One of the most dramatic works by the greatest English master, Rudyard Kipling. An artist’s fate is always unpredictable. Prosperity and success remain, for most, only dreams. The hero of this book is a favorite of fate. Money, fame, and the demanding attention of the public have long become ordinary things, and it’s unlikely that anything else can still stir his thoughts and feelings. But life doesn’t stop surprising—and quietly tips the scales in the other direction: an unshared love, an unimaginable turn of events, and then a rapidly growing, incurable blindness… Comfort will have to be sought in the embrace of abandoned friends and… death.