The Mask: A Story of Love and AdventureArthur HornblowOmniClassics · Literature
The Mask: A Story of Love and Adventure
Arthur HornblowA valuable diamond sends a businessman abroad while his wife fears the dangers that prosperity may bring home.
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About the book
Kenneth Traynor is preparing to leave New York for South Africa when a newspaper report threatens to expose the business opportunity he hoped to keep quiet. A newly discovered diamond promises an enormous return, provided he can secure the arrangements and carry the stone safely back. His wife Helen sees risks that his excitement about the fortune encourages him to dismiss. Hornblow develops the adventure through threats to the family's security and questions of identity, with physical resemblance adding uncertainty to personal trust. The comfortable Gramercy Park household is therefore more than a contrast to distant danger: it is part of what the pursuit of wealth places at stake. Suspense depends on whether familiar appearances can still be accepted as reliable evidence.
- Wealth and danger
- Identity and resemblance
- Marriage and trust
Why read it
The opening breakfast places the same journey between two sharply different perspectives: a financial opportunity and a threat to domestic safety.
English G. W. Dillingham edition, copyright 1913, with Paul Stahr illustrations