Self-Doomed

Master Fink's tale opens in a house shadowed by memory, where an old acquaintance is greeted with stories of a household haunted by loss, and of a once-beautiful housekeeper now reduced to silence and madness. From that melancholy setting, he turns to Gideon Wolf, an apprentice whose hunger for wealth, contempt for honest labor, and talent for self-deception make him both comic and dangerous. Gideon borrows money under false pretenses, plays the victim, and squanders what he gains on vanity and gambling, exposing the corrosive power of greed. Against this bitter portrait stands Fink's own past: a village craftsman shaped by work, independence, and love for Louisa Wagner. He remembers the first intoxication of young devotion, only to be crushed when Louisa chooses the swaggering Steven Wolf instead. Years later, Louisa returns as a worn widow, begging him to apprentice her son Gideon, and Fink accepts with a mix of practicality and private revenge. His later clash with the miser Pretzel becomes a sharp comic battle of timing, contracts, and legal trickery, ending in Fink's triumph and a warning that Gideon's future may be tied to dangerous company and blind affection. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.