: Stephen Leacock
: Delphi Collected Works of Stephen Leacock (Illustrated)
: Delphi Classics
: 9781788779982
: 1
: CHF 1.60
:
: Kinder- und Jugendbücher
: English
: 3341
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB

The internationally acclaimed Canadian humorist, Stephen Leacock produced over thirty books of light-hearted sketches and essays. The beguiling fantasies and hilarious tales of 'Literary Lapses' (1910), 'Nonsense Novels' (1911) and 'Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town' (1912) helped launch Leacock's career as a master writer of humour. He also produced learned and well-researched non-fiction books, including important historical works on his beloved home of Canada and detailed reviews of literary figures. This comprehensive eBook presents Leacock's collected works, with numerous illustrations, rare texts, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)


* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Leacock's life and works
* All 12 short story collections available in the US public domain, with individual contents tables
* Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the short stories
* Easily locate the short stories you want to read
* Images of how the books were first published, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts
* Excellent formatting of the texts
* Rare non-fiction works
* Includes Leacock's play 'Q'
* Features Peter McArthur's seminal biography - discover Leacock's literary life
* Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres


Please note: the eBook contains as many Leacock works as possible available in the US public domain. New texts will be added to the edition as they become available.


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CONTENTS:


Contents
The Fiction
Literary Lapses
Nonsense Novels
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town
Behind the Beyond
Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich
Moonbeams from the Larger Lunacy
Further Foolishness
Essays and Literary Studies
Frenzied Fiction
The Hohenzollerns in America
Winsome Winnie
My Discovery of England


The Short Stories
List of Short Stories in Chronological Order
List of Short Stories in Alphabetical Order


The Play
'Q': A Farce in One Act


The Non-Fiction
Elements of Political Science
Baldwin, Lafontaine, Hincks: Responsible Government
Adventurers of the Far North
The Dawn of Canadian History
The Mariner of St. Malo
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice


The Biography
Stephen Leacock by Peter McArthur


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Lord Oxhead’s Secret


A ROMANCE IN ONE CHAPTER

ITWASFINISHED. Ruin had come. Lord Oxhead sat gazing fixedly at the library fire. Without, the wind soughed (or sogged) around the turrets of Oxhead Towers, the seat of the Oxhead family. But the old earl heeded not the sogging of the wind around his seat. He was too absorbed.

Before him lay a pile of blue papers with printed headings. From time to time he turned them over in his hands and replaced them on the table with a groan. To the earl they meant ruin — absolute, irretrievable ruin, and with it the loss of his stately home that had been the pride of the Oxheads for generations. More than that — the world would now know the awful secret of his life.

The earl bowed his head in the bitterness of his sorrow, for he came of a proud stock. About him hung the portraits of his ancestors. Here on the right an Oxhead who had broken his lance at Crecy, or immediately before it. There McWhinnie Oxhead who had ridden madly from the stricken field of Flodden to bring to the affrighted burghers of Edinburgh all the tidings that he had been able to gather in passing the battlefield. Next him hung the dark half Spanish face of Sir Amyas Oxhead of Elizabethan days whose pinnace was the first to dash to Plymouth with the news that the English fleet, as nearly as could be judged from a reasonable distance, seemed about to grapple with the Spanish Armada. Below this, the two Cavalier brothers, Giles and Everard Oxhead, who had sat in the oak with Charles II. Then to the right again the portrait of Sir Ponsonby Oxhead who had fought with Wellington in Spain, and been dismissed for it.

Immediately before the earl as he sat was the family escutcheon emblazoned above the mantelpiece. A child might read the simplicity of its proud significance — an ox rampant quartered in a field of gules with a pike dexter and a dog intermittent in a plain parallelogram right centre, with the motto, “Hic, haec, hoc, hujus, hujus, hujus.”

* * * * *

“Father!” — The girl’s voice rang clear through the half light of the wainscoted library. Gwendoline Oxhead had thrown herself about the earl’s neck. The girl was radiant with happiness. Gwendoline was a beautiful girl of thirty-three, typically English in the freshness of her girlish innocence. She wore one of those charming walking suits of brown holland so fashionable among the aristocracy of England, while a rough leather belt encircled her waist in a single sweep. She bore herself with that sweet simplicity which was her greatest charm. She was probably more simple than any girl of her age for miles around. Gwendoline was the pride of her father’s heart, for he saw reflected in her the qualities of his race.

“Father,” she said, a blush mantling her fair face, “I am so happy, oh so happy; Edwin has asked me to be his wife, and we have plighted our troth — at least if you consent. For I will never marry without my father’s warrant,” she added, raising her head proudly; “I am too much of an Oxhead for that.”

Then as she gazed into the old earl’s stricken face, the girl’s mood changed at once. “Father,” she cried, “father, are you ill? What is it? Shall I ring?” As she spoke Gwendoline reached for the heavy bell-rope that hung beside the wall, but the earl, fearful that her frenzied efforts might actually make it ring, checked her hand. “I am, indeed, deeply troubled,” said Lord Oxhead, “but of that anon. Tell me first what is this news you bring. I hope, Gwendoline, that your choice has been worthy of an Oxhead, and that he to whom you have plighted your troth will be worthy to bear o