Tourmalin's Time Cheques is a light hearted exploration of time, love, and personal dilemmas through the story of a timid man caught between duty and desire. While returning by ship from a distant land, he struggles with doubts about loyalty in his engagement and the allure of temptation. His uncertainty deepens when he learns of an extraordinary system that allows individuals to deposit spare time and later withdraw it, as though drawing from a bank. This curious arrangement offers him the chance to relive moments and indulge in experiences without apparent consequence, yet it also complicates his reflections on commitment, honesty, and relationships. Through his comical hesitations and whimsical adventures, the narrative delves into the tension between romantic obligations and fleeting attractions. Blending humor with a fantastical premise, the tale uses the idea of time banking as both a playful conceit and a metaphor for how people value moments, fidelity, and choices. The result is a witty narrative that entertains while provoking thought about the meaning of time and devotion.
Thomas Anstey Guthrie was an English writer best known for his humorous novel Vice Versa, about a boarding school child and his father who switch identities. The Tinted Venus, as well as other funny parodies in Punch magazine, reinforced his reputation. He was born in Kensington, London, to organist and composer Augusta Amherst Austen and Thomas Anstey Guthrie. He was educated at King's College School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and admitted to the bar in 1880. Guthrie's younger brother, Leonard Guthrie (1858-1918), was a physician. The widespread success of his story Vice Versa (1882), with its topsy-turvy replacement of a father for his schoolboy son, established him as an innovative comedian. In 1883, he wrote a serious book, The Giant's Robe, which George Gissing called very poor stuff. Anstey learned (again in 1889 with The Pariah) that the public preferred to consider him as a comic rather than a serious author. As a result, his fame was reinforced by The Black Poodle (1884), The Tinted Venus (1885), A Fallen Idol (1886), and other masterpieces.
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