“It was at a banquet in London in honor of one of the two or three conspicuously illustrious English military names of th...”
Mark Twain1,720 wordsIntermediate
Luck
At a banquet honoring a celebrated English military hero, Lieutenant-General Lord Arthur Scoresby, the narrator is told an astonishing secret by an old clergyman who was once Scoresby's instructor at military school. Out of pity, the clergyman had coached the dull young Scoresby through his exams so he would not be humiliated - never dreaming it would launch a career. Ever since, every blunder Scoresby has made in battle has, by pure accident, turned into a dazzling victory, so that a genuine fool has been mistaken by the world for a genius. His whole glittering reputation, the clergyman confides, rests on nothing but luck.
Literary FictionIronySatire
