The Napoleon of Notting Hill

Коллекция текстов · novel

To Hilaire Belloc
For every tiny town or place God made the stars especially; Babies look up with owlish face And see them tangled in a tree: You saw a moon…
Chapter I—Introductory Remarks on the Art of Prophecy
Book I Chapter I—Introductory Remarks on the Art of Prophecy The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at chi…
Chapter II—The Man in Green (1)
Very few words are needed to explain why London, a hundred years hence, will be very like it is now, or rather, since I must slip into a pr…
Chapter II—The Man in Green (2)
"Yes," said the foreigner, snatching at the word. "You are right, generous Englishman. An idea brillant, a burning thought. Señor, you aske…
Chapter III—The Hill of Humour
"In a little square garden of yellow roses, beside the sea," said Auberon Quin, "there was a Nonconformist minister who had never been to W…
Chapter I—The Charter of the Cities
Book II Chapter I—The Charter of the Cities Lambert was standing bewildered outside the door of the King's apartments amid the scurry of as…
Chapter II—The Council of the Provosts
The King got up early next morning and came down three steps at a time like a schoolboy. Having eaten his breakfast hurriedly, but with an…
Chapter III—Enter a Lunatic
The King of the Fairies, who was, it is to be presumed, the godfather of King Auberon, must have been very favourable on this particular da…
Chapter I—The Mental Condition of Adam Wayne (1)
Book III Chapter I—The Mental Condition of Adam Wayne (1) A little while after the King's accession a small book of poems appeared, called…
Chapter I—The Mental Condition of Adam Wayne (2)
"I know, I say, the temptations of so international, so universal a vision of wealth. I know that it must be your danger not to fall like m…
Chapter II—The Remarkable Mr. Turnbull
After two more interviews with shopmen, however, the patriot's confidence in his own psychological diplomacy began vaguely to wane. Despite…
Chapter III—The Experiment of Mr. Buck (1)
An earnest and eloquent petition was sent up to the King signed with the names of Wilson, Barker, Buck, Swindon, and others. It urged that…
Chapter III—The Experiment of Mr. Buck (2)
"Then I have," answered the King. "I have walked along a street with the best cigar in the cosmos in my mouth, and more Burgundy inside me…
Chapter I—The Battle of the Lamps
Book IV Chapter I—The Battle of the Lamps Mr. Buck, who, though retired, frequently went down to his big drapery stores in Kensington High…
Chapter II—The Correspondent of the Court Journal
Journalism had become, like most other such things in England under the cautious government and philosophy represented by James Barker, som…
Chapter III—The Great Army of South Kensington (1)
The article from the special correspondent of the Court Journal arrived in due course, written on very coarse copy-paper in the King's arab…
Chapter III—The Great Army of South Kensington (2)
"Lambert stood at the further corner of the street that curved round the tower, his figure outlined in some degree by the beginning of moon…
Chapter I—The Empire of Notting Hill (1)
Book V Chapter I—The Empire of Notting Hill (1) On the evening of the third of October, twenty years after the great victory of Notting Hil…
Chapter I—The Empire of Notting Hill (2)
"What is this, my people?" he said. "Is it altogether impossible to make a thing good without it immediately insisting on being wicked? The…
Chapter II—The Last Battle
The day was cloudy when Wayne went down to die with all his army in Kensington Gardens; it was cloudy again when that army had been swallow…
Chapter III—Two Voices
In a place in which there was total darkness for hours, there was also for hours total silence. Then a voice spoke out of the darkness, no…