The Devil and Daniel Webster , livre ebook

Read Books Ltd. - Stephen Vincent Benét

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

11 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

Based on real events from the life of a prominent American lawyer, Daniel Webster, this short story explores themes of patriotism, slavery, and Hell as the fictionalised Webster attempts to save a man’s soul from the Devil.

First published in 1936, The Devil and Daniel Webster was written by Stephen Vincent Benét. An allegorical exploration of what it means to be American, the short story plays on real events. It utilises fictionalised versions of real people in US history to explore the country’s obsession with freedom and independence.

Daniel Webster (1782–1852) was a prominent lawyer in the nineteenth century, arguing over 200 cases before the Supreme Court. In this short story, he attempts to save a man’s soul and puts his persuasive powers to the test against the harshest judge of all: the Devil.

Sujets

Christian

Fiction

Fantasy

Informations

Publié par	Read Books Ltd.
Date de parution	24 avril 2015
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781473374096
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0350€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

The Devil and Daniel Webster
by
Stephen Vincent Benet

Copyright © 2013 Read Books Ltd.
This book is copyright and may not be
reproduced or copied in any way without
the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Stephen Vincent Benét
Stephen Vincent Benét was born on 22nd July 1898 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States.
Benét was sent to the Hitchcock Military Academy at the age of ten and then continued his education at The Albany Academy in New York. He also attended Yale University where he received his M.A. in English.
Benét was an accomplished writer at an early age, having had his first book published at 17 and submitting his third volume of poetry in lieu of a thesis for his degree. During his time at Yale, he was an influential figure at the ‘Yale Lit’ literary magazine, and a fellow member of the Elizabethan Club. Benét was also a part-time contributor for the early Time Magazine.
Benét’s involvement with the University literary scene led to a decade-long judgeship of the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition. He is also responsible for publishing the first volumes of work by authors such as James Agee, Muriel Rukeyser, Jeremy Ingalls, and Margaret Walker. In 1931, he was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts ad Sciences.
Benét’s best known works are the book-length narrative poem American Civil War, John Brown’s Body (1928), for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1929, and two short stories, The Devil and Daniel Webster (1936) and By the Waters of Babylon (1937). Benét won a second Pulitzer Prize posthumously for his unfinished poem Western Star in 1944.
Stephen Vincent Benét died of a heart attack in New York City, on 13th March, 1943, and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Stonington, Conneticut.

The Devil and Daniel Webster
It’s a story they tell in the border country, where Massachusetts joins Vermont and New Hampshire.
Yes, Dan’l Webster’s dead—or, at least, they buried him. But every time there’s a thunder storm around Marshfield, they say you can hear his rolling voice in the hollows of the sky. And they say that if you go to his grave and speak loud and clear, “Dan’l Webster—Dan’l Webster!” the ground ‘ll begin to shiver and the trees begin to shake. And after a while you’ll hear a deep voice saying, “Neighbour, how stands the Union?” Then you better answer the Union stands as she stood, rock-bottomed and copper sheathed, one and indivisible, or he’s liable to rear right out of the ground. At least, that’s what I was told when I was a youngster.
You see, for a while, he was the biggest man in the country. He never got to be President, but he was the biggest man. There were thousands that trusted in him right next to God Almighty, and they told stories about him and all the things that belonged to him that were like the stories of patriarchs and such. They said, when he stood up to speak, stars and stripes came right out in the sky, and once he spoke against a river and made it sink into the ground.