Blore-Smith, a young Londoner with more money than sense, feels himself to be living a dull life. A chance meeting with Peter Maltravers (an aspiring filmmaker) and Oliver Chipchase (an amateur psychologist) sends Blore-Smith on a voyage, ostensibly of self-discovery, during which he is analyzed by Chipchase and becomes a patron of the arts by funding a Maltravers film. The “two knaves” bring Blore-Smith to art galleries, to restaurants, to Paris—at each stage extracting both money and entertainment from their ‘patient’. Blore-Smith falls in love with Maltravers’ wife, Sarah (a motoring enthusiast), becomes entangled with Mrs Mendoza (Mendie), whose flower shop, la cattleya, evokes Proust, and eventually travels with Maltravers and Chipchase to Berlin, where he observes first-hand the workings of the cinema. A film is being prepared with several different endings, each catering to the self-perception of the nation in which it will be shown. The novel returns to a country estate for its conclusion. The end of Blore-Smith’s saga is ambiguous: perhaps he has gained something valuable from his experiences; perhaps he has not yet reached the point of intellectual development at which he can recognize his gains. The novel remains Burtonesque, clearly showing that the persistent belief that life does have something else to offer, no matter what one may currently have, is the essence of melancholy.

Agents and Patients

"In the sands of a great desert, a once-heroic paladin has turned to evil and enlisted an army of gnolls to help retrieve a powerful relic, reputed to be kept in the vaults of the city of Fire. If they find it, the world will never again be at peace." A blackguard serving Hextor burns the city of Kalpesh, searching for a magical artifact. Some of the best soldiers of the city, led by a man named Tahlain, manage to escape the city, going out into the desert, but only a half-orc named Krusk knows of the real reason that Tahlain has led his troops out of the city. The blackguard manages to catch up with the soldiers, killing Tahlain, but not before the Captain manages to pass the artifact, a key into the city of fire, onto Krusk. The half-orc flees and for days starves and dehydrates until he is captured by a group of villagers. A party of adventurers, returning from a raid on a group of orcs, manage to stop Krusk from being hanged, and he explains his mission to them. They go out into the desert, seeking to find the city of fire. However, they must first pass a series of challenges, while at the same time running from the gnolls. Eventually they manage to find their way into the city of fire, where they use the key to gain access. An azer, who guards the abandoned city, helps them prepare for the inevitable fight, and after the gnolls are defeated Krusk helps permanently seal the portal. A wizard named Naull who had been traveling with the party is nearly killed in the process, and the blackguard manages to capture her, teleporting her away to some unknown fate.

City of Fire

In this section, Elsa leaves her family home after breaking with her widowed father when he becomes remarried to Elsa''s best friend. She moves to North Dakota where she meets Bo Mason, who runs an illegal saloon or blind pig. Despite being disturbed by Bo''s sometimes violent behavior, Elsa strikes up a romantic relationship with him. Against her father''s advice, she becomes engaged to Bo. The second section describes the Masons'' failed attempts to run a hotel, as well as the early childhood of their sons Chester and Bruce. Bo''s relationship with Bruce becomes increasingly abusive, especially around issues of toilet training. After an especially strong outburst of violence against Bruce, Bo abandons his family. In this section Bo has begun to establish a relatively stable life for himself running a bunkhouse in Saskatchewan. In the meantime, Elsa moves back in with her father after her son Chester gets in trouble for engaging in sexual play with a girl in the orphanage he attends. After returning home, Elsa considers getting a divorce and marrying a former suitor, but eventually she accepts Bo''s offer of reconciliation. This short section of the book is told from the perspective of Bruce and addresses an idyllic summer spent at the family''s homestead. This section will later be important as a memory as the adult Bruce reflects back on his life. Also, in this section Bruce the child begins to regain memories of the abuses he suffered in infancy. This section is set against the historical backdrop of the 1918 flu epidemic. Down on his luck, Bo realizes that because of the flu epidemic he stands to make a small fortune if he begins bootlegging whisky to Canada, due to the perceived medicinal benefits of alcohol. While Bo is away in the United States purchasing whisky, the flu epidemic hits his home town and eventually Chester is forced to guard the family homestead himself while all the other family members are sick. The sixth section is set during the Prohibition Era. Bo has supported his family for several years by bootlegging, but eventually the family decides to leave the small Canadian town they live in on the Canada/Montana border after Bo is arrested for bootlegging on the same day his son, Chester, is arrested for arson. The seventh section of the book takes place in Salt Lake City, Utah. Chester Mason is about to graduate from high school. His parents attempt to steer him away from his romance with an older girl, Laura, and into a promising career as a baseball player. However, when the Masons'' house is raided by the police, Chester quits his baseball job and elopes with Laura. During this section Bruce''s study at law school is interrupted when he learns that his brother, Chester, has died. In addition, his mother''s cancer is worsening, and eventually Bruce returns to his family for his mother''s sake. This section deals with the death of Elsa Mason from cancer, and the subsequent rift that develops between Bo and Bruce Mason, during which Bruce considers murdering his father. This final section is told first from the perspective of Bo Mason, who is now an aging widower in Salt Lake City, oppressed by frequent feelings of self-hatred. Eventually Bo kills himself after murdering a former lover. The end of the section deals with Bruce''s attempts to look back on the tumultuous history of his family and trying to come to terms with his role as the sole survivor.

The Big Rock Candy Mountain

The opening sentence says,"The Pushcart War started on the afternoon of March 15, 1976 when a truck ran down a pushcart belonging to a flower peddler." Later editions changed 1976 to 1986 then to 1998 so that the date would still be set in the future. Post-millennium editions of the book have been published with the date 2029. Traffic in New York City has become intolerable. The leaders of the three biggest trucking companies, known as "The Three," hold a secret meeting where they plan to take over the streets for themselves by eliminating other traffic, starting with the pushcarts.The character Professor Cumberly says, "The truck drivers had gotten together and figured out that in crowded traffic conditions, the only way to get where you wanted to go was to be so big that you didn''t have to get out of the way of anybody." This is known as the Large Object Theory of History. Faced with truck-related "accidents," damaged carts, and injured fellows, the pushcart peddlers respond with the Pea-Shooter Campaign. The aim is to flatten truck tires using pea shooters with pins in the peas so that everyone can see that the trucks are the cause of the traffic problems. One peddler, Frank the Flower, is arrested and falsely confesses that he shot all 18,991 of the trucks. After his arrest, the peddlers give up the Pea-Shooter Campaign. But soon, inspired by Frank''s arrest, children join in the sabotage of truck tires. The movie star, Wenda Gambling, also comes out in support of the peddlers. On the truck side are the owners Moe Mammoth of Mammoth Moving, Walter Sweet of Tiger Trucking, and Louie Livergreen of LEMA (Lower Eastside Moving Association). Their biggest trucks are respectively the Mighty Mammoth, the Ten-Ton Tiger and the Leaping Lema. Their most prominent driver is Albert P. Mack. A driver for Tiger Trucking is Joey Kafflis and he gets fired for saying that traffic is lousy and that he is standing up for the pushcarts instead of the trucks. Prominent peddlers are Frank the Flower, Morris the Florist, General Anna, Harry the Hot Dog, Mr. Jerusalem, Carlos, Papa Peretz, Eddie Moroney and the pushcart repair shop owner Maxie Hammerman, the "Pushcart King." Initially, the outlook is bad for the peddlers because the trucking companies control the newspapers and the corrupt mayor, Emmett P. Cudd, but the citizens of New York City and the members of the press eventually move to the side of the street vendors after the peddlers'' Peace March is interrupted by violence on the part of the truck drivers. New laws are enacted to limit the size of the trucks to the current smallest size or smaller and to limit the number of trucks to one half of the current number. The Truce is passed to make it a criminal offense for a larger vehicle to take advantage of a smaller vehicle in any way. Albert P. Mack is sentenced to life in prison for violating the Truce nineteen times. The city erects a statue of General Anna to commemorate the struggle.

The Pushcart War

Story of the Eye consists of several vignettes, centered around the sexual passion existing between the unnamed late adolescent male narrator and Simone, his primary female partner. Within this episodic narrative two secondary figures emerge: Marcelle, a mentally ill sixteen-year-old girl who comes to a sad end, and Lord Edmund, a voyeuristic, English émigré aristocrat. Simone and the narrator first consummate their lust on a beach near their home, and involve Marcelle within their activity. The couple are exhibitionists, copulating within Simone''s house in full view of her mother. During this second episode, Simone derives pleasure from inserting hard and soft boiled eggs for her vaginal and anal stimulation; she also experiences considerable enjoyment from the viscosity of various liquids. The pair undertake an orgy with other adolescents, which involves some broken glass and involuntary bloodletting, and ends with Marcelle''s psychological breakdown. The narrator flees his own parents'' home taking a pistol from the office of his bedridden, senile, and violent father. They view Marcelle within a sanatorium, but fail to break her out. Naked, they flee during night back to Simone''s home, and more displays of exhibitionist sex ensue before Simone''s widowed mother. Later, they finally break Marcelle out of the institution, but unfortunately, Marcelle is totally insane. Deprived of her therapeutic environment, she hangs herself. The pair have sex next to her corpse. After Marcelle''s suicide, the two flee to Spain, where they meet Sir Edmund. They witness a Madrid bullfight, which involves the prowess of handsome twenty-year-old matador, El Granero. Initially, El Granero kills the first bull that he encounters and the animal is consequently castrated. Simone then pleasures herself by vaginally inserting these taurine testicles. Unfortunately, El Granero is killed by the next bull that he fights, and his face is mutilated. As the corpse of El Granero is removed from the stadium, his right eye has worked loose from its socket, and is hanging, bloody and distended. Simone, Sir Edmund, and the narrator visit the Catholic Church of San Seville after the day''s events. Simone aggressively seduces Don Aminado, a handsome, young, Catholic priest, fellating him while Simone and the narrator have sex. Sir Edmund undertakes a blasphemous parody of the Catholic Eucharist involving desecration of the bread and wine using Don Aminado''s urine and semen before Simone strangles Don Aminado to death during his final orgasm. Sir Edmund enucleates one of the dead priests'' eyes, and Simone inserts it within her vagina, while she and the narrator have sex. The trio successfully elude apprehension for the murder of Don Aminado, and make their way down Andalusia. Sir Edmund purchases an African-staffed yacht so that they can continue their debaucheries, whereupon the story ends. In a postscript, Bataille reveals that the character of Marcelle may have been partially inspired by his own mother, who suffered from bipolar disorder, while the narrator''s father is also a transcription of his own unhappy paternal relationship. In an English language edition, Roland Barthes and Susan Sontag provide critical comment on the events.

Histoire de l''oeil

The book focuses on the adult lives of two onetime teenage lovers, Ken and Sylvia, who were from different social strata. Ken was self-supporting, working as a lifeguard at a Maine island resort, while Sylvia''s family stayed as guests of the owners, one summer between years at college. After their summer love affair, they married other people, but rediscover each other later in life. At that time, Sylvia has a son, Johnny, and Ken a daughter, Molly. While Ken and Sylvia renew their love affair, their children begin a romance. Ken becomes a millionaire through his work as a research chemist as his wife Helen spurns him at home, while Sylvia''s husband Bart turns to alcohol as his family fortune disappears, and he turns their island home into an inn. After twenty years away, Ken decides to visit the island again, writing Bart to ask for lodging. Ken brings Molly and Helen to the island, and everyone tries to be cordial. But soon old feelings, and tensions, and longings arise in the adults, while the young Johnny and Molly in turn become enamored of each other. Ken and Sylvia fall in love once again. The couple are noticed by Todd Hasper, the steward of the island, who decides to inform Sylvia''s husband Bart. Ken, aware of Sylvia''s plight, invites her and her family to take over a motel job in Florida for Bart has asked for a divorce and the custody of their son John. The affair between Ken and Sylvia is again noticed, this time by a friend of Helen''s. The two divorce, and their daughter Molly, like John, is sent to boarding school. During their tenure at their respective schools, John and Molly begin an avid correspondence. Helen and her mother Margaret are not pleased, as they find it inappropriate for a girl her age to be so attached to a boy. Their correspondence continues, with rendezvous during school breaks. Their romance culminates when they see each other again at Ken and Sylvia''s beach house. The two acknowledge that they are in love with one another, and they consummate it shortly thereafter. Back at school, Molly learns from a doctor that she is pregnant, and John hitchhikes across the country to be with and support her. Ken and Sylvia give their guarded approval, feeling hypocritical to deny them their love. Bart, whose alcoholism has landed him in a veterans hospital, cannot attend the wedding, and while he disapproves, he urges John to take over the inn. Helen attends the wedding under sedation. The book ends with John and Molly spending their honeymoon on Pine Island, John''s "one good inheritance", as Bart terms it in a letter.

A Summer Place

The Baudelaire children walk with Mr. Poe to their new home on 667 Dark Avenue. The street is dark, as light is "out" or unpopular. The elevators in the apartment building are not working, as elevators are "out" leaving the Baudelaires to walk up the 66 flights of stairs to the penthouse where the Squalors live. Jerome Squalor welcomes the children to their new home. He offers them "aqueous martinis", (water garnished with an olive served in a fancy glass), and introduces them to his wife Esmé Squalor, the city''s sixth most important financial adviser, who is concerned about what''s "in" and what''s "out". Jerome avoids disputes with Esmé, as he hates arguing with her, and follows her instructions. Esmé sends the children and Jerome to Café Salmonella for dinner, because she will be busy privately discussing arrangements for an auction with trendy auctioneer Gunther. The Baudelaires recognize Gunther as Count Olaf, despite his attempt to disguise his eyebrow with a monocle and high boots to cover up the tattoo of an eye on his ankle. Despite their protestations, Jerome takes the children to the restaurant. Jerome believes the children are being xenophobic and dismisses their suspicions of Gunther. Klaus notices that there is one elevator door on each floor except for the top floor which has two. The children discover that the extra elevator is a fake, "ersatz" and consists of nothing but an empty shaft. They climb down the shaft, to find the two Quagmire triplets trapped in a cage at the bottom of the shaft. The Quagmires say that Count Olaf is planning to smuggle them out of the city by hiding them as an object at the "In" auction, which one of his associates will bid on. The Baudelaires return to the penthouse to find tools with which they can free the Quagmires, but they return to find that Gunther has cast the Quagmires away already. They return, dispirited, to the penthouse. Klaus finds a Lot #50, V.F.D., in the auction catalog. Esmé pretends to believe the children''s story about Gunther''s plot to kidnap the Quagmires, but when they show her the ersatz elevator, she pushes them down the empty shaft. They land halfway down in a net. Sunny climbs up the shaft with her razor sharp teeth, gets their ersatz rope and jumps back down into the net. Sunny bites a hole in the net, and using the rope they climb down from the net and travel along the hallway at the bottom of the shaft, with Violet''s ersatz welding torches, only to find that it is a dead end. Pounding on the "ceiling" reveals that it is in fact a trap door; the children escape through it only to find themselves in the charred remains of the Baudelaire Mansion. They rush to Veblen Hall, the location of the auction, and join the crowd already there. The auction has begun, and Gunther and Esmé are on the stage auctioning off Lot #46. The children ask Jerome to buy them Lot #50. Mr. Poe and Jerome back down but Sunny bids on it and wins. The Baudelaires open the box, only to reveal Very Fancy Doilies. Gunther slips on the doilies and is revealed as Count Olaf when his boots and monocle fly off, revealing his eyebrow and tattoo. Count Olaf and Esmé flee, pursued by the audience. The doorman is revealed as The Hook-Handed Man, and the Quagmires are hidden in the red herring statue. Although Jerome wants to keep the Baudelaires, he insists on taking them far away. They refuse this, however, because they want to rescue the Quagmires. The story ends when Jerome is forced to give them up, because he is too cowardly to help them, Mr. Poe is calling a Vietnamese restaurant instead of the police and the three children sit on the stairs of the hall.

The Ersatz Elevator

Jimson''s father, based on a real person known to Cary, was an Academy artist who is heart-broken when Impressionism drives his style from popular taste. Jimson has put aside any consideration of acceptance by either academy or public and paints in fits of creative ecstasy. Although his work is known to collectors and has become valuable, Jimson himself is forced to live from one scam or petty theft to the next. Cadging enough money to buy paints and supplies, he spends much of the novel seeking surfaces, such as walls, to serve as ground for his paintings. When the novel opens, Jimson has just been released from jail. He seeks money from Hickson, his sometime patron. Later in the book, he tracks down Sara Monday, his ex-wife, and tries to obtain an early painting from her that is worth a great deal. Sara is reluctant to give up the picture, which serves as a reminder of her youth. In the struggle that follows, Sara falls and suffers a fatal injury. Jimson is unsentimental about his life and work and sees himself as someone who has given over to a destructive passion. Yet he regrets nothing. At the novel''s end, Jimson reflects on his life and the home and family that he has missed. But he recognizes that he himself made the decision to sacrifice those possibilities in order to pursue his art. It is only clear at the end that Jimson has suffered a paralysing stroke, and can no longer paint. As he is being taken to hospital, a nun who is nursing him remarks that he should be praying instead of laughing, "Same thing, Mother." replies Jimson, his last words.

The Horse''s Mouth

The novel is set in World War I and opens with a framing story in which a manuscript relating the main story is recovered from a thermos off the coast of Greenland. It purports to be the narrative of Bowen J. Tyler, an American passenger with his Airedale terrier Nobs on a ship sunk in the English Channel by a German U-boat, , in 1916. He is rescued by a British tugboat with another survivor, Lys La Rue. The tug is also sunk, but its crew manages to capture the submarine when it surfaces. Unfortunately, all other British craft continue to regard the sub as an enemy, and they are unable to bring it to port. Sabotage to the navigation equipment sends the U-33 astray into the South Atlantic. The imprisoned German crew retakes the sub and begins a raiding cruise, only to be overcome again by the British. A saboteur continues to guide the sub off course, and by the time he is found out it is in Antarctic waters. The U-33 is now low on fuel, with its provisions poisoned by the saboteur Benson. A large island ringed by cliffs is encountered, and identified as Caprona, a land mass first reported by the (fictitious) Italian explorer Caproni in 1721 whose location was subsequently lost. A freshwater current guides the sub to a stream issuing from a subterranean passage, which is entered on the hope of replenishing the water supply. The U-boat surfaces into a tropical river teeming with primitive creatures extinct elsewhere; attacked, it submerges again and travels upstream in search of a safe harbor. It enters a thermal inland sea, essentially a huge crater lake, whose heat sustains Caprona’s tropical climate. As the sub travels north along the island’s waterways the climate moderates and wildlife undergoes an apparent evolutionary progression. On the shore of the lake the crew builds a palisaded base, dubbed Fort Dinosaur for the area’s prehistoric fauna. The British and Germans agree to work together under Tyler, with Bradley, the mate from the tug, as second in command and Von Schoenvorts, the original sub commander, in control of the Germans. The castaways are attacked by a horde of beast men and take prisoner Ahm, a Neanderthal. They learn that the native name for the island is Caspak. Oil is discovered, which they hope to refine into fuel for the U-33. As they set up operations, Bradley undertakes various explorations. During his absence Lys disappears and the Germans mutiny again, absconding with the submarine. Tyler leaves the other survivors to seek and rescue Lys. A series of adventures ensues among various bands of near-human primitives, each representing a different stage of human advancement, as represented by their weaponry. Tyler rescues Lys from a group of Sto-lu (hatchet men), and later aids the escape of a woman of the Band-lu (spearmen) to the Kro-lu (bowmen). Lys is lost again, and chance discoveries of the graves of two men associated with Bradley’s expedition leaves Tyler in despair of that party’s fate. Unable to find his way back to Fort Dinosaur, he retreats to the barrier cliffs ringing Caspak in a vain hope of attracting rescue from some passing ship. Improbably reunited with Lys, he sets up house with her, completes the account of his adventures which he has been writing, and casts it out to sea in his thermos.

The Land That Time Forgot

Theo is traveling through Westmark, learning about the country of which he will soon be Prince Consort. He is not surprised to find great poverty: Mickle - now known as Princess Augusta - could have told him that from her years on the street. His friend Florian could have told him about the aristocracy''s graft and corruption. But neither could have foreseen a loaded pistol in the practiced hand of the assassin Skeit. The echoes of that shot ring from the muskets and cannons of a Westmark suddenly at war - a war that turns simple, honest men into cold-blooded killers, Mickle into a military commander, and Theo himself into a stranger. As set up in Westmark, Theo and Mickle are in love. A corrupt general is in a cabal with a rival country, and plans to surrender after a token resistance, allowing a country with a more aristocratic government to replace the more populist Mickle who is seen as too close to revolutionaries like Florian. However, although the general surrenders, his soldiers refuse to, and the nominal resistance becomes a full-blown war as the people fight to determine their own destiny. Similar to how the aristocratic powers of the time invaded France to restore the aristocracy, here a foreign country is meddling in the internal affairs of Westmark. And just as France repelled the great powers with an army led by the people and of the people, the Westmark forces run by Florian, and his lieutenants, Theo — now the eponymous Kestrel — and Justin, fight to preserve the country. But becoming a general, a tradesman in blood and death, costs the artistic and conscientious Theo a great deal. He has to cut off pieces of himself in the service of a more pressing need. Meanwhile, Mickle must run her government in exile. Musket and his master, Count Las Bombas, are dragged in to serve as her advisors. She says she wants his advice, as he used to serve with the Salamanca lancers, one of his blustery claims from Westmark. The character Las Bombas is, like the bard Fflewddur Fflam in The Chronicles of Prydain, bombastic, yet of a true heart, and a solid friend. There are sub-plots involving some gamine children, and difficulties in the cabal involving Cabbarus, the villain of the first book. In the end, good triumphs not by force, but by compromise. Constantine, the young king, was set up to be killed by his guardian, but ends up being captured. He and Mickle come to terms, and they draw up a peace treaty to benefit both countries. Mickle sets up a representative government to reign along with her, but that forces her and Theo to postpone their wedding.

The Kestrel

Jane Wilkinson, an actress, is suspected of murdering her husband, the fourth Baron Edgware, so that she can marry the Duke of Merton. The plot begins with Jane asking Poirot to convince her husband to agree to a divorce. When Poirot reluctantly does so, Edgware says that he has already agreed to a divorce and written a letter to Jane informing her of the fact. When Poirot reports this to Jane, she denies ever having received such a letter. Lord Edgware is portrayed as a rather unsympathetic character. On the night of the murder, Wilkinson supposedly goes to the Edgware house, announces herself to the butler, and goes into her husband''s study. The next day, Lord Edgware is found murdered and Chief Inspector Japp tells Poirot all about it. Numerous friends and acquaintances of Jane have described her as amoral, someone who only thinks of herself and would certainly commit a crime if it would help her get what she wants, without a care for others. But in that morning''s newspaper, they discover an article about a dinner party that was held the previous evening where Wilkinson was a guest. At the party, there were thirteen guests at the dinner table. One guest mentioned that thirteen people at table means bad luck for the first guest to rise from the table (hence the alternative title of the book, Thirteen At Dinner) and Jane Wilkinson was the first to rise. Among the guests is an actor named Donald Ross, who spent a lot of the evening speaking with Jane. So the police are, at first, baffled with the case, as is Poirot. On the same morning Lord Edgware''s murder is discovered, comedienne/actress Carlotta Adams, known for her uncanny impersonations, is found dead due to an overdose of Veronal. A mysterious gold case with the sleeping powder in it is found among her possessions. The case bears an inscription reading: "From D, Paris, November, 10th Sweet Dreams". Poirot tries to decode this and arranges the evidence together. A few days later, Jane makes an appearance at another dinner party where the guests talk about Paris of Troy. However, the Jane Wilkinson at this dinner party thinks that the guests, again including actor Donald Ross, are referring to the French capital. Ross can''t understand this because, at the party on the night of the murder, Jane was speaking knowledgeably about the mythological Paris. Ross goes to ring up Poirot about his discovery, but before he can say what he discovered, he is stabbed to death at his home, but Poirot is on the verge of solving the case, anyway. Poirot gathers the suspects and details the trajectory of the crimes (the three murders): With Carlotta Adams impersonating Wilkinson, Jane simply takes a taxi to the Edgware house, where she murders her husband. She is overseen by her husband''s secretary but the secretary''s vision and impartiality were called into question at trial. Later, Jane (in the person of "Mrs Van Dusen", an elderly American widow) and Carlotta meet up in a hotel where they toast Carlotta''s successful "performance" and ostensibly so Jane can pay Carlotta. However, Jane slips Veronal into Carlotta''s drink, and Adams dies. Jane discovers a letter Carlotta has written to her sister and is panicked by how Carlotta talks openly in the letter about their arrangement. Rather than destroy the letter, Jane sees a way she can use the letter to her advantage. At the top left hand corner of the second page is the word "she" (referring to Jane); she tears off the "s", leaving the word "he", making it seem a man had hired Carlotta. Jane then puts the remaining Veronal inside the gold case to make it seem Carlotta was a Veronal addict. Jane ordered the gold case the week prior (as "Mrs Van Dusen"), which Poirot discovers when he questions the engravers. Poirot also realises that "November" was engraved on the case specifically to throw him off. Unbeknownst to Jane, Carlotta had been knowledgeable about Greek mythology, so she talked a lot about the subject with Donald Ross. At the second dinner party, Jane realizes she''s made a potentially very serious mistake about Paris, leaves the party and heads to Ross''s home to kill him before he can tell Poirot. Her motive for killing Lord Edgware was because the Duke of Merton was a staunch Anglo-Catholic and would not marry a divorced woman; a widow, however, is a different matter. In the last chapter, she writes a letter to Poirot, remarkably devoid of any animosity, which ends with her wondering why hangings are not done in public anymore.

Lord Edgware Dies

Meno ensures from the first that readers are in odd territory, starting off with "The Use of Medicine," about a pair of kids using an old bottle of belladonna and a hypodermic they find among their father''s medical supplies to drug little animals. Surreality rears its head in "In the Arms of Someone You Love," set in revolutionary Cuba, where a man worries about losing his wife to a dashing magician. The city erupts in violence, and the man makes a devilish barter for the sake of love, a move that takes this tale out of the realm of magical realism and into that of high romantic fantasy. More mundane matters prevail in such stories as "Mr. Song," which portrays a cad who pays the aged crooner in the apartment next door to sing ballads through the thin walls as a way of setting the mood, and "I''ll Be Your Sailor," in which a schlemiel carries on a benighted affair with a woman in his apartment building who works at a themed fast-food restaurant and has a hockey-loving brute for an uncaring husband. The collection''s highlight is the hilarious "A Trip to Greek Mythology Camp," a painfully comic scenario about a summer camp full of socially awkward kids who assume that in numbers they will find acceptance. Musical tales of love and loss with hardly a word wasted.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Agents and Patients

By Anthony Powell

City of Fire

No Author Listed

The Big Rock Candy Mountain

No Author Listed

The Pushcart War

No Author Listed

Histoire de l'oeil

No Author Listed

A Summer Place

By Sloan Wilson

The Ersatz Elevator

By Daniel Handler

The Horse's Mouth

By Joyce Cary

The Land That Time Forgot

By Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Kestrel

By Lloyd Alexander

Lord Edgware Dies

By Agatha Christie

Bluebirds Used to Croon the Choir: Stories

No Author Listed