The Man Who Couldn't Sleep

The Man Who Couldn't Sleep

By

5
(3 Reviews)
The Man Who Couldn't Sleep by Arthur Stringer

Published:

1919

Pages:

274

Downloads:

7,795

Share This

The Man Who Couldn't Sleep

By

5
(3 Reviews)
Ten adventures started by a midnight excursion in New York, which move along in a lively, easy manner, with many ingenious and clever features.

Book Excerpt

re known as Social Obligation had forged his links and fetters about my movements. More than ever, I saw, I had my end to keep up. What should have been a recreation had become almost a treadmill. I was a pretender, and had my pretense to sustain. I couldn't afford to be "dropped." I had my frontiers to protect, and my powers to placate. I couldn't ask Mary to throw herself away on a nobody. So instead of trying to keep up one end, I tried to keep up two. I continued to bob about the fringes of the Four Hundred. And I continued to cling hungrily to Mary's hint about doing work, gloriously big work.

But gloriously big work, I discovered, was usually done by lonely men, living simply and quietly, and dwelling aloof from the frivolous side-issues of life, divorced from the distractions of a city which seemed organized for only the idler and the lotos-eater. And I could see that the pay-dirt coming out of Alaska was running thinner and thinner.

It was to remedy this, I suppose, that I dined with my

FREE EBOOKS AND DEALS

(view all)
Kali Metis
$0.99
$9.99

More books by Arthur Stringer

(view all)

Readers reviews

5
4
3
2
1
5.0
Average from 3 Reviews
5
Write Review
A brilliant, clever, ironic and suspenseful book.
The story, or more exactly, the stories differ from the usual detectivesque pattern but the mysteries get only more tense and, if I may say so, more mysterious.
It reminded me of Chesterton's The Club of Queer Trades but with a plot
that is more imaginative, accomplished, intense and even more human.
It's one of those rare books that make you regret when it ends, you don't want to say goodbye to it.
(1919)Mystery / Adventure


R: *****


Plot bullets


A man cursed by insomnia. After sleepless nights, he takes to that same night to release boredom and finds adventure.

o Chapter I - RUNNING OUT OF PAY-DIRT -
Possible manslaughter

o Chapter 2 -
Burglary and murder

o Chapter 3 - THE STOLEN WHEEL-CODE -
Espionage

o Chapter 4 - THE OPEN DOOR -
Burglary and marriage council ling

o Chapter 5 - THE MAN FROM MEDICINE HAT -
Suicide prevention

o Chapter 6 - THE IRREPROACHABLE BUTLER -
Detective work

o Chapter 7 - THE PANAMA GOLD CHESTS -
Investigator, of sorts

o Chapter 8 - THE DUMMY-CHUCKER -
Confidence game

o Chapter 9 - A RIALTO RAIN-STORM -
A jewel robbery?

o Chapter 10 - THE THUMB-TAP CLUE -
A Psychiatrist of sorts

o Chapter 11 - THE NILE-GREEN ROADSTER -
Finalize a manslaughter case.



A very clever way to put a man into a variety of adventures.