Other Fiction Tarkington, Booth: The Guest of Quesnay (Illustrated). v1, 21 March 2012

[GrannyGrump]

First serialized in "Everybody's Magazine", published in book form 1908.

Well-spiced with bits of wry humor and observations of human behavior, with some nicely melodramatic moments, this novel moves to Europe for a refreshing change from Tarkington’s often-used Indiana settings.

The story is set in France; the narrator is an (un-named) American of middle years, an artist who has lived his adult life in Paris, "pottering with paints and canvas" with only slight success. The tale begins with a brief discussion of Larrabee Harmon, a notoriously dissapated young American married to an aging Spanish dancer. After helping to extricate the apparently-dying Harmon from an automobile wreck, our narrator is "pleased to forget all about him."

Two years later, he decides to revisit a favorite country inn, and learns that friends have leased the neighboring chateau, Quesnay, leaving it in the temporary charge of their guest, the lovely Madame d'Armand. Then two mysteriously secretive strangers come to stay at the inn, one known to be the “great scientist” Professor Keredec, the other believed to be his assistant. Handsome young Oliver Saffren, who is strongly attracted to Mme. d'Armand, seems unusually naive and other-worldly, and neighborhood gossip is rife with speculation about his sanity. Meanwhile, our narrator is becoming friendly with Anne Elliott, another of the guests at Quesnay. Ah, the plot will thicken...


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A pair of favorite quotes:

The smaller the community the more blowzy with gossip you are sure to find it; and I have little doubt that when Friday learned enough English, one of the first things Crusoe did was to tell him some scandal about the goat.

... he uttered a startled croak, and took a surprisingly long skip backward, landing in the screen of honeysuckle vines, which, he seemed to imagine, were some new form of hostility attacking him treacherously from the rear. They sagged, but did not break from their fastenings, and his behaviour, as he lay thus entangled, would have contrasted unfavourably in dignity with the actions of a panic-stricken hen in a hammock.

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Tinted frontispiece, and four full-page B&W illustrations. Drop caps.

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[Jellby]

Missing attachment?

[GrannyGrump]

I am SO sorry for that, lost internet connection and couldn't upload missing attachment file till today.

Hope you find it worth the wait!