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Tourmalin's Time Cheques
On Deck.—Curry and Culture.—Alternative Distractions.—A Period of Probation.—The Oath and the Talisman.—Wavering.—A Chronological Error.—The Time Bargain.—Tourmalin Opens an Account.
Mr. Peter Tourmalin was sitting, or rather lying, in a steamer-chair on the first-class saloon-deck of the P. and O. steamer Boomerang, which had not been many days as yet on the voyage home from Sydney. He had been trying to read; but it was a hot morning, and the curry, of which he had partaken freely at breakfast, had made him feel a little heavy and disinclined for mental exertion just then, particularly as Buckle's History of Civilisation, the first volume of which he had brought up from the ship's library, is not exactly light literature at any time.
He wanted distraction of some sort, but he could not summon up sufficient energy to rise and pace the deck, as his only acquaintance on board, a Mr. Perkins, was doing with a breezy vigour which Tourmalin found himself feebly resenting.
Mr. Peter Tourmalin was sitting, or rather lying, in a steamer-chair on the first-class saloon-deck of the P. and O. steamer Boomerang, which had not been many days as yet on the voyage home from Sydney. He had been trying to read; but it was a hot morning, and the curry, of which he had partaken freely at breakfast, had made him feel a little heavy and disinclined for mental exertion just then, particularly as Buckle's History of Civilisation, the first volume of which he had brought up from the ship's library, is not exactly light literature at any time.
He wanted distraction of some sort, but he could not summon up sufficient energy to rise and pace the deck, as his only acquaintance on board, a Mr. Perkins, was doing with a breezy vigour which Tourmalin found himself feebly resenting.
97 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1891
2 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
F. Anstey
238 books9 followersThomas Anstey Guthrie was an English novelist and journalist, who wrote his comic novels under the pseudonym F. Anstey.
He was born in Kensington, London, to Augusta Amherst Austen, an organist and composer, and Thomas Anstey Guthrie. He was educated at King's College School and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and was called to the bar in 1880. But the popular success of his story Vice Versa (1882) with its topsy turvy substitution of a father for his schoolboy son, at once made his reputation as a humorist of an original type. He published in 1883 a serious novel, The Giant's Robe; but, in spite of its excellence, he discovered (and again in 1889 with The Pariah) that it was not as a serious novelist but as a humorist that the public insisted on regarding him. As such, his reputation was further confirmed by The Black Poodle (1884), The Tinted Venus (1885), A Fallen Idol (1886), and other works. Baboo Jabberjee B.A. (1897) , and A Bayard from Bengal (1902) are humorous yet truthful studies of the East Indian with a veneer of English civilization.
Guthrie became an important member of the staff of Punch magazine, in which his voces populi and his humorous parodies of a reciter's stock-piece (Burglar Bill, &c.) represent his best work. In 1901, his successful farce The Man from Blankleys, based on a story that originally appeared in Punch, was first produced at the Prince of Wales Theatre, in London. He wrote Only Toys (1903) and Salted Almonds (1906).
Many of Anstey's stories have been adapted into theatrical productions and motion pictures. The Tinted Venus was adapted by S.J. Perelman, Ogden Nash, and Kurt Weill into One Touch of Venus in 1943. Vice Versa has been filmed many times, usually transposed in setting and without any credit to the original book. Another of his novels, The Brass Bottle, has also been filmed more than once, including The Brass Bottle (1964).
He was born in Kensington, London, to Augusta Amherst Austen, an organist and composer, and Thomas Anstey Guthrie. He was educated at King's College School and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and was called to the bar in 1880. But the popular success of his story Vice Versa (1882) with its topsy turvy substitution of a father for his schoolboy son, at once made his reputation as a humorist of an original type. He published in 1883 a serious novel, The Giant's Robe; but, in spite of its excellence, he discovered (and again in 1889 with The Pariah) that it was not as a serious novelist but as a humorist that the public insisted on regarding him. As such, his reputation was further confirmed by The Black Poodle (1884), The Tinted Venus (1885), A Fallen Idol (1886), and other works. Baboo Jabberjee B.A. (1897) , and A Bayard from Bengal (1902) are humorous yet truthful studies of the East Indian with a veneer of English civilization.
Guthrie became an important member of the staff of Punch magazine, in which his voces populi and his humorous parodies of a reciter's stock-piece (Burglar Bill, &c.) represent his best work. In 1901, his successful farce The Man from Blankleys, based on a story that originally appeared in Punch, was first produced at the Prince of Wales Theatre, in London. He wrote Only Toys (1903) and Salted Almonds (1906).
Many of Anstey's stories have been adapted into theatrical productions and motion pictures. The Tinted Venus was adapted by S.J. Perelman, Ogden Nash, and Kurt Weill into One Touch of Venus in 1943. Vice Versa has been filmed many times, usually transposed in setting and without any credit to the original book. Another of his novels, The Brass Bottle, has also been filmed more than once, including The Brass Bottle (1964).
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 24, 2024
An early piece of time-travel fiction, which has fun with the trips back in time being out of proper order, so the time traveller is struggling to figure out what's happened prior to the moment he's in. His trips are to an earlier point in his own timeline; the premise is that, stuck on a ship from Australia home to Britain, he's bored and wishes the time would pass more quickly, and a mysterious Bank Manager offers him a deal. Deposit your currently-unwanted time in our Time Bank, and you can draw it out later, using this handy chequebook!
The thing is, Peter, the traveller, has been sent on this voyage by his fiancée Sophia, an intelligent, managing woman who suspects (justifiably, as it turns out) that he's infirm of purpose and that he'll be tempted to make connections with young women on board the ship. It's a test to make sure that he's faithful to her, and he passes - but only because he's banked the time that he might have spent with two other young women, who, in contrast to Sophia, are neither intelligent nor serious. Once he's back in England, married, and starts drawing on his account at the Time Bank when life with Sophia gets a bit too earnest for him, he discovers that he's apparently been, as it were, making time with both of the young women, though at first he's, let's say, at sea as far as the details are concerned. He tries to be a faithful married man, but apparently his earlier self wasn't quite so scrupulous, and also kept being creatively misunderstood by his "friends"...
Peter is unlike the solid, worthy heroes of the other two Anstey books I've read, The Tinted Venus and The Brass Bottle . He's a slacker without much spine, who looks forward to being managed by Sophia in general but finds it a trial in particular. He has generally good intentions, but lacks the strength of character to stick to them. That makes him less appealing than those other heroes, but he's presented as so hapless (in Anstey's classic style of ever-escalating farce) that I couldn't help but feel for him anyway.
The ending is a classic cheat, but doesn't completely ruin the book; the journey is still fun, even if the destination is a letdown. While it's not as much to my taste as the other two Ansteys I've read, I still found it enjoyable. I will warn that Anstey has the somewhat long-winded style of his time (late 19th/early 20th century), and some readers will find that tedious.
The thing is, Peter, the traveller, has been sent on this voyage by his fiancée Sophia, an intelligent, managing woman who suspects (justifiably, as it turns out) that he's infirm of purpose and that he'll be tempted to make connections with young women on board the ship. It's a test to make sure that he's faithful to her, and he passes - but only because he's banked the time that he might have spent with two other young women, who, in contrast to Sophia, are neither intelligent nor serious. Once he's back in England, married, and starts drawing on his account at the Time Bank when life with Sophia gets a bit too earnest for him, he discovers that he's apparently been, as it were, making time with both of the young women, though at first he's, let's say, at sea as far as the details are concerned. He tries to be a faithful married man, but apparently his earlier self wasn't quite so scrupulous, and also kept being creatively misunderstood by his "friends"...
Peter is unlike the solid, worthy heroes of the other two Anstey books I've read, The Tinted Venus and The Brass Bottle . He's a slacker without much spine, who looks forward to being managed by Sophia in general but finds it a trial in particular. He has generally good intentions, but lacks the strength of character to stick to them. That makes him less appealing than those other heroes, but he's presented as so hapless (in Anstey's classic style of ever-escalating farce) that I couldn't help but feel for him anyway.
The ending is a classic cheat, but doesn't completely ruin the book; the journey is still fun, even if the destination is a letdown. While it's not as much to my taste as the other two Ansteys I've read, I still found it enjoyable. I will warn that Anstey has the somewhat long-winded style of his time (late 19th/early 20th century), and some readers will find that tedious.
January 3, 2016
On a return trip from England to Australia at the behest of his fiancée, Peter Tourmalin finds himself with an excess of hours. Too timid and untrusting of himself, Peter wishes for nothing more than a means of killing time. That is until he is approached by a stranger claiming to be a manager at the Anglo-Australian Joint Stock Time Bank. Peter is offered a chance to deposit his excess time to be withdrawn at a later date. It all sounds to good to be true, but Peter accepts nonetheless. Several months later, seeking an escape from his overbearing wife, Peter decides to cash one of the cheques but what he gets may be more than he can stand for.
This book is one of the earliest books to deal with the concept of temporal paradox. Possibly even the first. You wouldn't think a book this old would be as captivating as it is, but you'd be wrong. This story is highly vivid and supremely entertaining. There are a few parts that don't hold up as well as they could, particularly the ending, but overall this is a superb book that makes the most out of its mechanics. It really gets in and has fun with what it's got, and that is what matters.
This book is fun. A nice little story about bouncing back through time by inserting cheques into clocks. That's really all you need to know. I'm glad I read it and you should to.
An excellent well-told time travel story.
This book is one of the earliest books to deal with the concept of temporal paradox. Possibly even the first. You wouldn't think a book this old would be as captivating as it is, but you'd be wrong. This story is highly vivid and supremely entertaining. There are a few parts that don't hold up as well as they could, particularly the ending, but overall this is a superb book that makes the most out of its mechanics. It really gets in and has fun with what it's got, and that is what matters.
This book is fun. A nice little story about bouncing back through time by inserting cheques into clocks. That's really all you need to know. I'm glad I read it and you should to.
An excellent well-told time travel story.
December 8, 2019
A funny sort of a book. Peter, whilst trying to prove he would be true to his fiancé, finds himself wanting to get the hours over with on board ship returning from Australia. ( Mainly because he is tempted to make the acquaintance of one or two of the young ladies on board.) and then he discovers the ship is to add hours on to the day as they adjust to the time changes. More time!
He has an offer from a gentleman who manages a bank which will hold on to any hours you may want to deposit and allow you to cash a time cheque any time in the future. And then you would be returned, in this instance, to the ship with its balmy weather and leisure.
Although it sounds confusing, Peter decides he will do this.
However, when he has returned to England and is in a situation where he chooses to cash one of the cheques, the results are not at all what he expected. He finds himself in the middle of a conversation and, although he tries to answer in a general way, finds himself misunderstanding and being misunderstood.
Even though that taught him something, he gets drawn back to using these cheques again and again. Hoping to resolve one matter, he gets into even more difficulties particularly because these “redeemed” times are not sequential!
At first I liked the book, seeing the humour in it. But as Peter gets deeper and deeper into a muddle, I felt like I would like to just leave it. I don’t enjoy stories where relationships become confused or people get into difficulties that it seems they won’t get out of. Even though many people like this silly sort of humour, it makes me very uncomfortable.(no, I don’t like Mr.Bean!)
But I did finish listening and was glad to be done with it, though the resolution of the problems could have been a bit more equal to the effort in the story.
The readers were fine for the book..
He has an offer from a gentleman who manages a bank which will hold on to any hours you may want to deposit and allow you to cash a time cheque any time in the future. And then you would be returned, in this instance, to the ship with its balmy weather and leisure.
Although it sounds confusing, Peter decides he will do this.
However, when he has returned to England and is in a situation where he chooses to cash one of the cheques, the results are not at all what he expected. He finds himself in the middle of a conversation and, although he tries to answer in a general way, finds himself misunderstanding and being misunderstood.
Even though that taught him something, he gets drawn back to using these cheques again and again. Hoping to resolve one matter, he gets into even more difficulties particularly because these “redeemed” times are not sequential!
At first I liked the book, seeing the humour in it. But as Peter gets deeper and deeper into a muddle, I felt like I would like to just leave it. I don’t enjoy stories where relationships become confused or people get into difficulties that it seems they won’t get out of. Even though many people like this silly sort of humour, it makes me very uncomfortable.(no, I don’t like Mr.Bean!)
But I did finish listening and was glad to be done with it, though the resolution of the problems could have been a bit more equal to the effort in the story.
The readers were fine for the book..
August 5, 2016
This late Victorian novel about time travel is just about everything you’d hope for from an actual late Victorian novel about time travel--no steampunk gloves-and-goggles sci-fi, no pseudoscientific jabber, no deep philosophic Star Treking--just a hapless gentleman who, after impatiently depositing his time before getting married into a “time bank,” finds out by drawing on his time cheques that he had become engaged to two young ladies in the intervening time! What a muddle! And possibly the first story dealing with paradoxes in time travel.
As Tourmalin finds that his cheques are out of order and cannot keep up with his own story line, Antsey does a good job of juggling the main plot and having Tourmalin arrive at inopportune moments, having his ignorance get him into deeper and deeper messes. The characterization of Tourmalin--careless, a bit stupid, somewhat gutless, but ultimately innocent--was a good choice because as a reader, you sort of want to see him get into trouble. His wife was a bit shrewish, but surprisingly sharp and one of the best moments is when she catches him in the act of cashing his cheque and takes one of his to another clock to spy on him in the past. The other characters were flat and played their melodramatic roles well, one woman trying to throw herself overboard after Tournalin rejects her (but goodness knows why she likes him in the first place since he’s such a doofus).
It’s cute, fun, interesting, but has one major problem: the ending. (It was written in 1891--deal with the spoilers.) In the biggest cop-out possible for a book dealing with time paradox, the author uses the ‘ol “it was all a dream” trope. LAME. There was so much potential for the story to tie up all the endings and get Tournalin re-engaged to his future-wife without being shot, perhaps with a wink and nod to the audience by having one thing out of place in the main timeline, or by meeting the characters later with everything having miraculously worked out off-camera having replaced events in Tourmalin’s memory, or having changed Tourmalin’s present, giving him an option to choose someone other than his shrewish wife who he does seem unhappy with (though this may not have been an acceptable ending to a conservative Victorian audience)...but the ending Antsey chose avoids capitalizing on any of the pleasure of the carefully-placed threads of story, and really, in my opinion betrayed the cleverness of his own story.
If someone ever writes a screenplay for this story (listening, Hollywood?) they need to make Tourmalin’s wife, Sophia, go to the bank manager after having become wise to Tourmalin’s secret, and invest the accrued interest into another financial product like a *bond,* so that Tourmalin would have more time but only somewhat later in life. During the rigging scene just before Tourmalin falls to his potential doom, he wakes up in his living room with Sophia--his time cut short because the bond has not yet matured. Several years pass and Sophia could then put Tourmalin to a final test (she seems to like tests) and put him in the situation where he could have herself, the tragic Ms. Davenport, or the beautiful and bubbly Ms. Tyrrell--basically, he could take their whole relationship back, or start a new one. Having grown somewhat wiser in the intervening time with Sophia, when he draws upon his bond (see the wordplay? Matured bond...), he is more ready to face temptation and is a man-of-action, knowing that whatever he does has happened already so he’s not in any danger (or is he?). He comes in at the final scene, where he saves the judge’s monkey up in the rigging, tells the old matron that he offers his sincerest apologies for the insult and having done some research in the intervening time, tells her some family secret (your long lost son is actually alive on such-and-such island!), saves Mrs. Davenport from throwing herself overboard by jumping in after her, which earns the sympathy of her fiance (he doesn’t shoot him at least), and faces Mrs. Tyrrell in the ultimate choice of his loyalty, but chooses Sophia because he realizes he’s thankful for his life with her and that he’s only the man he is today--actually capable of genuine heroics--because of her wisdom and forethought, yadda, yadda. He offers his apologies to Tyrrell and it’s understood she’ll get over him just fine since she’s young and he doesn’t seem like her type now anyway.
He goes to his (then) fiancee Sophia, wins her back with his new-found confidence, and marries her right there on the ship, with the judge presiding and banker as best man. Sophia accompanies them on the rest of the trip, and this means that some scenes that presumably Tourmalin was a fiancee (or thought he was) is now a married man, but this can be explained away in some of his awkwardness at the time, or maybe he gets back the balance of that time due to paradox, or it’s just lost, like an overdraft fee. When the time allotted by his bond is up (which can be a bit longer, lasting into the honeymoon, due to the interest), he returns to present Sophia and they live happily ever after.
Sound good? Some really really old person needs to cash a time cheque and tell Antsey for me.
As Tourmalin finds that his cheques are out of order and cannot keep up with his own story line, Antsey does a good job of juggling the main plot and having Tourmalin arrive at inopportune moments, having his ignorance get him into deeper and deeper messes. The characterization of Tourmalin--careless, a bit stupid, somewhat gutless, but ultimately innocent--was a good choice because as a reader, you sort of want to see him get into trouble. His wife was a bit shrewish, but surprisingly sharp and one of the best moments is when she catches him in the act of cashing his cheque and takes one of his to another clock to spy on him in the past. The other characters were flat and played their melodramatic roles well, one woman trying to throw herself overboard after Tournalin rejects her (but goodness knows why she likes him in the first place since he’s such a doofus).
It’s cute, fun, interesting, but has one major problem: the ending. (It was written in 1891--deal with the spoilers.) In the biggest cop-out possible for a book dealing with time paradox, the author uses the ‘ol “it was all a dream” trope. LAME. There was so much potential for the story to tie up all the endings and get Tournalin re-engaged to his future-wife without being shot, perhaps with a wink and nod to the audience by having one thing out of place in the main timeline, or by meeting the characters later with everything having miraculously worked out off-camera having replaced events in Tourmalin’s memory, or having changed Tourmalin’s present, giving him an option to choose someone other than his shrewish wife who he does seem unhappy with (though this may not have been an acceptable ending to a conservative Victorian audience)...but the ending Antsey chose avoids capitalizing on any of the pleasure of the carefully-placed threads of story, and really, in my opinion betrayed the cleverness of his own story.
If someone ever writes a screenplay for this story (listening, Hollywood?) they need to make Tourmalin’s wife, Sophia, go to the bank manager after having become wise to Tourmalin’s secret, and invest the accrued interest into another financial product like a *bond,* so that Tourmalin would have more time but only somewhat later in life. During the rigging scene just before Tourmalin falls to his potential doom, he wakes up in his living room with Sophia--his time cut short because the bond has not yet matured. Several years pass and Sophia could then put Tourmalin to a final test (she seems to like tests) and put him in the situation where he could have herself, the tragic Ms. Davenport, or the beautiful and bubbly Ms. Tyrrell--basically, he could take their whole relationship back, or start a new one. Having grown somewhat wiser in the intervening time with Sophia, when he draws upon his bond (see the wordplay? Matured bond...), he is more ready to face temptation and is a man-of-action, knowing that whatever he does has happened already so he’s not in any danger (or is he?). He comes in at the final scene, where he saves the judge’s monkey up in the rigging, tells the old matron that he offers his sincerest apologies for the insult and having done some research in the intervening time, tells her some family secret (your long lost son is actually alive on such-and-such island!), saves Mrs. Davenport from throwing herself overboard by jumping in after her, which earns the sympathy of her fiance (he doesn’t shoot him at least), and faces Mrs. Tyrrell in the ultimate choice of his loyalty, but chooses Sophia because he realizes he’s thankful for his life with her and that he’s only the man he is today--actually capable of genuine heroics--because of her wisdom and forethought, yadda, yadda. He offers his apologies to Tyrrell and it’s understood she’ll get over him just fine since she’s young and he doesn’t seem like her type now anyway.
He goes to his (then) fiancee Sophia, wins her back with his new-found confidence, and marries her right there on the ship, with the judge presiding and banker as best man. Sophia accompanies them on the rest of the trip, and this means that some scenes that presumably Tourmalin was a fiancee (or thought he was) is now a married man, but this can be explained away in some of his awkwardness at the time, or maybe he gets back the balance of that time due to paradox, or it’s just lost, like an overdraft fee. When the time allotted by his bond is up (which can be a bit longer, lasting into the honeymoon, due to the interest), he returns to present Sophia and they live happily ever after.
Sound good? Some really really old person needs to cash a time cheque and tell Antsey for me.
May 16, 2018
This is billed as one of the earliest examples of using time travel in fiction, but in reality this is nothing but a masterful description on how male rationalization process works. If flowery Victorian language doesn't scare you, you'll find it to be quite an enjoyable read.
February 13, 2018
loved this! i was laughing out loud. would have got 5 stars but the end was a bit disappointing.
October 20, 2014
Librivox's description of this book, upon which I find myself unable to improve, reads as follows:
To which I said, "That sounds like fun!" And it was.
I love time travel stories -- but only if they're done well. What I usually mean by that is that our expectations of linear time are used to surprise and misdirect us as an audience, as with recent Doctor Who or Zelazny's Roadmarks. However, I also enjoy tales that just plain have fun screwing with time. And that's exactly what Tourmalin's Time Cheques does. There aren't any weighty concerns about paradoxes and continua. (Which is not surprising, given that it was published well before the conventions of time-travel fiction we're used to were established.) It's not particularly deep or intellectually taxing. It's just a big "what if" that happens to involve time. The author is just enjoying exploring it.
...Until the end. The ending is unfortunately rather disappointing, after all that leads up to it. It feels rather as though the author got to a certain point and didn't know what to do with it, and as a result decided to wrap it up in one of the most tired, cliched manners possible. It does rather have the advantage of addressing the issue of how all this is possible, but that isn't enough to save it. (It makes me wonder whether this technique was as overused in 1891 as it is now, or if I've simply seen and read about too many modern soap operas.) Up until that point, though -- I keep using this word, but "fun" is honestly what I keep thinking about this book. It was a nice, fun read.
And if the ending sort of sucks... It sucks in kind of an inspirational way, in that it has me wondering what this would look like if I wrote it. I don't know that I'm really up to the task, but it's certainly an interesting thing to think about.
Peter Tourmalin is on a sea voyage back home to England from Australia, to return to his fiancee, and he is very bored. The fact that the time difference adds on extra hours to his boredom only makes it worse. So when he gets a unique opportunity to deposit his spare time into an account with the “Anglo-Australian Joint Stock Time Bank, Limited” he doesn’t hesitate for long. By opening this account, he doesn’t have to spend his spare time right away, but can withdraw it at any future date, when he wants a break. All he has to do is present a time cheque to any clock, and he is immediately brought back aboard ship to spend the time withdrawn.
Sounds perfect? Peter certainly thinks so, when on a dreary November morning in London, a little tired with his exacting fiancee, he presents his first cheque and gets to spend a sunny quarter of an hour aboard ship. However, things get complicated when it turns out the time withdrawn isn’t in consecutive installments, but all mixed up, leaving Peter often with no clue of any preliminaries or his relationship with the person he finds himself with. Since he is almost always dropped in the middle of a conversation this can be tricky – especially since his encounters include tete-a-tetes with not one but two beautiful young ladies (never at the same time of course!)… And things only get more and more complicated…
To which I said, "That sounds like fun!" And it was.
I love time travel stories -- but only if they're done well. What I usually mean by that is that our expectations of linear time are used to surprise and misdirect us as an audience, as with recent Doctor Who or Zelazny's Roadmarks. However, I also enjoy tales that just plain have fun screwing with time. And that's exactly what Tourmalin's Time Cheques does. There aren't any weighty concerns about paradoxes and continua. (Which is not surprising, given that it was published well before the conventions of time-travel fiction we're used to were established.) It's not particularly deep or intellectually taxing. It's just a big "what if" that happens to involve time. The author is just enjoying exploring it.
...Until the end. The ending is unfortunately rather disappointing, after all that leads up to it. It feels rather as though the author got to a certain point and didn't know what to do with it, and as a result decided to wrap it up in one of the most tired, cliched manners possible. It does rather have the advantage of addressing the issue of how all this is possible, but that isn't enough to save it. (It makes me wonder whether this technique was as overused in 1891 as it is now, or if I've simply seen and read about too many modern soap operas.) Up until that point, though -- I keep using this word, but "fun" is honestly what I keep thinking about this book. It was a nice, fun read.
And if the ending sort of sucks... It sucks in kind of an inspirational way, in that it has me wondering what this would look like if I wrote it. I don't know that I'm really up to the task, but it's certainly an interesting thing to think about.
May 10, 2016
This 1891 novel is among the first to incorporate time travel. Bored on a sea voyage from Australia back to England, Peter Tourmalin is approached by a stranger and offered a chance to deposit his excess time in a "time bank", which can be withdrawn later on by writing a check and presenting it to any clock.
Tourmalin buys into the proposition, and his sea voyage is complete that much the sooner. Once home, and coping with a rather high maintenance fiancée, Tourmalin decides to “cash” one of his checks – only for fifteen minutes, you understand. He finds himself back on the ship, and in the midst of conversation with a certain Miss Tyrell:
“Yes, I forgive you, Mr. Tourmalin,” she was saying, with an evident effort to suppress a certain agitation; “but indeed, indeed, you must never speak to me like that again!”
Now, as Peter was certainly not conscious of ever having spoken to her at all in his life, this was naturally a startling and even embarrassing beginning.
Complications, as they say, arise between Tourmalin and Miss Tyrell, as well as another young lady on board, Miss Davenport. The setup is one that P.G. Wodehouse would have delighted in, and one can just imagine Bertie Wooster freely spending time cheques and getting himself into a tight spot, only to be rescued by Jeeves spouting something about temporal paradoxes (Tourmalin’s Time Cheques, by the way, is credited with being the first story to invoke them).
Aside from the imaginative use of time travel, Tourmalin's Time Checques is a charming and witty little book; indeed I wish modern time travel novels were as polished and filled with such cheeky good humor.
Tourmalin buys into the proposition, and his sea voyage is complete that much the sooner. Once home, and coping with a rather high maintenance fiancée, Tourmalin decides to “cash” one of his checks – only for fifteen minutes, you understand. He finds himself back on the ship, and in the midst of conversation with a certain Miss Tyrell:
“Yes, I forgive you, Mr. Tourmalin,” she was saying, with an evident effort to suppress a certain agitation; “but indeed, indeed, you must never speak to me like that again!”
Now, as Peter was certainly not conscious of ever having spoken to her at all in his life, this was naturally a startling and even embarrassing beginning.
Complications, as they say, arise between Tourmalin and Miss Tyrell, as well as another young lady on board, Miss Davenport. The setup is one that P.G. Wodehouse would have delighted in, and one can just imagine Bertie Wooster freely spending time cheques and getting himself into a tight spot, only to be rescued by Jeeves spouting something about temporal paradoxes (Tourmalin’s Time Cheques, by the way, is credited with being the first story to invoke them).
Aside from the imaginative use of time travel, Tourmalin's Time Checques is a charming and witty little book; indeed I wish modern time travel novels were as polished and filled with such cheeky good humor.
October 3, 2015
A note: I show it as having been written by Thomas Anstey Guthrie.
I was prompted recently to find and share a group of free audio links for science fiction and fantasy. While reviewing the links I shared, I tripped across an unfamiliar title and author:
Tourmalin's Time Cheques (1891) by Thomas Anstey Guthrie.
Simply put, our protagonist, Peter Tourmalin, is bored aboard a sailing vessel returning him to England from Australia and is given the chance to bank some of his spare time for later usage through 'time cheques.' Upon presenting a time cheque to any clock, he is taken back to some of the spare time he has stored.
I enjoyed the story quite a bit, with its twists and turns. One of the readers was far inferior to the others, but only reads for a short while - it was a bit jarring to have her voice, but survivable.
http://www.archive.org/details/tourma...
Should one not wish to listen to it, it is also available as a google book.
http://tinyurl.com/yfbaybh
(If you look at this when the tinyurl has expired,just do a search for the title at books.google.com and it will turn up.)
I was less than thrilled with the ending, but enjoyed the story overall quite a bit.
I was prompted recently to find and share a group of free audio links for science fiction and fantasy. While reviewing the links I shared, I tripped across an unfamiliar title and author:
Tourmalin's Time Cheques (1891) by Thomas Anstey Guthrie.
Simply put, our protagonist, Peter Tourmalin, is bored aboard a sailing vessel returning him to England from Australia and is given the chance to bank some of his spare time for later usage through 'time cheques.' Upon presenting a time cheque to any clock, he is taken back to some of the spare time he has stored.
I enjoyed the story quite a bit, with its twists and turns. One of the readers was far inferior to the others, but only reads for a short while - it was a bit jarring to have her voice, but survivable.
http://www.archive.org/details/tourma...
Should one not wish to listen to it, it is also available as a google book.
http://tinyurl.com/yfbaybh
(If you look at this when the tinyurl has expired,just do a search for the title at books.google.com and it will turn up.)
I was less than thrilled with the ending, but enjoyed the story overall quite a bit.
October 4, 2014
A man returning from Australia is able to bank the extra hours he gains on the journey and later by cashing "time cheques" he finds himself back on the ship to experience this time at a later date. A nice original idea, not perhaps carried out as well as could be hoped but still fun, sadly let down by (something Anstey rarely does) a it was all a dream framing device.
July 25, 2013
One of my favorite books. I discovered it for the first time a few years ago and I have read it many times since. It is enjoyable from the first page to the last.
librivox-read
April 8, 2018I enjoyed this one.
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