{"product_id":"2940013773875","title":"The Ivory God","description":"At six o'clock Thurston put down his pen, pushed his chair back from the\u003cbr\u003etable at which he had been writing, and rose to his feet with a series\u003cbr\u003eof gestures indicative of mental and physical fatigue. He glanced at the\u003cbr\u003efew sheets of manuscript which represented the result of a long day's\u003cbr\u003elabour, and he frowned, as if in anger or distaste.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe had written, or tried to write, from ten o'clock until one, and again\u003cbr\u003efrom two until six; and his entire product after seven hours' work was\u003cbr\u003ecomparatively infinitesimal. He had felt no enthusiasm; he had been\u003cbr\u003eunable to concentrate his thoughts; the whole thing had been distasteful\u003cbr\u003eto him. As he glanced around him he asked himself for the thousandth\u003cbr\u003etime whether the game was worth the candle.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMore from force of habit than from genuine desire to do it, Thurston\u003cbr\u003eproceeded to make some sort of toilet for the evening. He shaved and\u003cbr\u003ewashed carefully; he put on a clean linen shirt and a dark lounge suit;\u003cbr\u003ehe was unduly particular about the fold of his tie; in several small\u003cbr\u003eways he showed that he had a gentlemanlike love of cleanliness and\u003cbr\u003eorderly habits.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe did everything very slowly. It would have been evident to anyone who\u003cbr\u003emight have had an opportunity of watching him that he had no engagement\u003cbr\u003eto keep. In point of fact, he had few friends with whom he could have\u003cbr\u003ekept any engagement. He was, as he now never cared to remind himself,\u003cbr\u003eone of the very loneliest men living. For a while he had reminded\u003cbr\u003ehimself of this pertinent truth somewhat often; then he wearied of the\u003cbr\u003ethought, and put it from him. The fact of the loneliness, however,\u003cbr\u003eremained.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThurston lived in two rooms at the top of a house which stood in a quiet\u003cbr\u003estreet near the British Museum--a street of an aspect so grey and\u003cbr\u003epathetic that you wondered at first sight of it whether laughter or\u003cbr\u003echildren's voices were ever heard there. The two rooms opened one into\u003cbr\u003ethe other by means of a folding door. Thurston had furnished them\u003cbr\u003ehimself when he first came to town.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47083173019888,"sku":"2940013773875","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013773875_p0.jpg?v=1763590087","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013773875","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}