Showing results by author "Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch" in All Categories

A moving story of a random act of kindness. Old Tom Pickford, an elderly clerk at Tweedie's warehouse, is moved by the sight of a young boy on a London omnibus who is about to embark on a new life at sea. His thoughts drift back to his own boyhood in the country, which he left behind long ago. A wonderful study in characterisation and nostalgia.

He was rich beyond imagination and outwardly gracious, but women shunned him because of his beard, which was unmistakably blue. Also, Bluebeard, as he was forever known, had been married several times before but no one knew what became of all his wives. Nevertheless, he manages to woo young Fatima, who only discovers after they are married the fate of his previous wives and that she faces the same fate. This is the classic tale by Charles Perrault, retold masterfully by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch.

Six men, shipwrecked on the ice and trapped in their shack by the bitter Arctic winter, might be excused for beginning to "see" things. But how was it that they all saw the same thing - the mysterious stranger?