Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1919 edition. Excerpt: ... love and ponceau ihad been at the hospital of Saint-Mande for perhaps two or three days when Ponceau was brought there. I have only confused memories of this period of my life. For a good while I had been lying in a field of oats near Charny; then I had slipped into a sort of dream, in which I saw my broken arm turn green, turn black, become so heavy and swollen that it filled the whole world, while I felt myself fastened to it like a pigmy to a mountain. All this came to an end in a comfortable bed in the midst of a great bare room, painted seagreen. I had been put under chloroform and they had made great openings in my arm, out of which came, every day, fragments of bone, blood, pus, quantities of repellant things that smelt bad. To be brief, when I began to be conscious of what was about me, the first thing that met my eyes, unless I am mistaken, was Ponceau. As he appeared to me that day, Ponceau was a big, fair-haired boy, a little too plump, with a discolored little beard and large eyes, very large eyes, which I saw were continually moving. I was lying on my back, but I had only to turn my head to see my room-mate, who was also lying on his back and quite motionless, except for those big eyes that moved all the time. I could n't help asking him suddenly: "What are you looking at, up there?" He said, "What?" and then answered, with an absorbed air, "The sun." Indeed, I saw on the ceiling a beam of sunlight that moved from left to right; as I was very tired, I involuntarily began to gaze at it and follow it with my glance. At the end of a moment I asked: "You can't turn your head?" "No, I can't," he said; "it hurts my leg." "What's your name?" "Mine? Ponceau, Emile." He said no more; a major had just entered, calling out: ...