You Never Know Your Luck; being the story of a matrimonial deserter. Complete
Parker, Gilbert, 1860-1932
English
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Below is a summary of You Never Know Your Luck; being the story of a matrimonial deserter. Complete
YOU NEVER KNOW YOUR LUCK
[BEING THE STORY OF A MATRIMONIAL DESERTER]
By Gilbert Parker
CONTENTS:
Volume 1.
PROEM
I. "PIONEERS, O PIONEERS"
II. CLOSING THE DOORS
III. THE LOGAN TRIAL AND WHAT CAME OF IT
IV. "STRENGTH SHALL BE GIVEN THEE"
V. A STORY TO BE TOLD
Volume 2.
VI. "HERE ENDETH THE FIRST LESSON"
VII. A WOMAN'S WAY TO KNOWLEDGE
VIII. ALL ABOUT AN UNOPENED LETTER
IX. NIGHT SHADE AND MORNING GLORY
X. "S. O. S."
XI. IN THE CAMP OF THE DESERTER
Volume 3.
XII. AT THE RECEIPT OF CUSTOM
XIII. KITTY SPEAKS HER MIND AGAIN
XIV. AWAITING THE VERDICT
XV. "MALE AND FEMALE CREATED HE THEM"
XVI. "'TWAS FOR YOUR PLEASURE YOU CAME HERE, YOU GO BACK FOR MINE"
XVII. WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT IT?
EPILOGUE
INTRODUCTION
This volume contains two novels dealing with the life of prairie people
in the town of Askatoon in the far West. 'The World for Sale' and the
latter portion of 'The Money Master' deal with the same life, and 'The
Money Master' contained some of the characters to be found in 'Wild
Youth'. 'The World for Sale' also was a picture of prairie country with
strife between a modern Anglo-Canadian town and a French-Canadian town in
the West. These books are of the same people; but 'You Never Know Your
Luck' and 'Wild Youth' have several characters which move prominently
through both.
In the introduction to 'The World for Sale' in this series, I drew a
description of prairie life, and I need not repeat what was said there.
'In You Never Know Your Luck' there is a Proem which describes briefly
the look of the prairie and suggests characteristics of the life of the
people. The basis of the book has a letter written by a wife to her
husband at a critical time in his career when he had broken his promise
to her. One or two critics said the situation is impossible, because no
man would carry a letter unopened for a long number of years. My reply
is: that it is exactly what I myself did. I have still a letter written
to me which was delivered at my door sixteen years ago. I have never read
it, and my reason for not reading it was that I realised, as I think,
what its contents were. I knew that the letter would annoy, and there it
lies. The writer of the letter who was then my enemy is now my friend.
The chief character in the book, Crozier, was an Irishman, with all the
Irishman's cleverness, sensitiveness, audacity, and timidity; for both
those latter qualities are characteristic of the Irish race, and as I am
half Irish I can understand why I suppressed a letter and why Crozier
did. Crozier is the type of man that comes occasionally to the Dominion
of Canada; and Kitty Tynan is the sort of girl that the great West
breeds. She did an immoral thing in opening the letter that Crozier had
suppressed, but she did it in a good cause--for Crozier's sake; she made
his wife write another letter, and she placed it again in the envelope
for Crozier to open and see. Whatever lack of morality there was in her
act was balanced by the good end to the story, though it meant the
sacrifice of Kitty's love for Crozier, and the making of his wife happy
once more.
As for 'Wild Youth' I make no apology for it. It is still fresh in the
minds of the American public, and it is true to the life. Some critics
frankly called it melodramatic. I do not object to the term. I know
nothing more melodramatic than certain of the plots of Shakespeare's
plays. Thomas Hardy is melodramatic; Joseph Conrad is melodramatic;
Balzac was melodramatic, and so were Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens, and
Sir Walter Scott. The charge of melodrama is not one that should disturb
a writer of fiction. The question is, are the characters melodramatic.
Will anyone suggest to me the marriage of a girl of seventeen with a man
over sixty is melodramatic. It may be, but I think it tragical, and so it
was in this case. As for Orlando Guise, I describe the man as I knew him,
and he is still alive. Some comments upon the story suggested that it was
impossible for a man to spend the night on the prairie with a woman whom
he loved without causing her to forget her marriage vows. It is not
sentimental to say that is nonsense. It is a prurient mind that only sees
evil in a situation of the sort. Why it should be desirable to make a
young man and woman commit a misdemeanor to secure the praise of a critic
is beyond imagination. It would be easy enough to do. I did it in The
Right of Way. I did it in others of my books. What happens to one man and
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