Explore "The Aspirations of Jean Servien" by Anatole France on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
One evening in summer the bookbinder was enjoying the fresh air before his door when a big man with a red nose, past middle age and wearing a scarlet waistcoat stained with grease-spots, appeared, bowing politely and confidentially, and addressed him in a sing-song voice in which even Monsieur Servien could detect an Italian accent:
"Sir, I have translated the "Gerusalemme Liberata", the immortal masterpiece of Torquato Tasso" -- and a bulging packet of manuscript under his arm confirmed the statement.