The Watcher by the Threshold

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The Watcher by the Threshold (1918)
by John Buchan
No-Man's Land
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George H. Doran Company, New York, 1918.

Now there may be two opinions about the excellence of these stories as stories; but it may be confidently asserted that what Mr. Buchan set out to do he has done with a large measure of success. His is not a cheerful intention. Indeed, persons who demand cheerful literature should keep the book far from them; for it is the "back-world of Scotland" he tries to describe, "the land behind the mist and over the seven bens," the land where linger old terrors, which is haunted by ancient cruelties and a paganism so outworn as to be quite reasonably called inhuman. […] However, unlike in plot, vague terror of an unrecognised reality, the survival of an unkindly time, is in them all, to shake our smug content with the triumphs of civilisation, and to stir forgotten depths, from which rise what wars against our comfort. —Extract from a review in The Bookman June 1902.

2949273The Watcher by the Threshold1918John Buchan


THE WATCHER BY
THE THRESHOLD

JOHN BUCHAN

BY JOHN BUCHAN

NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

THE WATCHER BY
THE THRESHOLD

BY
JOHN BUCHAN

Author of "Greenmantle,"
"Salute to Adventurers,"
etc.


NEW YORK

GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

Copyright, 1918,
By George H. Doran Company

Printed in the United States of America

TO

STAIR AGNEW GILLON

My dear Stair,

We have travelled so many roads together, highland and lowland, pleasant and dreary, that I ask you to accept this book of travellers' tales. For Scotland is a wide place to travel in for those who believe that it is not bounded strictly by kirk and market-place, and who have an ear for old songs and lost romances. It is of the back-world of Scotland that I write, the land behind the mist and over the seven bens, a place hard of access for the foot-passenger but easy for the maker of stories. Meantime, to you, who have chosen the better part, I wish many bright days by hill and loch in the summers to come.

R. M. S. Briton, at sea J. B.

"Among idle men there be some who tarry in the outer courts, speeding the days joyfully with dance and song. But the other sort dwell near the portals of the House, and are ever anxious and ill at ease that they may see something of the Shadows which come and go. Wherefore night and day they are found watching by the threshold, in fearfulness and joy, not without tears." Extract from the writings of Donisarius of Padua, circa 1310.

CONTENTS

  1. chapterpage
  2. I No-Man's Land 13
  3. II The Far Islands 100
  4. III The Watcher by the Threshold 137
  5. IV The Outgoing of the Tide 204
  6. V The Rime of True Thomas 238
  7. VI Basilissa 255
  8. VII Divus Johnston 286
  9. VIII The King of Ypres 301

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 1940, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 83 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.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse

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