Family: Action Adventure Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWilling To Die Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Top 10 Short Stories - British Gothic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Arrow of Gold Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRosalind at Red Gate Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Short Stories Of Henry S Whitehead - Volume 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Arms and the Woman Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Curse of the Fallen Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn a Cellar and other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDead Men Tell No Tales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarge Askinforit Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Tramp's Notebook Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn a Cellar Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove Lies Bleeding Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStrange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOlalla Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (World Classics, Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Daffodil Affair Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Gabriel Tolliver: A Story of Reconstruction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBaskerville: The Mysterious Tale of Sherlock's Return Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Story of a Lie Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Works of John Hay Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo Surrender Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gap in the Curtain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rotten in Denmark Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Action & Adventure Fiction For You
Invasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crime and Punishment Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Serpent: A Novel from the NUMA files Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wool: Book One of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5River God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Outlawed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Golden Notebook: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Darkness That Comes Before Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Swamp Story: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Billy Summers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shift: Book Two of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Huckleberry Finn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Learn German! Lerne Englisch! ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND: In German and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Count of Monte Cristo Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The End of the World Running Club Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shantaram: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Grace of Kings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Summary The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: by V.E. Schwab - A Comprehensive Summary Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The King Must Die: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Most Dangerous Game Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Postman Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dust: Book Three of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn Italian! Impara l'Inglese! ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND: In Italian and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prodigal Summer: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Much Darker Days
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Much Darker Days - Andrew Lang
CHAPTER I.
The Curse (Registered).
WHEN this story of my life, or of such parts of it as are not deemed wholly unfit for publication, is read (and, no doubt, a public which devoured 'Scrawled Black' will stand almost anything), it will be found that I have sometimes acted without prim cautiousness--that I have, in fact, wallowed in crime. Stillicide and Mayhem I (rare old crimes!) are child's play to me, who have been an 'accessory after the fact!' In excuse, I can but plead two things-the excellence of the opportunity to do so, and the weakness of the resistance which my victim offered.
If you cannot allow for these, throw the book out of the railway-carriage window! You have paid your money, and to the verdict of your pale morality or absurd sense of art in fiction I am therefore absolutely indifferent. You are too angelic for me; I am too fiendish for you. Let us agree to differ. I say nothing about my boyhood. Twenty-five years ago a poor boy-but no matter. I was that boy! I hurry on to the soaring period of manhood, 'when the strength, the nerve, the intellect is or should be at its height,' or are or should be at their height, if you must have grammar in a Christmas Annual. My nerve was at its height: I was thirty.
Yet, what was I then? A miserable moonstruck mortal, duly entitled to write M.D. (of Tarrytown College, Alaska) after my name--for the title of Doctor is useful in the profession--but with no other source of enjoyment or emotional recreation in a cold, casual world. Often and often have I written M.D. after my name, till the glowing pleasure palled, and I have sunk back asking, 'Has life, then, no more than this to offer?'
Bear with me if I write like this for ever so many pages; bear with me, it is such easy writing, and only thus can I hope to make you understand my subsequent and slightly peculiar conduct.
How rare was hers, the loveliness of the woman I lost--of her whose loss brought me down to the condition I attempt to depict!
How strange was her rich beauty! She was at once dark and fair--la blonde et la brune! How different from the Spotted Girls and Two-headed Nightingales whom I have often seen exhibited, and drawing money too, as the types of physical imperfections! Warm Southern blood glowed darkly in one of Philippa's cheeks--the left; pale Teutonic grace smiled in the other--the right. Her mother was a fair blonde Englishwoman, but it was Old Calabar that gave her daughter those curls of sable wool, contrasting so exquisitely with her silken-golden tresses. Her English mother may have lent Philippa many exquisite graces, but it was from her father, a pure-blooded negro, that she inherited her classic outline of profile.
Philippa, in fact, was a natural arrangement in black and white. Viewed from one side she appeared the Venus of the Gold Coast, from the other she outshone the Hellenic Aphrodite. From any point of view she was an extraordinarily attractive addition to the Exhibition and Menagerie which at that time I was running in the Midland Counties.
Her father, the nature of whose avocation I never thought it necessary to inquire into, was a sea cook on board a Peninsular and Oriental steamer. His profession thus prevented him from being a permanent resident in this, or indeed in any other country.
Our first meeting was brought about in a most prosaic way. Her mother consulted me professionally about Philippa's prospects. We did not at that time come to terms. I thought I might conclude a more advantageous arrangement if Philippa's heart was touched, if she would be mine. But she did not love me. Moreover, she was ambitious; she knew, small blame to her, how unique she was.
'The fact is,' she would observe when I pressed my suit, 'the fact is I look higher than a mere showman, even if he can write M.D. after his name.' Philippa soon left the circuit 'to better herself.'
In a short time a telegram from her apprised me that she was an orphan. I