Project Gutenberg
2025-04-21
Public domain in the USA.
112
Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
1854
1909
Crawford, Francis Marion
Snapp, Frank
The King's Messenger
$aNew York :$bInternational Magazine Company, $c1907.
Produced from the November 1907 issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine.
Roger Frank
"The King's Messenger by F. Marion Crawford" is a short story written during the early 20th century. As a piece of literary fiction, it blends elements of the supernatural and the psychological, exploring themes of mortality, love, and fate. The book revolves around a mysterious dinner party and touches upon the topic of death, presenting it in a symbolic and almost gentle manner. The story centers on the narrator’s experience at a dinner party where the guests, especially the beautiful young Miss Lorna, display an unusual familiarity with each other. As the thirteenth guest arrives—an enigmatic and compelling man—Miss Lorna confides in the narrator that she will be leaving with this man that very night. Through their conversations, it becomes clear that the newcomer embodies more than he seems, his presence casting a strange spell over the group. After dinner, Miss Lorna leaves with the man, and it is only afterwards that the narrator learns from his hostess that the guest is none other than Death himself—the true “King’s Messenger.” The narrative is ultimately revealed to be a dream, which gains poignant significance when the narrator receives a real-life message of Lorna’s sudden passing, merging dream and reality in a meditation on life, love, and mortality. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
https://archive.org/details/sim_cosmopolitan_1907-11_44_1/page/88
20250415103846crawford
1907
US
Reading ease score: 78.8 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read.
en
Short stories
Supernatural -- Fiction
Youth and death -- Fiction
PS
Text
Category: Short Stories
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