The £1,000,000 Bank-Note (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Mark Twain
- First Published: 1893
- Type of Plot: Adventure
- Time of Work: The 1870's
- Setting: San Francisco, California, and London, England
- Principal Characters: Henry “Hal” Adams, Two English gentlemen, Portia Langham, Lloyd Hastings
- Genres: Short fiction, Adventure
- Subjects: Love or romance, Gambling, Honesty, Wit or humor, Success or failure, Money, Weddings, Intellect, Patience
- Locales: London, England
The Story
The first-person narrator of the story, Henry Adams, age twenty-seven, is a mining-broker's clerk in San Francisco. He says at the outset that he intends to make a fortune, although he has nothing but his “wits and a clean reputation.” While sailing one afternoon, he is carried out to sea and eventually rescued by a small brig bound for London. When he arrives in London, he has only a dollar to his name and is soon without shelter and food. Walking around Portland Place, Henry yearns for a pear that a child has tossed into the gutter. He walks back and forth by...
[The entire page is 1492 words long]
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