The Luck of Barry Lyndon
Описание книги
The Luck of Barry Lyndon is a picaresque novel about a member of the Irish gentry trying to become a member of the English aristocracy. Redmond Barry of Ballybarry, born to a genteel but ruined Irish family, fancies himself a gentleman. At the prompting of his mother, he learns what he can of courtly manners and swordplay. He is a hot-tempered, passionate lad, and falls madly in love with his cousin, Nora. As she is a spinster a few years older than Redmond, she is seeking a prospect with more ready cash to pay family debts. The lad tries to engage in a duel with Nora's suitor, an English officer named John Quin. Barry is made to think that he has assassinated the man, so he flees to Dublin, where he quickly falls in with bad company in the way of con artists, and soon loses all his money. Pursued by creditors, he enlists as a soldier in a British Army infantry regiment headed for service in Germany. His run of bad luck continues when he tries to desert, and he gets captured by Prussian officer, but Barry's temper and relentlessness keep his head above the ground as he never stops to fight in order to find his fortune.
Оглавление
William Makepeace Thackeray. The Luck of Barry Lyndon
The Luck of Barry Lyndon
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I. MY PEDIGREE AND FAMILY—UNDERGO THE INFLUENCE OF THE TENDER PASSION
CHAPTER II. I SHOW MYSELF TO BE A MAN OF SPIRIT
CHAPTER III. A FALSE START IN THE GENTEEL WORLD
CHAPTER IV. IN WHICH BARRY TAKES A NEAR VIEW OF MILITARY GLORY
CHAPTER V. BARRY FAR FROM MILITARY GLORY
CHAPTER VI. THE CRIMP WAGGON—MILITARY EPISODES
CHAPTER VII. BARRY LEADS A GARRISON LIFE, AND FINDS MANY FRIENDS THERE
CHAPTER VIII. BARRY’S ADIEU TO MILITARY PROFESSION
CHAPTER IX. I APPEAR IN A MANNER BECOMING MY NAME AND LINEAGE
CHAPTER X. MORE RUNS OF LUCK
CHAPTER XI. IN WHICH THE LUCK GOES AGAINST BARRY
CHAPTER XII. TRAGICAL HISTORY OF PRINCESS OF X——
CHAPTER XIII. I CONTINUE MY CAREER AS A MAN OF FASHION
CHAPTER XIV. I RETURN TO IRELAND, AND EXHIBIT MY SPLENDOUR AND GENEROSITY IN THAT KINGDOM
CHAPTER XV. I PAY COURT TO MY LADY LYNDON
CHAPTER XVI. I PROVIDE NOBLY FOR MY FAMILY
CHAPTER XVII. I APPEAR AS AN ORNAMENT OF ENGLISH SOCIETY
CHAPTER XVIII. MY GOOD FORTUNE BEGINS TO WAVER
CHAPTER XIX. CONCLUSION
Отрывок из книги
William Makepeace Thackeray
Historical Adventure Novel
.....
As we were chattering in this silly way, we came to a place that has ever since gone by the name of Redmond’s Leap Bridge. It was an old high bridge, over a stream sufficiently deep and rocky, and as the mare Daisy with her double load was crossing this bridge, Miss Nora, giving a loose to her imagination, and still harping on the military theme (I would lay a wager that she was thinking of Captain Quin)—Miss Nora said, ‘Suppose now, Redmond, you, who are such a hero, was passing over the bridge, and the inimy on the other side?’
‘I’d draw my sword, and cut my way through them.’
.....