Summary The light goes out
JR Kipling The
light went out
Dick Heldar, an orphaned boy, lives with his guardian, Mrs. Janet’s vicious widow. After six years of staying with her, Dick gets acquainted with Maisie, a long-haired, gray-eyed girl, a new widow’s foster child. Between them there is friendship. For several years they live in the same house, but then Maisy’s guardians send her to study in France. Before her departure, Dick admits to her in love.
Ten years pass. Dick travels through the colonial fronts of Britain and sketches battle scenes. By this time, he had already become a talented painter-batalist. In Sudan, he meets a representative of the Central South Syndicate, a military correspondent of Thorpengow and, thanks to his mediation, gets a job as a draftsman with a syndicate. During one of the battles, Dick, covering up Torpengow, who became his close friend, is wounded in the head. He temporarily loses sight and in the night delirium all the time calls Maisie.
Arriving in England, Dick at the suggestion of Thorpengow settles with his friend. Soon the head of the Central South Syndicate, a heavy old man with a sick heart, comes to him, whom Dick makes to return all his drawings made in Sudan. Disagreeing with Dick’s demands, the gentleman still has to yield to the pressure of the young artist. Dick independently arranges an exhibition of his works, which is very successful, so that he even manages to sell all of his drawings. Henceforth, he is obsessed with the desire to earn as much money as possible to compensate for the hardships that have fallen to his lot because of their shortage. He begins to record, believes that he can
One day, while walking along the embankment, Dick accidentally meets Maisie, whom he has not seen for more than ten years. He learns that now Maisie is an artist, lives in London and rented an apartment together with her friend Impressionist. In the heart of Dick with a new power flashes born in the childhood years of feeling.
The next day, and from now on, every Sunday, Dick goes to Maisie to help her master the secrets of art at her request. He quickly discovers that Maisie – an ordinary artist, but fanatically dreaming of success. Work – the main thing in her life. She is engaged in painting every day and with titanic patience. However, she lacks giftedness and sensuality, and besides she has a poor command of technique. Despite this, Dick loves her more than anything else. She also warns him in advance that he should not hope for anything against her, and that the main goal of her life is success in painting.
Dick is patient, he does not rush things and waits for circumstances to develop in his favor and love will rise in Maisi. This lasts for several months. There is no shift in their relations and is not foreseen. Dick abandons his work and lives only a dream of love Maisie. Once he decides to move the situation from a dead center and, unexpectedly for Maisy, appearing to her on a weekday, takes her away for a walk to the suburbs, to where they lived as a child with Mrs. Janet, hoping to awaken in her memories of the time and about that evening, when the recognition of Dick in love, Maisie replied that she belongs to him forever. Sitting on the beach, he eloquently tells her about the distant islands and countries, calling for England to leave and go on a trip with him. Maisie’s soul remains closed, it is cold and once again leads Dick to the far-fetched arguments about the impossibility of their life together. Dick’s feelings are still strong, and he promises her that she will wait for her as long as it takes. Maisie and herself despises herself for her selfishness and callousness, but she can not help it.
Dick’s friends notice that he is distressed, and they tell him to go somewhere to distract himself, but he refuses. A week later, Dick again goes to Maisie and finds out that she intends to paint a painting called “Melancholy.” She shares her absurd plans with him. Dick loses control and declares that she has no talent, but only ideas and aspirations. He also decides to write Melancholy and the excellence of his work to prove that Maisy it’s time to stop this game in painting and tame your vanity, but at first the work does not stick.
A month later, Maisie, as usual, goes to France in Vitry-on-the-Mar to his painting teacher to write a picture under his direction. She plans to return in six months. Dick is upset by her departure. On parting, before boarding a steamer, she allows Dick to kiss herself only once, and the young man, burnt with passion, has to be content with this.
Returning home, he finds a sleeping person in the apartment of easy conduct. Thorpengow explains that he found her at the entrance in a hungry faint and brought into the house to bring to life. When she wakes up, Dick begins to see in her the perfect model for her Melancholy, for her eyes fully correspond to his conception of the picture. The girl’s name is Bessie, she comes every day and poses to Dick. After a while, she perfectly mastered in an apartment with friends, begins to mend their socks, tidy them in the workshop and pour tea. Dick she is embarrassed, but Torpengow tries to tie to himself and already almost begs him to let her stay with him, as at the most decisive moment Dick interrupts their conversation and scares off Bessie. He makes Thorpengow think better and convinces him to leave for a while. Bessie imbues Dick with burning hatred.
In the absence of Thorpengow, Dick’s eyes occasionally begin to cover the veil. He goes to the oculist, and the doctor informs him that his eye nerve is damaged and soon he will go blind. Dick is in shock. A little coming to his senses, he tries to finish the picture as soon as possible. His vision is deteriorating more and more rapidly. Dick begins to abuse alcohol. In a few weeks he turns into a flabby, pathetic, unshaven, pale and hunched subject. Returning, Thorpengow finds in the corridor Bessie, who came to the last session. She is furious because Torpengow does not pay attention to her. Before leaving, she spoils the picture, from which there is only one dirty spot.
After Dick showed the admiring Torpengow still not spoiled the picture, he almost immediately lost his sight. Therefore, when Thorpengow sees what Bessie did with the painting, he does not tell him anything in order not to upset his friend in the hope that Dick will never know about it. Dick, obsessed with blindness, raves and deliriously tells his whole life. So, Thorpengow learns about Maisie and goes to France for her. After some hesitation, she decides to visit Dick. At the sight of his misfortune, she is covered with insane pity, but no more. When Dick shows her his picture and asks her to take it as a present, Maisi, having decided that he has gone mad, barely restraining his laughter and even not saying good-bye to him, runs away. Dick is terribly depressed by her behavior.
Torpengow with other correspondents leaves England for another war. On a walk, Dick meets Bessie. She, learning that he is blind, forgives him, and finding that he is also rich, decides that it would be nice to marry him. Dick, touched by her participation, invites her to live with him. Bessie decides that it is necessary to torment him a little and immediately disagree. She tells him about her trick with the picture and asks him for forgiveness. Dick is not angry, but at the root of his plans. He refuses to marry, lists all his money Maisie, and he goes to Port Said. There, old friends help him to get to the front, to where Torpengow is. In the vague hope of finding that full life, which he once lived, he subconsciously strives to die. At that moment,
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