Resumen
Resumen de La mano que llama y otros relatos
Para quién es
Readers who enjoy Victorian short fiction, from comic mix-ups to haunted marriages and Arctic confessions, will find a tale for each mood. It suits anyone who likes clues, ciphers and narrators who tell on themselves.
De qué trata este libro
What if a single misread glance could ruin a life? In The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories, Grant Allen, a Victorian writer who died in 1899, gathers thirteen tales in which someone misreads another person, a clue or himself. A bride is drawn by a beckoning hand, a collector is accused of theft at the British Museum, and a surgeon writes a confession in a freezing hut. The scenes travel from London drawing rooms to Haiti, Siberia and Jamaica. The mood shifts from rueful comedy to cold dread, often within one story.
En este resumen
- 1A striking bride and a beckoning handFree
- 2Two young Englishmen misread two charming women
- 3Secret absences and a secret letter
- 4A museum coin vanishes and a collector is blamed
- 5Comic dilemmas of a name and a fossil
- 6Twins who fall for the same girl
- 7A Siberian baron and a pirate's chest
- 8Confessions and debts of honor
- 9What binds these thirteen tales together
Idea clave 1 de 9
A striking bride and a beckoning hand
In the title story, Harry Tristram, twenty-two and master of a Devonshire estate, tells his own tale. At a London theater he sees Césarine Vivian, a dark and queenly woman. Something in her gaze repels him, and he cannot look away.
When a cry of fire sends the audience stampeding, she alone stays calm. She goes back into the smoke for her opera glasses, and Harry follows. Her cool nerve fixes her in his mind.
He meant to propose to his old friend Irene Latham that very week. Instead he hears himself proposing to Césarine and cannot explain the words afterward. The dread grows from small gestures and a sense that his will is no longer his own.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Questions about La mano que llama y otros relatos
What is The Beckoning Hand and Other Stories about?
It is a collection of thirteen Victorian short stories by Grant Allen. They deal with love, money, jealousy and obsession, in settings from Devonshire to Haiti and the Arctic, and each story turns on a person who misreads a clue.
Which stories are in The Beckoning Hand and Other Stories?
The book contains The Beckoning Hand, Lucretia, The Third Time, The Gold Wulfric, My Uncle's Will, The Two Carnegies, Olga Davidoff's Husband, John Cann's Treasure, Isaline and I, Professor Milliter's Dilemma, In Strict Confidence, The Search Party's Find and Harry's Inheritance.
Who is Césarine Vivian in The Beckoning Hand?
Césarine is a tall, dark-haired young woman brought up between England, France and Haiti. Harry Tristram meets her at a London theater, is both attracted and afraid, and marries her. She often speaks of a hand that beckons her home.
Is The Gold Wulfric based on a true story?
No, it is a work of fiction. Allen builds it on the real hobby of coin collecting and on the rules of the British Museum, then uses a missing coin, a trial and a prison term to make a puzzle of innocence.
Is The Beckoning Hand and Other Stories easy to read?
The stories are approachable. They have short numbered sections, plenty of dialogue, narrators who speak directly to you, and plots that move quickly from a clear opening to a sharp final turn.