About the book

Lionel Mortimer has education, charm, and very little money. His legal career brings no briefs, his writing earns too little, and his landlady has reached the end of her patience. Wandering into the Strand, he imagines saving a beautiful heiress from a runaway horse and being rewarded with both employment and affection. Almost immediately, a runaway carriage gives him the chance to perform the heroic part of this scenario. The meeting that follows draws him toward Beatrice and a story less straightforward than his comfortable daydream. Bird keeps the comedy alert to its own romance conventions, allowing coincidence, theatricality, and Lionel's irrepressible commentary to shape the action. Financial necessity and imaginative self-dramatization remain inseparable ingredients in his search for a new life.

Romance and fantasy
Money and opportunity
Performance and identity

Why read it

Lionel's running commentary on his own predicament makes the adventure a playful examination of romantic wish fulfillment.

English text of the 1914 Bobbs-Merrill edition

Contents and reading sections

About the book

Why read it

Read next