Eden Phillpotts

A Deal with the Devil Eden Phillpotts

Publisher Marketing: Before my grandpapa, Mr. Daniel Dolphin, comes down to breakfast on the morning of his hundredth birthday, I may tell you something about him. He has been married three times; he has buried all his wives and all his children. There were five of the latter, resulting from grandpapa's three marriages; but now I, Martha Dolphin, the only child of grandpapa's eldest son, am the sole survivor and living descendant of Daniel Dolphin. Frankly it must be confessed that grandpapa has been an unprincipled man in his time. Among other inconveniences, resulting from unedifying conduct, he suffered five years' imprisonment for forgery before I was born; but when he turned ninety-five I think he honestly began to realise that this world is, after all, a mere temporary place of preparation, and from that age up to the present moment (I am dealing with the morning of his hundredth birthday) he abandoned the things which once gave him pleasure, and began to look seriously towards another and a better life beyond the grave. Indeed, thanks to my ever-present warnings, and the Rev. John Murdoch's ministrations, grandpapa, from the time he was ninety-five, kept as sober, as honest, and as innocent as one could wish to see any nonagenarian. He regarded the future with quiet confidence now, feared death no longer, and alleged that his approaching end had no terrors for him. Contributor Bio:  Phillpotts, Eden Eden Phillpotts was born in India in 1862, but hailed from the United Kingdom from his early childhood forward. Known as a prolific young adult and mystery novelist, he penned about 250 works in his lifetime, including "The Farmer's Wife", a comic play which Alfred Hitchcock later directed as a silent film. Later in his career, he explored his modern philosophy in a wealth of fantasy and early science-fiction novels.