Gil Blas by Alain-René Lesage (best romance books of all time TXT) 📕

similar project. Beatrice voted loudly for immediate acceptance, and Seraphina silently. The father did not say much against it, but boggled a little at the fortune he must give to a gentleman whose seat required such immediate and extensive repairs. I stopped Scipio’s mouth by telling him that was my concern, and that I should contribute four thousand pistoles to the architect’s estimate.

In the evening, Don Juan came again. “Your business is going swimmingly,” said I; “pray heaven mine may promise as fairly.”

“Better it cannot,” answered he; “my influence was quite unnecessary to prevail with Dorothea; your person had made its impression, and your manners pleased her. You were afraid she might not like you; while she, with more reason, having nothing to offer you but her heart and hand⁠ ⁠…”

“What would she offer more?” interrupted I, out of my wits with joy. “Since the lovely Dorothea can think of me without repugnance, I ask no more: my fortune is ample, and the possession of her is the only dowry I should value.”

Don Juan and myself, highly delighted at having brought our views to bear so soon, were for hastening our nuptials, and cutting off all superfluous ceremonies. I closeted the gentleman with Seraphina’s parents; the settlements were soon agreed on, and he took his leave, promising to return next day with Dorothea. My eager desire of appearing agreeable in that lady’s eyes occasioned me to spend three hours at least in adjusting my dress, and communicating the air of a lover to my person; but I could not do it so much to my mind as in my younger days. The preparations for courtship are a pleasure to a young man, but a serious business and hazardous speculation to one who is beginning to be oldish. And yet it turned out better than my hopes or deserts; for Don Juan’s sister received me so graciously as to put me in good humor with myself. I was charmed with the turn of her mind, and foreboded that, with discreet management and much deference, I might really get her to like me as well as anybody else. Full of this sweet hope, I sent for the lawyers to draw up the two contracts, and for the clergyman of Paterna to bring us better acquainted with our mistresses.

Thus did I light the torch of Hymen for the second time, and it did not burn blue with the brimstone of repentance. Dorothea, like a virtuous wife, made a pleasure of her duty; in gratitude for the pains I took to anticipate all her wishes, she soon loved me as well as if I had been younger. Don Juan and my goddaughter were most enthusiastic in their mutual ardor; and what was most unprecedented of all, the two sisters-in-law loved one another sincerely. Don Juan was a man in whom all good qualities met: my esteem for him increased daily, and he did not repay it with ingratitude. In short, we were a happy and united family: we could scarcely bear the interval of separation between evening and morning. Our time was divided between Lirias and Jutella: his excellency’s pistoles made the old battlements to raise their heads again, and the castle to resume its lordly port.

For these three years, reader, I have led a life of unmixed bliss in this beloved society. To perfect my satisfaction, heaven has deigned to send me two smiling babes, whose education will be the amusement of my declining years; and if ever husband might venture to hazard so bold an hypothesis, I devoutly believe myself their father.

Endnotes

Should this phrase appear farfetched in the person of Gil Blas, it may be recollected, that though not much of a student himself, he had waited on students; and might have sucked in, while standing behind their chairs, along with “fates and destinies, and such old sayings, the sisters three, and such branches of learning,” that exquisitely characteristic Greek metaphor, “a hedge of teeth.” —⁠Translator ↩

These wandering priests are at present known in Africa by the name of Marabut. The first gymnosophists of Ethiopia most probably were nothing more. —⁠Translator ↩

To have substituted, with a slight variation, these two stanzas from Cowley for a translation of the commonplace couplet in the original, will probably not be thought to require any apology. They necessarily involve a change in the consequent reflections of our hero. —⁠Translator ↩

The theatre. ↩

Members of parliament, and the ladies, will probably expect a translation of these hard words; but I refer the former to their dictionaries, to which they bade a long farewell on leaving Eton or Harrow, and the latter to an extended paraphrase of five acts in the tragedy of Cato. Those of the softer sex who may think the Stoic philosophy rude and uncouth, will feel their nerves vibrate in unison with the love scenes. —⁠Translator ↩

At length his sovereign frowns⁠—the train of state
Mark the keen glance, and watch the sign to hate.

—⁠Johnson’s Imitation of Juvenal’s Tenth Satire

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Behind him sneaks
Another mortal, not unlike himself,
Of jargon full, with terms obscure o’ercharged,
Apothecary called, whose fetid hands
With power mechanic, and with charms arcane,
Apollo, god of medicine, has endued.

—⁠Bramston

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Colophon

Gil Blas
was published between 1715 and 1735 by
Alain-René Lesage.
It was translated from French in 1748 by
Tobias Smollett.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Alex Cabal, Bob Kenyon, David Grigg, Weijia Cheng, Vince Rice, Matt Chan, Evan Hall, François Grandjean, Jason DeCock, and Scott Ridley
and is based on a transcription produced in 2021 by
Al Haines
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at the
Internet Archive.

The cover page is adapted from
Those Who Swim in Sin Must Sink in Sorrow,
a painting completed in 1895 by