
audiobook
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. - VOLUME 93.
SEPTEMBER 10, 1887.
STRANGE ADVENTURES OF ASCENA LUKINGLASSE.
A PARVENU.
A TALE OF TERROR.
Laissez-Faire.
A Real "Inky Flood."
'ARRY AT THE SEA-SIDE.
"OVERCAST."
SALUBRITIES ABROAD.
A young woman with no known parents tells her story in a dead‑pan, Victorian voice that feels both absurd and earnest. Left as a foundling with two mysterious old ladies who sell their school and cast her out, she drifts from a brief stint as a governess to the bustle of Charing Cross Hotel with a modest fortune in hand. The narrative is peppered with witty observations on strangers, cramped schoolrooms and the peculiar customs of late‑nineteenth‑century London.
An odd encounter on an omnibus leads her to sign a whimsical contract in blood, trading her dreams for a modest weekly sum, and the mysterious benefactor departs with champagne, meats and biscuits before vanishing again. That night she is haunted by a baffling dream of an elderly man bearing an enormous opal on his little finger, a vision that hints at deeper supernatural currents. As the narrative unfolds, listeners can expect a blend of sharp satire, eccentric characters, and increasingly uncanny happenings that pull the tale beyond ordinary Victorian melodrama.
Language
en
Duration
~1 hours (65K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Neville Allen, Malcolm Farmer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2010-09-01
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
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