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The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom

by Tobias SMOLLETT (1721 - 1771)

Chapter 2

You can call me Dr. Fathom. Or Count Fathom. But I'm not who I say I am. And can you blame me? My mother was a soldiers' harlot who pocketed extra loot by wandering through the battlefield stripping the dead and dying of valuables. I don't even know who my father was, except he must have had my handsome looks. People liked looking at me. And people liked how I talked too. Early on, I learned that telling the truth didn't get you the same quick reward as telling them what they wanted to hear, being assiduously charming, dissimulating. In a word, lying. I became good at it. And I became the favorite of a rich Hungarian count who took me in and coaxed his pathetically naïve son to look up to me and learn to be like me. Ha! How I wanted to sell my soul to trade places with Renaldo! I wanted his money. I wanted his beautiful life. I wanted his beautiful wife -- at least for an extra notch on my belt. This is the story of how I went about achieving those things. It was easy, especially at first. Because, to tell the truth, people secretly yearn for tall tales. - Summary by Arthur Krolman

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Listen next episodes of The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom:
Chapter 10 , Chapter 11 , Chapter 12 , Chapter 13 , Chapter 14 , Chapter 15 , Chapter 16 , Chapter 17 , Chapter 18 , Chapter 19 , Chapter 20 , Chapter 21 , Chapter 22 , Chapter 23 , Chapter 24 , Chapter 25 , Chapter 26 , Chapter 27 , Chapter 28 , Chapter 29 , Chapter 3 , Chapter 30 , Chapter 31 , Chapter 32 , Chapter 33 , Chapter 34 , Chapter 35 , Chapter 36 , Chapter 37 , Chapter 38 , Chapter 39 , Chapter 4 , Chapter 40 , Chapter 41 , Chapter 42 , Chapter 43 , Chapter 44 , Chapter 45 , Chapter 46 , Chapter 47 , Chapter 48 , Chapter 49 , Chapter 5 , Chapter 50 , Chapter 51 , Chapter 52 , Chapter 53 , Chapter 54 , Chapter 55 , Chapter 56 , Chapter 57 , Chapter 58 , Chapter 59 , Chapter 6 , Chapter 60 , Chapter 61 , Chapter 62 , Chapter 63 , Chapter 64 , Chapter 65 , Chapter 66 , Chapter 67 , Chapter 7 , Chapter 8 , Chapter 9