Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 80

1879 · 20 pages

"A Man of Nerve; or, Caliban, the Dwarf" By Philip S. Warne, this serial tale of Denver during its frontier boom depicts a revenge plot set in motion by physiognomy and hidden grudge. A gaunt prospector deposits gold-dust at an express office—later identified as James K. Preston of Boston. When Preston's daughter Cora arrives by stagecoach with her invalid mother, a hideously deformed dwarf observing from the crowd recognizes the family name and experiences a violent collision of emotions: attraction to Cora's beauty and burning hatred toward her father. The dwarf reveals himself as victim of abuse by Colonel James K. Preston (Cora's grandfather), whose cruelty during the dwarf's infancy caused his physical deformities. Now he plots simultaneous revenge and dark possession—to seduce or destroy the innocent girl while wreaking vengeance upon her father for generational wrongs. The narrative establishes Gothic melodrama: Beauty and Beast locked in fateful attraction, with the dwarf's tortured consciousness oscillating between adoration and murderous intent.

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