Reminiscences of an Old Rake chronicles the eventful past of a remarkable individual - the Honourable Bertram Seal - perhaps one of the last great Casanovas of our time. Bertie, however, is quintessentially English, one of that unique breed of gentleman bachelors that existed between the two great wars. Each book contains a collection of tales recounting our narrator’s ribald escapades, though there's a lot more than just sexual intrigue to these colourful stories.
Bertie Seal’s San Francisco Tales, the second instalment in this series, finds our hero fleeing war torn Shanghai, in the year of 1937. After many years of pleasurable living he is suddenly all alone in a strange new land. This is Bertie's story about coming to San Francisco and starting a whole new life, though it seems wherever he goes intrigue follows. There are four episodic tales in this book.
"The Forbidden Fruit" is to become the biggest and swankiest nightclub on the American West Coast. Though in 1938, when our hero, Bertram Seal, arrives in San Francisco after fleeing war-torn Shanghai, it’s only a concept. Uncle Joe, as he likes to be known, a stout Chinese businessman, is the mastermind. A rival Tong, though, has other ideas and Bertie is snatched along with the plans and given the choice between working for the enemy or becoming chop-suey.
"That Man From Shanghai" begins with our hero, Bertram Seal, and his Chinese business partner Uncle Joe, as he likes to be known, arrested for the murder of a San Francisco Supervisor Dwight White; a stockholder in their new venture, The Forbidden Fruit Nightclub. It’s Christmas time 1937, and the all important opening party for the venue is scheduled for New Year's Eve. White, it turns out, was unscrupulous, and his dishonest dealings included selling off false shares in the club to both influential businessmen and the Mob, landing the partnership in even more trouble.
"The Night Lola Went Missing" was in1938 at The Forbidden Fruit Nightclub in San Francisco, part owned by our hero, Bertram Seal. A Hollywood star at the height of her career, the police, her husband, the press, all believe she must have been kidnapped by Bertie. After all he'd acquired a questionable reputation since arriving from Shanghai, six months ago. In addition, our hero is beset with problems with the fair sex. His partner, the beautiful but tempestuous Rose Lee, has become infatuated with a boxer, his good friend Sam Goldsmith with a very naughty nymph young enough to be his grand-daughter, and he himself with a red-head after all she can get.
"Bertie for Hire" is three short stories set in San Francisco during the year of 1942. Our hero, Bertram Seal, is in comfortable circumstances, being part-owner and manager of The Forbidden Fruit Nightclub, the biggest and grandest on the West coast. Not one to seek trouble or want to be out of his comfort zone, it’s to his huge annoyance and frustration that each tale finds him being sought out to solve other people’s problems.
Bugsy Seigal is the first to pay a visit and upset Bertie’s tranquility. Seigal believes in our hero’s unjustly acquired reputation as a trouble-shooter, and hence wants to hire him to make a certain Senator vanish.
Next, with his partner, Rose, gone off to join the army, Bertie grows unaccustomedly introverted. So when a couple of Los Angeles businessmen reroute him to an old mansion then unleash a bevy of beauties upon him with a view to getting our hero to help these entrepreneurs open a similar nightclub in L.A to the one he is currently managing, Bertie finds his old self re-emerging.
The last tale finds Bertie befriended by the large and egocentric Rabelais, and invited to the country estate of the beautiful Madeleine Cassanotti, the big man’s consort. Once there Bertie finds himself the sole male in a household of five women, all seemingly aflame with wanton lust.
All these stories are accompanied with amusing drawings by the author.
樂天KOBO
