Hop-Frog (illustrated) E-Book

Edgar Allan Poe

• Herausgeber: Swish
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

"Hop-Frog" is a gripping tale by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1849 and now in the public domain. This dark and thought-provoking story follows Hop-Frog, a court jester and dwarf, who exacts a clever and fiery revenge on a tyrannical king and his corrupt courtiers. Combining Poe’s signature elements of psychological depth, suspense, and macabre, Hop-Frog explores themes of justice, resilience, and the power of wit against oppression.
This edition has been carefully formatted for digital publication, preserving the original text to enhance readability on modern devices. Dive into this timeless classic and experience the genius of Edgar Allan Poe like never before.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Contents

Table of Contents

Hop-Frog by Edgar Allan Poe is a public domain text. First published in 1849. This version has been formatted for digital publication without altering the original text.

Hop-frog

Hop-Frog by Edgar Allan Poe is a public domain text.First published in 1849.This version has been formatted for digital publication without altering the original text.

This eBook is independently formatted from the original public domain text of Hop-Frog by Edgar Allan Poe.

"This edition has been formatted to improve readability on digital devices, preserving the original text."

I confirm that this eBook, titled Hop-Frog, contains only the original text traditionally attributed to Edgar Allan Poe, which is in the public domain worldwide.

No additional copyrighted materials, such as images, annotations, forewords, or other supplementary content, have been included. The formatting and layout adjustments have been applied solely to enhance readability on digital devices without altering the original text.

Hop-frog

I never knew any one so keenly alive to a joke as the king was. He seemed to live only for joking. To tell a good story of the joke kind, and to tell it well, was the surest road to his favour. Thus it happened that his seven ministers were all noted for their accomplishments as jokers. They all took after the king, too, in being large, corpulent, oily men, as well as inimitable jokers, Whether people grow fat by joking, or whether there is something in fat itself which predisposes to a joke, I have never been quite able to determine; but certain it is that a lean joker is a rara avis in terris.

About the refinements, or, as he called them, the “ghosts” of wit, the king troubled himself very little. He had an especial admiration for breadth in a jest, and would often put up with length, for the sake of it. Over-niceties wearied him. He would have preferred Rabelais’s Gargantua, to the Zadig of Voltaire: and, upon the whole, practical jokes suited his taste far better than verbal ones.

At the date of my narrative, professing jesters had not altogether gone out of fashion at court. Several of the great continental “powers” still retained their “fools,” who wore motley, with caps and bells, and who were expected to be always ready with sharp witticisms, at a moment's notice, in consideration of the crumbs that fell from the royal table.

Our king, as a matter of course, retained his “fool.” The fact is, he required something in the way of folly—if only to counterbalance the heavy wisdom of the seven wise men who were his ministers—not to mention himself.

His fool, or professional jester, was not only a fool, however. His value was trebled in the eyes of the king, by the fact of his being also a dwarf and a cripple. Dwarfs were as common at court, in those days, as fools; and many monarchs would have found it difficult to get through their days (days are rather longer at court than elsewhere) without both a jester to laugh with, and a dwarf to laugh at. But, as I have already observed, your jesters, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, are fat, round and unwieldy—so that it was no small source of self-gratulation with our king that, in Hop-Frog (this was the fool’s name,) he possessed a triplicate treasure in one person.

TRIPETTA ADVANCED TO THE MONARCH’S SEAT, AND, FALLING ON HER KNEES BEFORE HIM, IMPLORED HIM TO SPARE HER FRIEND