Above the Dark Circus E-Book

Hugh Walpole

• Herausgeber: David De Angelis
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Hugh Walpole's thrilling adventure novel of the 1920s revolves around Piccadily Circus. Richard Gunn is an ex-soldier in trouble after the end of the Great War. Jobless and starving in Piccadilly Circus, he encounters his nemesis, Leroy Pengelly. From this encounter the secrets of their shared past start to unravel. A novel which combines elements of the horror and supernatural with the puzzle element of the whodunnit - all wrapped up in one unsettling and uncanny whole.

Leseprobe

Above the Dark Circus

By

Hugh Walpole

1931

© David De Angelis 2017 – all rights reserved

CONTENTS

BOOK I

CHAPTER I. THE BARBER

CHAPTER II. SPINDLE-SHANKS IN A DARK GARDEN

CHAPTER III. OSMUND

CHAPTER IV. THE TEA SHOP

CHAPTER V. PENGELLY ON EARTH

CHAPTER VI. PENGELLY IN HEAVEN

CHAPTER VII. EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF A CORPSE

BOOK II

CHAPTER VIII. SHADOW PURSUING

CHAPTER IX. HELEN

CHAPTER X. THE CURATE

CHAPTER XI. THE SANDWICH BAR

CHAPTER XII. AFFIRMERS; DENIERS

CHAPTER XIII. THE PARTY

CHAPTER XIV. FROM THE STARS DOWN

BOOK I

CHAPTER I. THE BARBER

I am aware, I fancy, of most of the dangers of narrative in the first person, but it appears to me that there is no other possible method for this particular story.

Swiftly following though the incidents of it were, and involving a number of persons besides myself in very definite dangers, it is not the incidents that seem to me now, after nearly five years' interval, to be of importance, but rather the implications that lay behind them, and especially the implications in Osmund's purpose.

The chief peril, I suppose, that lurks behind narrative in the first person is that of incredulity. How can anyone remember so clearly and repeat so accurately these conversations? Yes, but one doesn't either remember clearly or repeat accurately. One gives the gist of the thing, the spirit of it rather than the letter. Then, further, as to the scenes that one did not oneself witness. Well, in this present adventure, there is, as will afterwards be clear, only one scene at which I was not myself present, and here my informant is so close to myself that it makes no matter.

For the rest I, and I alone, can give you, as I think, the point of it all, for I, and I alone, should see it from every angle--yes, from that dizzy catastrophe (for it was a catastrophe) under the guttering candles, from that bizarre procession with the loathsome Pengelly, his hat over his eyes, held up under each arm, to that last scene up among the chimney-pots.

This is a pretty portentous beginning. I hadn't intended to start seriously at all, but quite simply with my name and address, so to speak.

My name is Richard Gunn. I was born in the town of Totnes, April 4, 1884. When this adventure began I was standing, naked to the world, save for one half-crown, about five o'clock on a December afternoon, in Piccadilly Circus, wondering what would happen next.

And here I hope you will excuse me for vagueness in the matter of the year. Indeed, I will ask your permission to change the names, not only of persons, but of buildings and addresses in general. Not that it matters very much. There is no one left who can object very strongly, but I like to allow myself that amount of licence. You can trace the places for yourself, if you like. They are all, as you will see, within a stone's throw from one another. The Circus dominated us first and last and all the time, played perhaps a bigger part in the adventure than did any of us individually. I don't know. That's for you afterwards to decide.