Bücher von Harold

"The Market Place is a novel by American author Harold F.The story is a study in the ethics and purposes of money-getting, in the romantic element in modern business. In it finance is presented not as being merely the province of shrewdness, or greediness, or petty personal gratification, but of great projects, of great brain-battles, a field for the exercising of talent, daring, imagination, appealing to the strength of a strong man, filling the same place in men's lives that was once filled by the incentives of war... The hero of the story, ""Joel Thorpe,"" is one of those men, huge of body, keen of brain, with cast iron nerves, as sound a heart as most men, and a magnificent capacity for bluff. He has lived and risked and lost in a dozen countries, been almost within reach of fortune a dozen times, and always missed her until, finally, in London, by promoting a great rubber syndicate he becomes a multi-millionaire. He marries the most beautiful and one of the most impecunious peeresses in England and retires to his country estate. There, as a gentleman of leisure, he loses his motive in life, loses power for lack of opportunity, and grows less commanding even in the eyes of his wife, who misses the uncompromising, barbaric strength which took her by storm and won her. Finally he evolves a gigantic philanthropic scheme of spending his money as laboriously as he made it. It is very fitting that Mr. Frederic's last book should be in praise of action, the thing that makes the world go round; of force, however misspent, which is the sum of life as distinguished from the inertia of death. In the forty-odd years of his life he wrote almost as many pages as Balzac, most of it mere newspaper copy, it is true, read and forgotten, but all of it vigorous and with the stamp of a strong man upon it. And he played just as hard as he worked-alas, it was the play that killed him! The young artist who illustrated the story gave to the pictures of ""Joel Thorpe"" very much the look of Harold Frederic himself, and they might almost stand for his portraits. I fancy the young man did not select his model carelessly... The man won his place in England much as his hero won his, by defiance, by strong shoulder blows, by his self-sufficiency and inexhaustible strength.."

It is 1781, and the war for American independence is in its sixth bloody year. In Virginia, the patriot forces of the Marquis de Lafayette meet the army of British general Lord Charles Cornwallis near Green Spring Farm. On one side of the field are two brothers from Massachusetts, Daniel and Joshua Brattle. On the other side is Sergeant Tom Martin of the British 1st Light Infantry. Each is confident of victory, but it is Cornwallis who prevails, sending Lafayette's army reeling back in defeat.Joshua Brattle is wounded, and Daniel takes him to a farmhouse where he meets Catherine Seawell and her younger sister Abigail. The women agree to help Daniel care for his injured brother. Cornwallis marches to the tobacco port of Yorktown, which he fortifies as a naval base on the orders of his superior, Sir Henry Clinton. Cornwallis worries that the war can no longer be won. Meanwhile General George Washington knows he needs to win a key victory before the winter of 1782. He conceives a complicated plan to trap Cornwallis in Yorktown by both sea and land, and so force his surrender.With the defeat at Green Spring, Daniel no longer believes independence possible. He and Catherine, who opposes the war, grow closer over the course of Joshua's long recovery. It is only at Joshua's urging that Daniel agrees to return to the Continental Army.Catherine is reunited with her missing cousin John Chester, who has joined the cavalry of Tarleton's British Legion. John takes the sisters to Yorktown. The re, the allied armies of Washington and French General Rochambeau at last arrive in Virginia. The French navy has prevented the British from reinforcing or evacuating Cornwallis, who is now trapped.Daniel Brattle accepts a promotion to captain and vows to do his duty to the last. The Americans and French march on Yorktown and establish siege lines. Hoping for reinforcement from General Clinton, Cornwallis prepares to wait. He sends his cavalry to forage the countryside, and John Chester sees his first action in a battle to defend a supply train from French cavalry.The turning point comes when the Americans storm two British redoubts. The victory gives Daniel hope, but convinces Cornwallis his position is now untenable. The British commander makes one last attempt to escape the trap, but when it fails, he agrees to surrender. Starving, sick and dispirited, the British march out of Yorktown and lay down their arms. Sergeant Tom Martin of the British 1st Light Infantry is embittered, believing the British generals and politicians have failed the redcoat soldiers.Daniel meets with Catherine and offers marriage, but she tells him she will not marry him as long as the war continues. She and Abigail will go to New York as Loyalist refugees.General Washington hosts a dinner for his British counterparts, now on parole. Washington is concerned for the future, with what his struggling new nation will achieve after this victory. Daniel pines for Catherine, but Joshua explains to his younger brother that here is the long-awaited victory that might convince the British to recognize American independence.