The King's Jackal

by Richard Harding Davis

Overview

The private terrace of the Hotel Grand Bretagne, at Tangier, was shaded by a great awning of red and green and yellow, and strewn with colored mats, and plants in pots, and wicker chairs. It reached out from the Kings apartments into the Garden of Palms, and was hidden by them on two sides, and showed from the third the blue waters of the Mediterranean and the great shadow of Gibraltar in the distance. The Sultan of Morocco had given orders from Fez that the King of Messina, in spite of his incognito, should be treated during his stay in Tangier with the conside-ration due to his rank, so one-half of the Hotel Grand Bretagne had been set aside for him and his suite, and two soldiers of the Bashaw's Guard sat outside of his door with drawn swords. They were answerable with their heads for the life and safety of the Sultan's guest, and as they could speak no language but their own, they made a visit to his Majesty more a matter of adventure than of etiquette.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789881831477
Publisher:	CAIMAN
Publication date:	07/06/2019
Sold by:	StreetLib SRL
Format:	eBook
File size:	177 KB

About the Author

French dramatist and writer Honore de Balzac (1799 1850) was well-known for his important contributions to 19th-century literature. Frenchman Balzac was born in Tours. His literary career started with some small achievements, but he gained global recognition with his ambitious undertaking, "La Comedie Humaine." Beginning in the 1830s, this vast anthology of books and stories sought to present a thorough and accurate picture of French society. Thorough observation, intricate characterizations, and a dedication to capturing the complexity of human nature define Balzac's writing style. His paintings frequently portrayed a diverse cast of persons from different socioeconomic backgrounds and examined the effects of social and economic factors on individuals. Balzac was taken to a wet nurse as a child; the following year, he was joined by his sister Laure, and they lived away from home for four years. (Although Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau's popular book Emile persuaded many mothers at the time to breastfeed their own children, sending babies to wet nurses remained common among the middle and upper classes.) When the Balzac children returned home, they were kept at a remove from their parents, which had a tremendous impact on the future novelist. His 1835 novel Le Lys dans la vallee portrays a nasty governess named Miss Caroline, who is based on his own caregiver.