A Strange Story

The story of Wolfert Webber was said by Louis Stevenson to be one of the finest treasure-seeking stories in the world; and as Stevenson was a very good judge, I am going to tell it to you. Wolfert's ancestor, Cobus Webber, was one of the original settlers who came over from Holland and established themselves on the coast of what is now the State of New York. Like most of his countrymen, Cobus was a great gardener, and devoted himself especially to cabbages, and it was agreed on all sides that none so large or so sweet had ever been eaten by anybody. Webber's house was built after the Dutch pattern, and was large and comfortable. Birds built their nests under the eaves and filled the air with their singing, and a button-wood tree, which was nothing but a sapling when Cobus planted his first cabbage, had become a monster overshadowing half the garden in the days of his descendant Wolfert early in the eighteenth century. The button-wood tree was not the only thing that had grown during those years. The city known at first as 'New Amsterdam,' and later as 'New York,' had grown also, and surrounded the house of the Webbers. But if the family could no longer look from the windows at the beautiful woods and rivers of the countryside, as their forefathers had done, there was no reason to drive a cart about from one village to another to see who wanted cabbages, for now the housewives came to Wolfert to choose their own, which saved a great deal of trouble. Yet, though Wolfert sold all the cabbages he could raise,Êhe did not become rich as fast as he wished, and at length he began to wonder if he was becoming rich at all. Food was dearer than when he was a boy, and other people besides himself had taken to cabbage-growing. His daughter was nearly a woman, and would want a portion if she married. Was there no way by which he could make the money that would be so badly needed by and bye?

When Linda boarded the train that would take her to London and freedom, she was penniless and alone. A polite offer of help from the stranger in the seat opposite was the last thing she expected. Life with Rowley Frobisher was everything she had ever dreamed of: fast, sophisticated – and expensive. In a few months the rough country girl had changed beyond recognition. But then Rowley has a fatal heart attack – and once again Linda must take desperate action to survive.

The Last Leaf, the Gift of the Magi, the Green Door, Roads of Destiny, the Ransom of Red Chief, Sound and Fury, the Handbook of Hymen, the Halberdier of the Little Rheinschloss, the Defeat of the City, After Twenty Years, a Retrieved Reformation, Friends in San Rosario, One Dollar's Worth, a Ramble in Aphasia, the Poet and the Peasant, the Robe of Peace-each story complete and unabridged.

'A Strange Story' is an extraordinary testament to the belief in and fascination with the Occult and spiritualism that was prevalent in nineteenth century society, and reflects Bulwer Lytton's own particular views. The young hero, Doctor Allen Fenwick, is utterly unable to counteract the malign influence of the sinister mesmerist Margrave over his beloved, the mystical Lilian, by scientific methods - will this lead him to put aside his rationalist creed and embrace the notion of a world beyond our own?