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Read A Rogue's Life (2006)

A Rogue's Life (2006)

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3.61 of 5 Votes: 3
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ISBN
1843911329 (ISBN13: 9781843911326)
Language
English
Publisher
hesperus press

A Rogue's Life (2006) - Plot & Excerpts

Frank Softly is a Rogue. Refusing to follow in his father's footsteps and become a doctor, he has tried out a number of different careers since leaving school – and failed at them all. However, he remains optimistic and sees each failure as an opportunity to make a fresh start. Even when he is sent to a debtors’ prison he simply asks himself, "What of that? Who am I that I should object to being in prison, when so many of the royal personages and illustrious characters of history have been there before me?"While working as a forger of old paintings, Frank meets Alicia Dulcifer in an art gallery and immediately falls in love. Unfortunately even this relationship seems likely to fail, because Alicia is the daughter of the sinister Dr. Dulcifer – a man who lives in a house with bars on the windows, never receives visitors and conducts mysterious experiments in his laboratory. Frank becomes determined to discover Dr. Dulcifer’s secret, at all costs.As in many Victorian novels, there's also an inheritance involved: Frank's sister Annabella will only receive her three thousand pounds if Frank outlives their grandmother Lady Malkinshaw. This leads to some amusing situations as Annabella’s greedy husband desperately tries to prevent Frank from dying!This was one of Wilkie Collins' first books to be published (in 1856) and I could tell it was the work of a young, inexperienced writer – the plot was less developed than in his later books and the characters (apart from the Rogue himself) were less memorable. However, his enthusiasm shines through on every page, making this a fun, light-hearted read – but with plenty of suspense and excitement too. Although Frank Softly is dishonest, irresponsible, reckless – and definitely a rogue – he tells his story with so much humour and energy that you can’t help liking him.Rather changeable this life of mine, was it not? Before I was twenty-five years of age, I had tried doctoring, caricaturing, portrait-painting, old picture-making, and Institution-managing…Surely, Shakespeare must have had me prophetically in his eye, when he wrote about 'one man in his time playing many parts'. What a character I should have made for him, if he had only been alive now!While I don't think I would recommend this as a first introduction to his work, if you have enjoyed any of Collins' other books there's no reason why you shouldn't enjoy this one too. And the short length of this book – only 150 pages – makes it a quick, fast-paced read, so anyone who has had trouble getting into one of his longer novels may find this one easier to read.I'm going to leave you with Wilkie's own thoughts on this novel, taken from the author's preface:The Rogue may surely claim two merits, at least, in the eyes of the new generation – he is never serious for two moments together; and 'he doesn't take long to read'.

Free download available at Project Gutenberg.Introductory words:The critical reader may possibly notice a tone of almost boisterous gayety in certain parts of these imaginary Confessions. I can only plead, in defense, that the story offers the faithful reflection of a very happy time in my past life. It was written at Paris, when I had Charles Dickens for a near neighbor and a daily companion, and when my leisure hours were joyously passed with many other friends, all associated with literature and art, of whom the admirable comedian, Regnier, is now the only survivor. Page 43:Love is generally described, I believe, as the tender passion. When I remember the insidiously relaxing effect of it on all my faculties, I feel inclined to alter the popular definition, and to call it a moral vapor-bath.Page 71:Whatever may be said about it in books, no emotion in this world ever did, or ever will, last for long together.Page 99:We Rogues are the spoiled children of Society. We may not be openly acknowledged as Pets, but we all know, by pleasant experience, that we are treated like them.A quite enjoyable reading for a free afternoon, just before Christmas.3* The Woman in White4* The Moonstone4* Who Killed Zebedee?4* The Dead Alive4* Mrs. Zant and the Ghost3* A Fair Penitent4* The Frozen Deep4* The Haunted Hotel4* The Law and the Lady4* No Name3* My Lady's Money3* Mad Monkton And Other StoriesTBR Poor Miss FinchTBR Blind LoveTBR The Dead SecretTBR ArmadaleTBR Man and WifeTBR Basil

What do You think about A Rogue's Life (2006)?

A slight and comical picaresque. The young rogue, Frank Softly, comes from vaguely aristocratic stock but also has relatives in the trades and a physician father. He has an exceedingly difficult time earning a living. After a stint in debtors prison, he sells caricatures and paints fake Old Masters before a buyer of one of his Rembrandts threatens a lawsuit. He falls in love with a mysterious woman and is roped into working for her father's criminal enterprise, currency counterfeiting. That story line, comprising the second half of the novella, feels stale and stupid, but Collins creates a fabulous character in Softly's grandmother, Lady Malkinshaw, whose impaired senses are constantly sending her tumbling down stairs or crashing through plate glass windows, cheating death only due to serendipitously placed baskets of laundry and the turban she wears when fully dressed. After each of these incidents she emerges robuster and healthier than ever. Collins should have written a whole novel centered on this absurd woman.If you were studying anti-Semitism in 19th century literature you might want to include this novella. The trader in fake Old Masters for whom Softly goes to work is Mr Ishmael Pickup - "there is not the least need to describe him - he was a Jew." In "the Jew's workshop", Pickup tells Softly, "no pay, my dear, unlesh your Rembrandt ish good enough to take me in - even me, Ishmael, who dealsh in pictersh and knowsh what'sh what."
—Lobstergirl

A ROGUE’S LIFE. (1856). Wilkie Collins. ***.This short novel by Collins was first serialized in “Household Words,” a magazine edited by Charles Dickens. The two authors were tight friends, and collaborated on several works. Collins is credited with having written the first detective novels, including “The Moonstone,” and “The Woman in White.” This work, written in the first person, is a semi-humorous account of the doings of Frank Softly, a young man of meager means – though from a highly respected family. It manages to show the downside of being born to a high-class family who, though high-class, has no money. His father was a doctor, but with no sustainable practice. His only hope was in the inheritance of a small subsistence from his grandmother. Frank is forced to seek his lively hood on his own. He starts out as a drawer of charactures, which he sells on an individual basis, and, later, in collections. This work is finally put down by the outrage of his family. He then turns to producing fake “old masters” for sale to an unsuspecting public. It is then that he meets the love of his life, Alicia. Alicia is a strange girl, completely under the thrall of her father. Her father seems to have a great deal of money, but no identifiable trade. Later, Frank learns that dear old dad is a counterfeiter, and gets sucked into the trade. The tale goes on from there – proving that Frank is indeed a rogue. This is not great writing, but was probably typical of the type of stuff that was serialized in magazines of the day. Some of the defects of that form are also present in the work, such that the author provides chapter endings that look forward to the next issue’s adventures.
—Tony

Very enjoyable and amusingly written story of a young man in late 19th Century England. His mother was from a titled family with no money, and his father was a doctor but they lived as high as their money would allow due to their position in society.The young man, Frank Softly, was very cunning. Due to the lack of funds, though, he was forced to be a doctor, as his father. He had an artistic ability and, on the side, drew caricatures and became mildly in demand, but had to remain anonymous.When his family found out that he was the person doing caricatures, they gave him an ultimatum and he decided to leave home.That wasn't a continued success as he spent more than he made. He was forced to debtors prison.An uncle who passed away had made money selling soap and he made an odd provision in his will. If Frank survived his grandmother, then the money from the uncle would go to Frank's sister. Frank used this to get his brother in law to continually help him.Frank ended up seeing a young woman, Alicia Dulcifer, and instantly fell in love. She, too, was in love with Frank, but could not accept Frank as a suitor because of a secret she withheld about her father.In the pursuit of Alicia, Frank gets in trouble with the law and it's only because of his love for Alicia. The ending is satisfying as they finally marry, but even that has a twist that makes this a very enjoyable book.
—Ruby Bibi

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