{"product_id":"2940014051606","title":"Gulliver of Mars","description":"CHAPTER I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDare I say it?  Dare I say that I, a plain, prosaic lieutenant in the\u003cbr\u003erepublican service have done the incredible things here set out for the\u003cbr\u003elove of a woman--for a chimera in female shape; for a pale, vapid ghost\u003cbr\u003eof woman-loveliness?  At times I tell myself I dare not: that you will\u003cbr\u003elaugh, and cast me aside as a fabricator; and then again I pick up my\u003cbr\u003epen and collect the scattered pages, for I MUST write it--the pallid\u003cbr\u003esplendour of that thing I loved, and won, and lost is ever before me,\u003cbr\u003eand will not be forgotten.  The tumult of the struggle into which that\u003cbr\u003evision led me still throbs in my mind, the soft, lisping voices of the\u003cbr\u003eplanet I ransacked for its sake and the roar of the destruction which\u003cbr\u003efollowed me back from the quest drowns all other sounds in my ears! I\u003cbr\u003emust and will write--it relieves me; read and believe as you list.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt the moment this story commences I was thinking of grilled steak and\u003cbr\u003etomatoes--steak crisp and brown on both sides, and tomatoes red as a\u003cbr\u003esetting sun!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMuch else though I have forgotten, THAT fact remains as clear as the\u003cbr\u003elast sight of a well-remembered shore in the mind of some wave-tossed\u003cbr\u003etraveller.  And the occasion which produced that prosaic thought was a\u003cbr\u003enight well calculated to make one think of supper and fireside, though\u003cbr\u003ethe one might be frugal and the other lonely, and as I, Gulliver Jones,\u003cbr\u003ethe poor foresaid Navy lieutenant, with the honoured stars of our\u003cbr\u003eRepublic on my collar, and an undeserved snub from those in authority\u003cbr\u003erankling in my heart, picked my way homeward by a short cut through the\u003cbr\u003edismalness of a New York slum I longed for steak and stout, slippers\u003cbr\u003eand a pipe, with all the pathetic keenness of a troubled soul.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was a wild, black kind of night, and the weirdness of it showed up\u003cbr\u003eas I passed from light to light or crossed the mouths of dim alleys\u003cbr\u003eleading Heaven knows to what infernal dens of mystery and crime even in\u003cbr\u003ethis latter-day city of ours.  The moon was up as far as the church\u003cbr\u003esteeples; large vapoury clouds scudding across the sky between us and\u003cbr\u003eher, and a strong, gusty wind, laden with big raindrops snarled angrily\u003cbr\u003eround corners and sighed in the parapets like strange voices talking\u003cbr\u003eabout things not of human interest.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt made no difference to me, of course.  New York in this year of grace\u003cbr\u003eis not the place for the supernatural be the time never so fit for\u003cbr\u003ewitch-riding and the night wind in the chimney-stacks sound never so\u003cbr\u003emuch like the last gurgling cries of throttled men.  No! the world was\u003cbr\u003every matter-of-fact, and particularly so to me, a poor younger son with\u003cbr\u003efive dollars in my purse by way of fortune, a packet of unpaid bills in\u003cbr\u003emy breastpocket, and round my neck a locket with a portrait therein of\u003cbr\u003ethat dear buxom, freckled, stub-nosed girl away in a little southern\u003cbr\u003eseaport town whom I thought I loved with a magnificent affection.\u003cbr\u003eGods! I had not even touched the fringe of that affliction.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47147607818480,"sku":"2940014051606","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014051606_p0.jpg?v=1763599642","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014051606","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}