Audiobook
SUMMARY
Alexander Blinker, our hero, was a very rich man. His
fortune came from “lands, tenements and hereditaments”. As he was a bachelor,
and the summer was about to begin, he decided to go to the woods in the
North to enjoy some holiday. He wanted to go immediately, but his lawyer said he
had to stay in the city two days more in order to sign a thick collection of
documents. He didn’t like the idea of spending two boring days more in the city,
but he acknowledged the necessity of signing these documents.
To kill time, he went to one of his clubs, but seeing it
was full of boring old fogies, all of a sudden, he said he would go to Coney
Island. Coney Island is actually a peninsula in the South of Brooklyn, and it
has a log beach and a big Fun Fair. Its visitors were usually ordinary people,
not rich people as Blinker. To go there, he had to take a boat full of people
looking for fun; but also, there was a pretty young woman sitting on a stool,
alone. Blinker was not far from her; a puff of wind almost carried his hat
away, but he grabbed it in a moment. The girl (whose name was Florence)
acknowledged his gesture with a smile, thinking he was greeting her, and
Blinker went and sit next to her. They began a conversation, and they introduced
each other, although Blinker didn’t say he was very rich; instead, he said he
was a bricklayer. Florence said she was a working girl, a milliner. And they
started to like each other. Nevertheless, Florence was a bit suspicious about
his name, but at least he didn’t say his name was “Smith”. They agree to visit
the fun fair together, Florence acting as a Cicerone, as Blinker had never been
there.
At the beginning, Blinker was a bit uncomfortable with
so many people jostling around them and so many harsh lights and noises, but at
the end he felt the place and the atmosphere romantic. They ride all the
devices of the amusement park.
At the end, they had to go back home.
When they went aboard the boat, Blinker started to
feel he was in love with Florence, and, when a steamer run into their boat and they were about to sink, he felt sure and declared his love. But she
answered coldly to his passion and told him that all the men said the same; however, he tried to persuade her that he wasn’t like the other men. In answer, she told
him she knew what men were like because she usually met other men she picked up on the street (she picked them up on the street because her place had no parlour, and so it was
too small for inviting people). Blinker was now a bit puzzled.
In the end they landed safely but…
Did Florence accept his love? Did he tell her he was really a rich man?
QUESTIONS
-Do you think swearing / cursing is rude? Or does it depend on the situation? How do you vent your wrath?
-What kind of girl is Florence? Is she a kind of escort, or
only a girl who wants some amusement?
-Perhaps this story reminds you of the film Pretty
Woman. Would you be able to detail all the clichés this film has?
-In your opinion, is romanticism an essential feature of a good relationship?
-Can everybody change radically their way of life? For instance, can a robber become an honest man? How can do it? Or will our past never stop going after us?
VOCABULARY
estate, bay rum, thumb-handed, runabout, fogies,
steward, roe, tittered, pier, brazenly, incog, bantering, millinery, trumpery,
spangled, incorporated, drab, slip, yawed, rent, slats, bow, stern, wall flower
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