The Companion. A Tale of 1857
Eking out a living painting the portraits of idle English colonists in pre-mutiny India, Monsieur Perin is summoned, not for the first time, to the home of Magistrate Jackson to render the likeness of the latter`s cherubic grandsons. Upon his arrival, however, Perin finds the family mad with grief - his subjects having fallen prey to a cobra whilst playing in the yellowed and stagnant tall grasses. The Jackson family - sadistic, imperious and filled with the blinkered self-importance of their assumed positions in a foreign country - claim that the servant girl and `ladies` companion`, Zeli, was responsible for the tragedy, and that the serpent`s proximity to the unfortunate twins was no accident. Having met Zeli on his previous visit and...
Дата выхода: январь 2007
