The Coast Of Bohemia. William Dean Howells

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      The Coast Of Bohemia

      WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS

      

      

      

       The Coast of Bohemia, W. D. Howells

       Jazzybee Verlag Jürgen Beck

       86450 Altenmünster, Loschberg 9

       Deutschland

      

       ISBN: 9783849657598

      

       www.jazzybee-verlag.de

       [email protected]

      

      

      

      CONTENTS:

       INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. 1

       I. 4

       II. 6

       III. 8

       IV. 11

       V. 15

       VI. 21

       VII. 24

       VIII. 28

       IX. 31

       X. 34

       XI. 38

       XII. 42

       XIII. 45

       XIV. 48

       XV. 52

       XVI. 56

       XVII. 62

       XVIII. 67

       XIX. 69

       XX. 74

       XXI. 78

       XXII. 83

       XXIII. 88

       XXIV. 93

       XXV. 97

       XXVI. 105

       XXVII. 110

       XXVIII. 117

       XXIX. 121

       XXX. 126

       XXXI. 131

       XXXII. 134

       XXXIII. 137

       XXXIV. 140

       XXXV. 144

       XXXVI. 148

       XXXVII. 152

       XXXVIII. 155

       XXXIX. 159

      INTRODUCTORY SKETCH.

      In one of the old-fashioned books for children there was a story of the adventures of a cent (or perhaps that coin of older lineage, a penny) told by itself, which came into my mind when the publishers suggested that the readers of a new edition of this book might like to know how it happened to be written. I promptly fancied the book speaking, and taking upon itself the burden of autobiography, which we none of us find very heavy; and no sooner had I done so than I began actually to hear from it in a narrative of much greater distinctness than I could have supplied for it.

      "You must surely remember," it protested to my forgetfulness, "that you first thought of me in anything like definite shape as you stood looking on at the trotting-races of a county fair in Northern Ohio, and that I began to gather color and character while you loitered through the art-building, and dwelt with pitying interest upon the forlorn, unpromising exhibits there.

      "But previous to this, my motive existed somewhere in that nebulous fore-life where both men and books have their impalpable beginning; for even you cannot have forgotten that when a certain passionately enterprising young editor asked you for a novel to be printed in his journal, you so far imagined me as to say that I would be about a girl. When you looked over those hapless works of art at the Pymantoning County Fair, you thought, 'What a good thing it would be to have a nice village girl, with a real but limited gift, go from here to study art in New York! And get in love there! And married!' Cornelia and her mother at once stepped out of the inchoate; Ludlow advanced from another quarter of Chaos, and I began really to be.

      "The getting me down on paper was a much later affair—nearly two years later. There were earlier engagements to be met; there was an exciting editorial episode to be got behind you; and there was material for a veridical representation of the ardent young life of the New York Synthesis of Art Studies to be gathered as nearly at first hands and as furtively as possible.

      "I should be almost ashamed to remind you of the clandestine means you employed before you were forced to a frankness alien to your nature, and went and threw yourself on the mercy of a Member who, upon your avowing your purpose, took you through the schools of the Synthesis and instructed you in its operation. Not satisfied with this, you got an undergraduate of the Synthesis to coach you as to its social side, and while she was consenting to put it all down in writing for your convenience, you were shamelessly making notes