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Martin Eden Synopsis

From a hard-won leadership of a hoodlum gang in Oakland, Cal., from a beach-comber's life in the South Seas, and from the inferno of the stokehole, Martin Eden, an unlearned sailor, wins his way to fame and fortune. But it is not until great odds have been conquered and much has been sacrificed that the goal is reached. And then it is too late. The odds are ridicule, poverty and lack of education. The great sacrifice, love. A chance meeting, in his hoodlum days, with Arthur Morse, a college man, proves the turning point of his life, for through him he meets Arthur's sister Ruth. This means the opening of a new world, and in the remaining reels of the play we see Martin's indomitable spirit and the development of his career. He makes two picturesque friends. One is Russ Brissenden, a poet, who encourages Martin when he sorely needs it, though his taking the latter to the Socialists' meeting had unfortunate results for the cub reporter as well as for Martin. The other is Maria, his warm-hearted Portuguese landlady, whose wildest flight of imagination, ""hoe all da roun' for da kids," Martin later is happily able to gratify. A third figure comes now and then into Martin's life: beautiful, wistful Lizzie Connelly, who loves him and whom he pities but cannot love. As in so many lives, matters are at their lowest ebb before the tide turns. Martin is penniless and without food or warmth. He has had only one sale of a manuscript in the many months of unceasing endeavor. Brissenden is dead. Ruth, losing her faith, has broken their engagement and refuses to see him. Then comes the sudden sweep of success, with publishers clamoring for his work and fame and wealth in his hand. But the tension that sustained him during his days of poverty and struggle breaks. Even Love, in the person of the repentant Ruth, knocks at his door in vain, and he sails for the South Seas, to find again, if he may, his old-time zest for life.

The Pursuit of the Phantom Synopsis

Artist Richard Alden goes to Laguna, California to paint the beautiful cliffs and shore which make this village one of the most talked-of places in Southern California. There he meets a young lady from the city, and their acquaintance soon ripens into love. For a while all goes well, and the little elfin sprite, a waif of the beach, who unknown to them watches them every day and weaves the dreams of romance and fairyland around them, sees only happiness. Soon, however, comes a young millionaire, and choosing between love and worldly ambition the young lady sails away with the millionaire, both questing for happiness along the paths of wealth and power. Brokenhearted, the artist feels that his pursuit of happiness has been in vain. How the little waif of the beach, budding into womanhood, shows him the true path, and how in later years the son of the rich man and the daughter of the artist bring the two men together again in a stirring revelation of what life has meant to each of them, is told in the latter part of this play.