The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Poor Gentleman, by Hendrik Conscience

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Title: The Poor Gentleman

Author: Hendrik Conscience

Release Date: October 2, 2004 [eBook #13576]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POOR GENTLEMAN***

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THE POOR GENTLEMAN.

by

HENDRIK CONSCIENCE

Author of _The Curse of the Village_, _The Happiness of Being Rich_,
_Veva_, _The Lion of Flanders_, _Count Hugo of Craenhove_, _Wooden
Clara_, _Ricketicketack_, _The Demon of Gold_, _The Village Inn-Keeper_,
_The Conscript_, _Blind Rosa_, _The Amulet_, _The Miser_, _The
Fisherman's Daughter_, etc.

Translated Expressly for this Edition.

Preface to the American Edition.

The story of "THE POOR GENTLEMAN," now given in our language for the
first time, is one of the series in which M. Conscience has delineated
various grades of female character in positions of trial. In "The
Village Innkeeper" he has shown the weaker traits of woman distracted
between an inborn sense of propriety and a foolish ambition for high,
life. In the "Conscript" his heroine displays the nobler virtues of
uncorrupted humble life; and, with few characters, taken from the lowest
walks, he shows the triumph of honest, straightforward earnestness and
pertinacious courage, even when they are brought in conflict with
authority. "The Poor Gentleman" closes the series; and, selecting a
heroine from the educated classes of his country-people M. Conscience
has demonstrated how superior a _genuine woman_ becomes to all the
mishaps of fortune, and how successfully she subdues that imaginary
_fate_ before which so many are seen to fall.

It would be difficult to describe this remarkable work without analyzing
the tale and criticizing its personages. This would anticipate the
author and mar the interest of his story. We must confine ourselves,
therefore, to general remarks on its structure and characteristics.

_Pontmartin_, the distinguished French _feuilletonist_, says, in one of
his "Literary Chats,"