Monsieur Beaucaire

By Booth Tarkington

Alongside William Faulkner and John Updike, Booth Tarkington is one of just three authors to win the Pulitzer Prize more than once. Tarkington accomplished the feat with Alice Adams and The Magnificent Ambersons, dramas that explored the lives of fictional characters who live in a setting similar to the one Tarkington experienced in Indianapolis. Tarkington continues to garner praise for his works' historical realism.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Krill Press
• Release date: Dec 14, 2015
• ISBN: 9781518336461

Booth Tarkington

Booth Tarkington (1869 - 1946) was an American novelist and dramatist, known for most of his career as “The Midwesterner.” Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Tarkington was a personable and charming student who studied at both Purdue and Princeton University. Earning no degrees, the young author cemented his memory and place in the society of higher education on his popularity alone—being familiar with several clubs, the college theater and voted “most popular” in the class of 1893. His writing career began just six years later with his debut novel, The Gentleman from Indiana and from there, Tarkington would enjoy two decades of critical and commercial acclaim. Coming to be known for his romanticized and picturesque depiction of the Midwest, he would become one of only four authors to win the Pulitzer Prize more than once for The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) and Alice Adams (1921), at one point being considered America’s greatest living author, comparable only to Mark Twain. While in the later half of the twentieth century Tarkington’s work fell into obscurity, it is undeniable that at the height of his career, Tarkington’s literary work and reputation were untouchable.

Book preview

MONSIEUR BEAUCAIRE

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Booth Tarkington

YURITA PRESS

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This book is a work of fiction; its contents are wholly imagined.

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Copyright © 2015 by Booth Tarkington

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Monsieur Beaucaire

By

Booth Tarkington

Monsieur Beaucaire

Published by Yurita Press

New York City, NY

First published 1900

Copyright © Yurita Press, 2015

All rights reserved

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

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CHAPTER ONE

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THE YOUNG FRENCHMAN DID VERY well what he had planned to do. His guess that the Duke would cheat proved good. As the unshod half-dozen figures that had been standing noiselessly in the entryway stole softly into the shadows of the chamber, he leaned across the table and smilingly plucked a card out of the big Englishman’s sleeve.

Merci, M. le Duc! he laughed, rising and stepping back from the table.

The Englishman cried out, It means the dirty work of silencing you with my bare hands! and came at him.

Do not move, said M. Beaucaire, so sharply that the other paused. Observe behind you.

The Englishman turned, and saw what trap he had blundered into; then stood transfixed, impotent, alternately scarlet with rage and white with the vital shame of discovery. M. Beaucaire remarked, indicating the silent figures by a polite wave of the hand, Is it not a compliment to monsieur that I procure six large men to subdue him? They are quite devote’ to me, and monsieur is alone. Could it be that he did not wish even his lackeys to know he play with the yo’ng Frenchman who Meestaire Nash does not like in the pomp-room? Monsieur is unfortunate to have come on foot and alone to my apartment.

The Duke’s mouth foamed over with chaotic revilement. His captor smiled brightly, and made a slight gesture, as one who brushes aside a boisterous insect. With the same motion he quelled to stony quiet a resentful impetus of his servants toward the Englishman.

It’s murder, is it, you carrion! finished the Duke.

M. Beaucaire lifted his shoulders in a mock shiver. What words! No, no, no! No killing! A such word to a such host! No, no, not mur-r-der; only disgrace! He laughed a clear, light laugh with a rising inflection, seeming to launch himself upon an adventurous quest for sympathy.

You little devilish scullion! spat out the Duke.

"Tut, tut! But I forget. Monsieur has pursue’ his studies of deportment amongs’ his fellow-countrymen.

Do you dream a soul in Bath will take your word that I—that I—

That M. le Duc de Winterset had a card up his sleeve?

"You pitiful stroller, you stableboy,