Description

In the cloistered world of a Cambridge college, the story opens on a sleepless night for George Ginsling, a young rower whose reputation is as spotless as his habit of sipping seven tumblers of brandy each evening. When his friends abandon him after a heated question about the university trial eights, George’s nerves turn restless, and he retreats to his room, where a mischievous Water‑Devil has taken up residence on his pillow. The devil, a ghoulish bureaucrat of the Thames, delights in unsettling the scholarly routine with a touch of otherworldly chaos.

The morning that follows is nothing short of surreal: George awakens with a throat that feels as though it’s on fire, and a torrent of red‑hot copper coins rains from his mouth. In a frantic, comic frenzy he chugs water from college carafes, smashes foreign bottles, and attempts to drown his terror in a flood of liquid, all while the devil’s emissary, a greasy “gyp” named Starling, waits to obey his next unreasonable command. The scene sets a wildly humorous battle between scholarly propriety and absurd supernatural meddling, promising further mischief as George’s desperate thirst spirals into madness.

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