The Heart Line by Gelett Burgess. Bobbs-Merrill (1907), 584 pp.
California has long been seen as a land of possibilities. For some it’s a place where the hopelessly unachievable - - communicating with the dead, for example, or foretelling of the future - - can be realized. Helping folks with those ambitions at the turn of the last century was a coterie of spiritualists, fortune tellers, and outright con artists. It’s this group that Gelett Burgess examines in The Heart Line, which is set in San Francisco just before the 1906 earthquake. The central character is Frank Granthope, a palm reader (hence the title of the book) who is becoming increasingly disenchanted with his life. His career seems more and more fraudulent and his loyal girlfriend, Fancy Gray, more and more coarse. When he meets the refined Clytie Payson, he seriously begins to consider basic changes. Meanwhile, his colleagues continue to engage in swindles of various types. Burgess keeps the story light, though he grievously misjudges the relative attractiveness of Fancy and Clytie. The narrative is a bit sluggish, perhaps just because it goes on too long. A modern audience for the book is difficult to spot, but some readers may find it of historical interest. Gelett Burgess (1866-1951), known for his iconoclastic humor, was an important figure in San Francisco’s literary scene a century ago. He published more than three dozen books over a very long career. His most famous contribution to American letters, the poem “The Purple Cow” (I never saw a Purple Cow . . .), appeared in 1895.
Comments