The Lightning Conductor: The Strange Adventures of a Motor-Car

Description

You hold in your hands a delightful volume that combines several literally forms. It is first and foremost a romance, a very proper romance along the lines of Pride and Prejudice. No bodice-ripping here. In a sense, The Lightening Conductor is a farce as well. The characters bumble along oblivious of each others’ station and identity, reminiscent of every Gilbert&Sullivan love story, although I am afraid there are no pirates. Perhaps an old-maid aunt plays the role of nursemaid well as she accompanies Molly, the young heroine, on a ramble from London to Italy in a new-to-the-world contraption, an automobile. Yes, the framework for this tale is a road trip. It is a travelogue in the tradition of early Robert Louis Stephenson ( An Inland Voyage, Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes ), and Mark Twain ( Roughing it, Huckleberry Finn ). But the most remarkable feature of this wonderful book is that it is one of the best examples of the epistolary form that I have ever encountered. It is written entirely as letters, not between the two protagonists, but between each and a trusted confidante. —- ISBN: 9781945254024