Max - by Katherine Cecil Thurston

 

US/UK Kindle Classic

Max is a bestselling novel from 1910 by Katherine Cecil Thurston. (US Edition)  (UK Edition)  Lest you think this is popular rubbish from a hundred years ago – read the evocative first paragraph.

A night journey is essentially a thing of possibilities. To those who count it as mere transit, mere linking of experiences, it is, of course, a commonplace; but to the imaginative, who by gift divine see a picture in every cloud, a story behind every shadow, it suggests romance--romance in the very making.

You will be taken in time to Paris before both wars.

Paris in the dawn of a wet day is a sorry sight; the Gare du Nord in the hours of early morning is a place of infinite gloom. As the north express thundered into its recesses, waking strange and hollow echoes, the long sweep of the platform brought a shudder to more than one tired mind. A string of sleepy porters--gray silhouettes against a gray background--was the only sign of life. Colors there were none, lovers there were none, Parisian joy of living there was not one vestige.

Paris! The murmur crept through the train, stirring the weariest to mechanical action. Paris! Heads were thrust through the windows, wraps and hand-bags passed out to the shadowy, mysterious porters who received them in a silence born of the godless hour and the penetrating, chilling dampness of the atmosphere.

Max, the mysterious young Russian protagonist, books an inexpensive hotel room:

Jean [the porter], breathing audibly, led the way, pausing at every landing to assure monsieur that the ascent was nothing--a mere nothing, and that before another thought could pass through monsieur's mind the fifth floor would be reached. The boy followed, climbing and ever climbing, until the meagre hand-rail appeared to lengthen into dream-like coils, and the threadbare, drab-hued carpet, with its vivid red border, to assume the proportions of some confusing scroll.

This looks to be a gem from the past!  There is not one Amazon reader review – so maybe one of you will be the first. 

Just a heads up, a couple of free books that I suggested in the past are no longer available without charge.  And when this happens, the book disappears from your Kindle reader, but maybe not from your Kindle. 

For example, TheCount of Monte Cristo, is no longer free and when I try to open the free copy I downloaded, I get this message on my laptop Kindle reader— “The book could not be opened. Please remove the book from your device and redownload it.”  Of course it cannot be “redownloaded” as it is no longer available.  It was never on my Kindle. 

Another book that disappeared from my laptop Kindle software is “Warand Peace, which is still on my Kindle.  Presumably if I delete it from my Kindle, it is going to be gone altogether.  That is usually not the case as deleting a book from a device does not delete the book from your archive. But apparently not if the book was free! 

Read ‘em while you got ‘em . . . 

This blog is a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try. 

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