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Tales and Fantasies

by Robert Louis Stevenson

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Fiction

Inside this work

  1. 01Front matter~2 min
  2. 02CHAPTER I—IN WHICH JOHN SOWS THE WIND~13 min
  3. 03CHAPTER II—IN WHICH JOHN REAPS THE WHIRLWIND~12 min
  4. 04CHAPTER III—IN WHICH JOHN ENJOYS THE HARVEST HOME~12 min
  5. 05CHAPTER IV—THE SECOND SOWING~12 min
  6. 06CHAPTER V—THE PRODIGAL’S RETURN~13 min
  7. 07CHAPTER VI—THE HOUSE AT MURRAYFIELD — part 1~25 min
  8. 08CHAPTER VI—THE HOUSE AT MURRAYFIELD — part 2~1 min
  9. 09CHAPTER VII—A TRAGI-COMEDY IN A CAB~21 min
  10. 10CHAPTER VIII—SINGULAR INSTANCE OF THE UTILITY OF PASS-KEYS~23 min
  11. 11CHAPTER IX—IN WHICH MR. NICHOLSON ACCEPTS THE PRINCIPLE OF AN ALLOWANCE — part 1~25 min
  12. 12CHAPTER IX—IN WHICH MR. NICHOLSON ACCEPTS THE PRINCIPLE OF AN ALLOWANCE — part 2~25 min
  13. 13CHAPTER IX—IN WHICH MR. NICHOLSON ACCEPTS THE PRINCIPLE OF AN ALLOWANCE — part 3~13 min
  14. 14CHAPTER I—INTRODUCES THE ADMIRAL~23 min
  15. 15CHAPTER III—IN THE ADMIRAL’S NAME~15 min
  16. 16CHAPTER IV—ESTHER ON THE FILIAL RELATION~7 min
  17. 17CHAPTER V—THE PRODIGAL FATHER MAKES HIS DEBUT AT HOME~15 min
  18. 18CHAPTER VI—THE PRODIGAL FATHER GOES ON FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH~21 min
  19. 19CHAPTER VII—THE ELOPEMENT~22 min
  20. 20CHAPTER VIII—BATTLE ROYAL~19 min
  21. 21CHAPTER IX—IN WHICH THE LIBERAL EDITOR RE-APPEARS AS ‘DEUS EX MACHINA’~6 min

A few words to begin

JOHN VAREY NICHOLSON was stupid; yet, stupider men than he are now sprawling in Parliament, and lauding themselves as the authors of their own distinction. He was of a fat habit, even from boyhood, and inclined to a cheerful and cursory reading of the face of life; and possibly this attitude of mind was the original cause of his misfortunes. Beyond this hint philosophy is silent on his career, and superstition steps in with the more ready explanation that he was detested of the gods. His father—that iron gentleman—had long ago enthroned himself on the heights of the Disruption Principles. What these are (and in spite of their grim name they are quite innocent) no array of terms would render thinkable to the merely English intelligence; but to the Scot they often prove unctuously nourishing, and Mr. Nicholson found in them the milk of lions. About the period when the churches convene at Edinburgh in their annual assemblies, he was to be seen descending the Mound in the company of divers red-headed clergymen: these voluble, he only contributing oracular nods, brief negatives, and the austere spectacle of his stretched upper lip. The names of Candlish and Begg were frequent in these interviews, and occasionally the talk ran on the Residuary Establishment and the doings of one Lee. A stranger to the tight little theological kingdom of Scotland might have listened and gathere…

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