Cover of Phantom Wires: A Novel

Phantom Wires: A Novel

  • Free to read
  • 4 hours to read
  • 30 chapters
  • Reading level: 7th grade

"Phantom Wires: A Novel" by Arthur Stringer is a fictional narrative likely written in the early 20th century. The story follows James L. Durkin, an electrical expert who grapples with his tumultuous past and current predicaments while navigating the vibrant yet toxic environment of Monte Carlo. The themes of human desire, moral conflict, and the struggle against fate seem to be central to the story as Durkin's life intertwines with enticing challenges and the specters of his former existence. The opening of the novel introduces Durkin as a man grappling with despair and an uncertain future, counting his meager coins in his hotel room before the backdrop of the Mediterranean. As he contemplates an advertisement calling him back to action, memories of his wife, Frances, resurface with a sense of urgency and longing. The narrative quickly shifts, revealing that Frances has been entangled in her own struggles, not only in achieving independence but also in uncovering complex secrets related to espionage and looming dangers. This dynamic creates an intriguing foundation for their re-encounter and raises questions about loyalty, redemption, and the moral choices they face together in a world rife with deception and intrigue.

Read free now No app, no sign-up. Your place is saved automatically. Or download for your e-reader ↓
  • Married people
  • Crime
  • Electricity

Read the opening

Chapter I

THE END OF THE TETHER

Durkin folded the printed pages of the newspaper with no outward sign of excitement. Then he took out his money, quietly, and counted it, with meditative and pursed-up lips.

His eyes fell on a paltry handful of silver, with the dulled gold of one worn napoleon showing from its midst. He remembered, suddenly, that it was the third time he had counted that ever-lightening handful since partaking of his frugal coffee and rolls that morning. So he dropped the coins back into his pocket, dolefully, one by one, and took the deep breath of a man schooling himself to face the unfaceable.

Then he looked about the room, almost vacuously, as though the old-fashioned wooden bed and the faded curtains and the blank walls might hold some oracular answer to the riddle that lay before him. Then he went to the open window, and looked out, almost as vacuously, over the unbroken blue distance of the Mediterranean, trembling into soft ribbons of silver where the wind rippled its surface, yellowing into a fluid gold towards the path of the lowering sun, deepening, again, into a brooding turquoise along the flat rim of the sea to the southward where the twin tranquilities of sky and water met.

Keep reading Phantom Wires: A Novel →

Contents

Show all 30 chapters
  1. Chapter I
  2. Chapter II
  3. Chapter III
  4. Chapter IV
  5. Chapter V
  6. Chapter VI
  7. Chapter VII
  8. Chapter VIII: "Foreigners Are Fools"
  9. Chapter IX
  10. Chapter X
  11. Chapter XI
  12. Chapter XII
  13. Chapter XIII: "The Folly of Grandeur"
  14. Chapter XIV
  15. Chapter XV
  16. Chapter XVI
  17. Chapter XVII
  18. Chapter XVIII
  19. Chapter XIX
  20. Chapter XX
  21. Chapter XXI
  22. Chapter XXII
  23. Chapter XXIII
  24. Chapter XXIV
  25. Chapter XXV
  26. Chapter XXVI
  27. Chapter XXVII
  28. Chapter XXVIII
  29. Chapter XXIX
  30. Chapter XXX

Download for your e-reader

Files are provided by Project Gutenberg. On a Kindle, the simplest route is to send the EPUB with Amazon’s Send to Kindle. Downloaded copies don’t sync with your place on Classic Book Reader.

About this edition

This free edition of Phantom Wires: A Novel by Arthur Stringer comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #19735, released 2006-11-07. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Novels.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

More by Arthur Stringer