Classic Tales by Famous Authors

'1^' •iunsi UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES a66lC amous itboi^ Prayer in the Desert Photogravure.; prom ja Painting by H. Vernet '^ T? F. r im ''^^s *;• aOV t/:^ Copyright 1902 Copyright 1905 BY The Bodleian Society 56.2S T^/ CONTENTS Critical Synopsis of Selections, . Biographical Dictionary of Authors, Bell Tower, The . Herman Melville 9 * King of the Golden River, The . John Ruskin 29 In the House of Suddhoo . Rudyard Kipling 59 Writing on the Image, The . William Morris 69 Abdallah .... Edouard Laboulaye 79 Bottle Imp, The . Robert Louis Stevenson 239 ILLUSTRATIONS PACK Prayer in the Desert . Frontispiece John Ruskin ...... 29 Rudyard Kipling 59 Wm. Morris 69 CRITICAL SYNOPSIS OF SELECTIONS CRITICAL SYNOPSIS OF SELECTIONS Abdallah : By Edouard Rene Lefebvre Laboulaye. This is an Oriental tale of one who loved only himself, who devoted his life to covetousness, ava- rice and the gathering of wealth ; and of another, his foster-brother, who took no thought of riches, but lived for brave deeds, good works and acts of friendship and kindness. Mansour, the great merchant, sought by enchant- ment to gain good fortune for Omar, his newly- born son ; and, praying that the child might have great riches, good health and love no one but himself, his prayer was granted. Halima, the widow of a brave Bedouin chief, besought that Abdallah, her son, might be virtuous and happy. Omar, the son of the rich merchant, became the foster-brother of the young Bedouin, and the boys grew up together, to follow different paths in after life—Omar to amass great wealth through greed and cunning, Ab- dallah to seek the four-leaved shamrock, the magic talisman of contentment and happiness, to be found only by self-denial and good deeds. The son of the desert—noble, generous and brave—toils for the good of his people, fights to succor those in danger, and dies the death of a brave man through the treachery of Omar, to find his reward in Paradise. The wretched Omar finds that his wealth and cunning give him naught but perdition. In the House of Suddhoo: By Rudyard Kipling. This tale of India deals with the credulity of an old East Indian, who is fooled by a rogue. Sudd- hoo, who is very old, has a son in the city, who is sick with pleurisy. Bhagwan Dass receives Jul CRITICAL SYNOPSIS OF SELECTIONS news every day from the son by telegraph, and makes Suddhoo believe that it is obtained by the magic art. He docs many of the horrible things that the fakirs use to frighten their audiences, and Suddhoo is completely deceived. Janoo and Azizun, women who live in the house, see that it is only a scheme of Bhagwan Dass to get money from Suddhoo, but they fear to inform against the supposed magician. At last the son recovers, but the rogue still continues to extract large sums from the old man for advice on family and business affairs. The Bell Tower: By Herman Melville. This strange story tells of the great mechanician Bannadonna and the bell tower which he builds. It is higher than any ever before built, and the great bell is a monster of its kind. Around it are sculptured the hours, personified as twelve dancing maidens; and the bell rotates in its place so that the hammer may strike the joined hands of the recurrent hours as they roll past the point of im- pact. Bannadonna has constructed a great figure of iron which, by some mysterious mechanism, is made to cross the room and strike the bell with the massive club held in its manacled hands. All is ready for the trial, but when the hour arrives and the listening crowds await the musical peal, naught but a dull and muffled crash is heard ; and when the people ascend the tower they find that Banna- donna. standing, by some strange fatality, in the path of the automaton, has been smitten to death by its stroke. The Bottle Imp: By Robert Louis Stevenson. This story tells of an Hawaiian who buys a won- derful bottle, in which lives an imp that will grant every wish of its possessor. The bottle may be sold as often as may be, but always for a less sum than that for which it is bought, and he who buys it last of all must burn everlastingly in the flames of Hell. Keawe builds, with the imp's help, a fine house, and marries a beautiful wife. Then he sells the bottle, but before long he discovers that he is afflicted with leprosy, and, for the sake of his wife, I CRITICAL SYNOPSIS OF SELECTIONS buys the bottle back again for a very small sum that he may be cured by the power of the Bottle Imp. He is healed in body, but his mind is tor- tured by the fate that he feels must come. His wife discovers the cause of his melancholy, and employs another to buy the bottle for her. There is only one coin of lesser value than that she pays for the bottle, so her case seems practically hope- less; but Keawe in turn seeks to buy back the bottle through the agency of an old sailor. The drunken wretch, however, refuses to give up a bottle that can bring him all the drink that he may want; so Keawe and his wife are forever freed from the curse. The King of the Golden River: By John Ruskin. There was once a valley which was very beautiful and fertile, although no streams flowed through it. It was owned by three brothers. The elder two, covetous and wicked, shamefully mistreated their good and generous younger brother. Be- cause of their meanness, a little old man, who calls himself the Southwest Wind, punishes them by turning their beautiful valley into a great heap of red sand. Gluck, the youngest, is befriended by the King of the Golden River, a little gnome, who tells him that whoever climbs to the top of the mountain and throws three drops of water into the source of the Golden River will make his fortune. The two brothers both try it, but because of their wicked- ness cannot succeed, and both become great black stones, as a punishment for defiling the river with unholy water. Then Gluck tries, with such success that the next morning the Golden River has changed its course and flows into the valley, trans- forming it to its former beauty and fertility. The Writing on the Image: By William Morris. This poem tells of how men for ages had striven to find the meaning of an inscription on a great statue in the public square, which said, "Strike here," and pointed toward the sky. But at last a man comes and marks where the shadow points at noonday, and, digging there secretly at night, finds Vol. 14— ^ CRITICAL SYNOPSIS OF SELECTIONS a stairway which leads to an underground cham- ber. There, around a sumptuously-spread table, are seated images of a king and queen with their cour- tiers, and in a corner stands the likeness of an armed man with drawn bow. The searcher takes all the things of value ^yith which the table and statues are adorned, but just as he is about to leave he sees on the floor a great jewel, which he seizes. No sooner does he touch it, however, than the figure bearing the bow lets fly the shaft and extinguishes the light. The man searches for the door, but some magic power has sealed it forever, and he is left there alone in the darkness to meet his fate. Editor. BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF AUTHORS *MU BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF AUTHORS Kipling, Rudyard: (For Biographical Note, see Vol. I, "Famous Tales of Battle, Camp and Siege.") Laboulaye, Edouard Rene Lefebvre de: A dis- tinguished French jurist, historian and politician; born, Paris, 1811; died there, 1883. He was the author of a number of important works on consti- tutional history, professor of Comparative Legis- lation at the College de France, a Deputy and Life Senator. As a diversion he wrote some charming fairy stories. His principal works are: "Histoire Politique des Etats Unis" (1855-66); "Les Etats-Unis et La France" (1862); "Paris en Amerique" (1863); "Recherches sur la Condition Civile et Politique des Femmes" (1843); translations of Channing's works, etc. Melville, Herman: (For Biographical Note, see Vol. n., "Famous Tales of the Sea.") Morris. William: (For Biographical Note, see Vol. VHL, The ^neid.) RusKiN, John: In 1843 an astounding assault was made upon certain traditionary canons of art, which imposed blind reverence for the old masters of painting, held rigidly to artificial and aca- demic standards, ostracised originality, encouraged servile imitation, and stifled genius and inspira- tion. In that year John Ruskin, utterly unknown to the world of art or letters, published the first two parts of his great critique, "Modern Painters: Their Superiority in the Art of Landscape Paint- ing to all the Ancient Masters." This work caused a profound sensation, and was the forerunner of a BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF AUTHORS revolution that gave a powerful impulse to modern art. It was bitterly condemned by the formalists, and as warmly praised by their opponents. Rus- kin made a great advance toward a systematic philosophy of esthetics, analyzed the sense of beauty, and exalted sentiment and emotion above dogmatic formula in the appreciation of art. He defended his theories in the most lucid and force- ful of English, and wonderfully stimulated intelli- gent love of the beautiful amongst a vast circle of readers.

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