The second string

by Nathaniel Gould

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Paperback

First published April 14, 2011

About the author

Nathaniel (Nat) Gould was a popular British novelist, with an interest in horse racing.

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned about Nat Gould earlier this year when I read a collection of essays by A. A. Milne, titled If I May. Milne riffed on a wide variety of topics in that book, and in one essay called The Largest Circulation, his topic of choice was our Nat Gould, who had recently passed away (in July of 1919). He admits that he had never read Gould's books, and he wonders at their popularity. While Milne was in the Army, he said every third soldier had a Nat Gould book with him, except for his regiment: they had detective stories. Anyway, Milne can explain Gould's overall appeal better than I can, I think.

"There died recently a gentleman named Nat Gould, twenty million copies of whose books had been sold. They were hardly ever reviewed in the literary papers; advertisements of them rarely appeared; no puffs nor photographs of the author were thrust upon one, Unostentatiously he wrote them--five in a year--and his million public was assured to him.

. . . He does not (I imagine) write of the stern-chinned, silent millionaire who has forced his way to the top by solid grit; we have no hopes of getting rich that way. But he does (I imagine) write of the lucky fellow who puts his shirt both ways on an outsider and pulls off a cool thousand. Well, that might happen to any of us. It never has yet... but five times a year Mr. Gould carried us away from the world where it never has into that beautiful dream-world where it happens quite naturally. No wonder that he was popular.

This particular story, The Second String, follows Jack Redland, the failure. He is 25 years old, but has never settled into a profession or occupation. He is a gentleman jockey, which means an amateur, and he is quite talented. But in the eyes of the world he is a failure. This has begun to bother him, and he decides (after a little help from a gypsy palm-reader) to leave England and make his fortune. After a series of amazing coincidences, he arrives in Australia, has adventures, works hard, and eventually does some impressive riding there as well. Does he earn a fortune and if so, how? And what about lovely Winifred, the girl he left behind?

There was nothing complicated about this book. Reading it was fast and easy, with very few surprises in store, other than the typical racial slurs of the times, which do tend to show up in many of these older titles. I never could find the publication date of The Second String, but I would say late 1800's or very early 1900's. There are a few other Gould titles at Gutenberg, and I will work my way through them next year.

Oh, and all of the racing scenes were wonderfully exciting. My only quibble is that this book did not have as much racing in it as I expected. I hope to see more races on the card in future titles!