Fortitude"Do you really want me, Peter?" He didn't speak but his whole body turned towards her, answering her question. "Because I am yours entirely. I became yours that day when your hand touched mine. I wasn't sure before-I knew then-" He looked at her. He saw her, he thought for the first time.... -from Fortitude The first great success of one of the most popular novelists of the early 20th century, Fortitude (1913) is the author's own favorite work. A romantic novel with a fairy-tale air, it is the life story of Peter Wescott, "who very navely believed in almost everything," as Walpole himself described him. As a quiet, polite child, Peter stoically endures horrific beatings from his father; as a dreamy young man, Peter finds himself swept away into reverie by the titles of books (he doesn't even need to read them) and escapes into his own fiction when grief and tragedy strike. With early hints of the supernatural and the psychological suspense that would infuse Walpole's later work, this is an important formative work of a writer whose work deserves to be seen anew. British writer SIR HUGH WALPOLE (1884-1941) was born in New Zealand and moved to England as a child. His works include novels, short stories, biographies, plays, and screenplays. |
Contents
| 3 | |
| 17 | |
| 30 | |
| 44 | |
DAWSONS THE GATE INTO HELL | 57 |
VI | 69 |
VII | 87 |
VIII | 98 |
VIII | 254 |
I | 267 |
HOW TO | 281 |
THE ENCOUNTER | 294 |
THE INBETWEENS | 324 |
VI | 341 |
VII | 350 |
BLINDS Down | 360 |
IX | 110 |
SUNLIGHT Limelight Daylight | 127 |
XI | 144 |
XII | 158 |
REUBEN HALLARD | 173 |
THE MAN ON THE LION | 186 |
III | 198 |
PAGE | 209 |
V | 222 |
VI | 232 |
VII | 243 |
IX | 372 |
X | 385 |
XI | 397 |
XII | 406 |
XIII | 421 |
PETER BUYS a Present | 435 |
MR WESTCOTT SENIOR CALLS CHECK | 446 |
I | 457 |
NORAH MONOGUE | 467 |
THE GREY HILL | 491 |
Other editions - View all
Fortitude: Being a True and Faithful Account of the Education of an Adventurer Hugh Walpole No preview available - 2002 |
Common terms and phrases
afraid Alice arms aunt Aunt Agatha beating blue Bobby Galleon body bookshop Boset Brockett Bucket Lane Burstead Cardillac Cards chair cheeks Cheyne Walk Clare clouds colour conscious Cornwall course Crumpet crying dark David Copperfield Dawson's dear door everything eyes face father feeling felt fingers flung frightened grandfather grey hair hand happy hated head heard heart Henry Galleon Herr Gottfried hill lady laughing light London looked Maradick Miss Monogue morning mother never night Norah Monogue once Peter dear Peter knew Peter Westcott poor Reuben Hallard Rossiter round Scaw House seemed shining silence sitting slowly smiling staring stood strange street suddenly talk tell there's things thought told Tony Gale Treliss Truro Trussit turned voice watched weeks whisper wind window woman wonderful young Stephen Zachary Zanti
Popular passages
Page 29 - Saint John sate in the horn. And all the bells on earth did ring, — On earth did ring, on earth did ring: "Welcome be thou, Heaven's King, On Christ's Sunday at morn!