Back o' the Moon, and Other Stories

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Back o' the Moon, and Other Stories (1906)
by Oliver Onions
3770457Back o' the Moon, and Other Stories1906Oliver Onions

Back o' the Moon

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
THE DRAKESTONE.”
Second Edition. Price 6s.

Selection of Press Opinions.

“It is, both in construction and workmanship, very unlike the usual flimsy story which does duty as a modern novel. This book is more like the fiction of some fifty or sixty years ago, when the appearance of a novel was, to a certain extent, an event in the world of letters.”—The Spectator.

“There is much sound work in the novel; quaint local customs are conscientiously reproduced, and the characters, with the exception of a rather shadowy heroine, are living beings.”—The Athenæum.

“The book is thoughtfully as well as cleverly written, and at least maintains the promise of its forerunners.”—The Times.

“The character-drawing is strong and clear, the run of the incident perfectly natural, and the outlook kind and manly in a spirit that puts to the blush a great deal of meretricious and catchpenny work.”—Pall Mall Gazette.

“Mr. Onions’s canvas is crowded with well-drawn characters, and the whole presents a particularly lively and clever study of Yorkshire life and manners eighty years ago.”—The Academy.

“Here he is thoroughly at home, and he writes with rare insight and uncommon skill of the country folk of our dales.”—Leeds Mercury.

“The present story derives its main interest from the liveliness of its presentation of the countryside and rustic character of Yorkshire, as these appeared to the observant eye in the earlier half of the nineteenth century.”—The Scotsman.

“As we have said, the book is devoid of sensationalism of any sort; but, for all its quiet tone, it is one of the few books of the season worth careful reading, and worth also a permanent place in any library.”—The Westminster Gazette.

“Mr. Onions, who knows his Yorkshire nearly as well as any writer of the time, has improved amazingly, and ‘The Drakestone’ is of sufficiently high quality to make one anticipate with interest his next book.”—The Yorkshire Post.

“It is a strong book all round, and the culminating catastrophe—the breaking-in of the marsh upon the moorland—is well rendered and effective. The work is one which will repay study, and we have few living writers who could better it.”—The Sheffield Daily Telegraph.

“It is an olla podrida of vivid sketches of Yorkshire life, more faithfully conceived and picturesquely rendered than we have ever seen before.”—The Daily Mail.

“The humble lives of the peasant folk, their jealousies, bickerings and junkettings, take their proper place as background to the working out of the Drake prophecies, while the chief figures are limned with rare skill and insight. A clever and deeply-interesting book.”—The Liverpool Post.

Back o' the Moon
AND OTHER STORIES

BY

OLIVER ONIONS

AUTHOR OF
The Drakestone,” “Tales from a Far Riding,” Etc.

LONDON
HURST AND BLACKETT, LIMITED
1906

All rights reserved


TO

Ag and Em,

MY SISTERS

PREFACE.


Halifax, Sunday, 26th August, 1778.—“Understanding there was great need of it, I preached on 'Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's.' I spoke with all plainness, and yet did not hear that anyone was offended.”

JOHN WESLEY.

Halifax, 1836.—“I am very sorry that there was a 'great need' for Mr. Wesley to bring (this) charge ... though unable to unravel the secret.”

URIAH WALKER
(Methodist Historian).

CONTENTS.


  1. chapterpage
  2. BACK O' THE MOON.  
  3. Introduction 1
  4. I. Horwick Thursday 9
  5. II. The Executive 21
  6. III. “Johnny Cope” 34
  7. IV. Eastwood Ellah 46
  8. V. The Wadsworth Wedding 61
  9. VI. Emmason 77
  10. VII. Cicely 89
  11. VIII. Crudelitas 103
  12. IX. The Slack 103
  13. X. The Home-coming 133
  14. XI. A Hundred Pounds 147
  15. XII. The Cloth Merchant 162
  16. XIII. The Scout 179
  17. XIV. One way in, none out 193
  18. XV. The Cave in Soyland 202
  19. XVI. Cover 217
  20. XVII. The Moon turned round again 232

  21. THE PILLERS.  
  22. I. The Nightingale 241
  23. II. The Ladyshaws 248
  24. III. The Press 256
  25. IV. At Portsannet 267

  26. SKELF-MARY 279
  27. LAD-LASS 297
  28. THE FAIRWAY 317

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1961, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 62 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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