The Great and Calamitous Tale of Johan Thoms

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Ian Thornton. The Great and Calamitous Tale of Johan Thoms

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Contents

Prologue. A Refracted Tale of Two Wordy Old Gentlemen in a Blue Prism

Part One

One. Around the Time When Adolf Was a Glint in His First Cousin’s Eye

Two. Pawn to Queen Four

Three. Serendipity’s Day Off

Four. The Butterflies Flutter By

Part Two

One. Fools Rush In

Two. A Vision of Love (Wearing Boxing Gloves)

Three. Drago Thoms: Pythagoras, Madness, and an Indian Summer in Bed

THE BRIEF, YET VITAL STORY OF DRAGO’S OBSESSION WITH PYTHAGORAS

Four. The Kama Sutra, Ganika, and Russian Vampires

Five. We Are the Music Makers. We Are the Dreamers of Dreams

Six. A Sweet Deity of Debauchery

Seven. A Day (or So) in the Country

Eight. Just a Lucky Man Who Made the Grade

Nine. The Accusative Case

Ten. The Black Hand

Eleven. The Day Abu Hasan Broke Wind

THE ANCIENT TALE OF ABU HASAN

Twelve. A Microcosm of the Apocalypse

Thirteen. A Farewell of Scarlet Wax and Gardenia

Part Three

One. And the Ass Saw the Angel

Two. It Only Hurts When I Laugh (Part I)

Three. The Die Is Cast (aka Les Jeux Sont Faits)

Four. The Unlikely Bedfellow

Five “Ciao Bello!”

Six. The March of Don Quixote

Seven. In No-Man’s-Land

Eight “A Shadow Can Never Claim the Beauty of the Image”

Nine. The Birth of Blanche in a Dangerous Ladbroke Grove Pub

Ten. Cicero’s Fine Oceanarium of Spewed Wonders (1920–1932)

Eleven. Suffragettes, Mermaids, and Hooligans (1932)

Twelve. Let’s Rusticate Again

Thirteen. Jackboots, Cleopatra, and the Bearded Lady (1932–1936)

Fourteen. The Girl in the Tatty Blue Dress

Fifteen. She Had a Most Immoral Eye (1937–1940)

Sixteen. Archibald’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Seventeen. Then There Were Three Again

Eighteen. Music, Brigadiers, and Marigold (1940)

Nineteen. It Only Hurts When I Laugh (Part II)

Twenty “Gawd Bless Ya, Gav’nah!”

Twenty-one. A Giant in the Promised Land

Twenty-two. Pepper’s Ghost, Fluffers, and a Brief Encounter

Part Four

One “Everybody Ought to Go Careful in a City Like This” (1945)

Two. The Return of Abu Hasan

Three. The Brigadier’s Au Revoir

Four. The Veil

Five. A Blue Rose by Any Other Name

Six. Dragons, Confucius, and Snooker

Seven “I Know Who You Are!”

Blanche de la Peña

Eight. The Death and Life of a Grim Reaper

Epilogue

Notes

Acknowledgments

About the Publisher

Отрывок из книги

To Heather, Laszlo and Clementine

Title Page

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He sort of heard the prof’s words, nudging the stem of his cerebral cortex.

“Johan Thoms! My boy! What an absolute pleasure! What brings you to a party for the American ambassador? Do you know him, my boy? You ARE a dark horse, aren’t you!” A gentle tap to the shin from the outside of his tutor’s well-polished dress shoe was not enough. The dusky beauty suppressed a laugh.

.....