Publisher's Synopsis
""Jan Van Hunks"" is a poem written by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, an English poet and painter, in 1860. The poem is based on a Dutch legend that tells the story of a man named Jan Van Hunks who lives in Cape Town, South Africa. Jan is a heavy smoker and spends most of his time smoking his pipe. One day, he meets a stranger who challenges him to a smoking competition. They smoke for hours until a cloud of smoke forms above them, and the stranger reveals himself to be the devil. Jan realizes he has been smoking with the devil and begs him to leave. The devil agrees but tells Jan that he will return in a year for a rematch. Jan spends the next year practicing and becomes an expert smoker. When the devil returns, they have another smoking competition, but this time Jan wins. The devil disappears, and Jan is never seen smoking again. The poem explores themes of temptation, addiction, and the struggle between good and evil.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.