Percival's Picture Gallery

Percival, a young invalid shut away in a shabby London attic by a crippling knee disease, turns loneliness, poverty, and pain into an inward life of rare richness. When Seyton visits his old schoolfellow, he finds not despair but a mind alive with art, faith, and conversation, as Percival reflects on travel, drawing, and the failure of conventional religious painting to reach spiritual truth. His sleepless nights become occasions for comfort and creation, even inspiring "Song in the Night," and an angelic hymn that traces Christ's path from manger to cross, promising glory beyond suffering. From there, Percival leads Seyton through his imaginative picture gallery of biblical scenes. The Red Sea crossing becomes a drama of terror and deliverance, while "King David's Vision" reveals the mystery of Psalm 22 and the necessity of Christ's sacrifice. In "The Carpenter's Death," Christ appears as a humble worker and compassionate mourner, sharing ordinary human grief. Back in Fog Street, Percival endures cold, noise, and neglect with quiet patience, meditating on Christ's hidden hardships as a homeless wanderer. Even after moving to better lodgings, his frailty remains, and the gathering of friends turns to storytelling, beginning with a moral legend about greed and self-destruction. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.