But the settings of the books, and their undercurrents of sadness apparent to an adult reader, hint at less charmed things.
Free for the downloading, Microsoft Reader and particularly Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader hint at how good e-books can lookin part because both use techniques that can divide each pixel into three to gain increased clarity on LCD screens.
Unfortunately, I didn't get much more than that the palm reader hinted that he wanted to get rid of me and said "not worry, much luck, much happiness" (that's fortune teller for "time is up, so piss off").
Ironically, in Chiel's book, the reader finds hints of the original, possibly because Dickens himself was struck by the theatricality of ordinary life.
In Sally (who was based on the English actor Jean Ross) as in all his characters (himself included), Isherwood teases the reader with hints of reality, while constructing a much more compelling illusion.
Instead, she teases the reader with hints, in what might be construed as a sadistic withholding of information (as if the fantasy of having rats gnaw into one's anus were not adequately troubling without embellishment).
Perhaps it is this that is greatest about Mercier and Camier - its timing, its place in the chronology, the knowledge on the part of the reader, and hinted at by the author, of what's about to follow.
My 1989 hardback edition of Beautiful Mutants, for example, gives the reader a hint as to what's coming, featuring a naked figure (male, I think), its head replaced by a seabird, its torso and lower half swathed in jade silk swirled into a mermaid's tail.
If it was a book, it is a nice introduction setting the scene for the reader and hinting at some excitement to come..
