Wild Thyme and Violets-Jack Vance outline for a novel
Wild Thyme and Violets - Jack Vance outline for a novel Wild Thyme and Violets is a 16 page outline for a novel that was drafted by Vance in 1976 and first published in the Vance Integral Edition in 2005. The setting is in the town of Gargano which has about 400 houses and a nearby castle owned by Marquis Paul-Aubry Alcmeone del Torre-Gargano who resides there with his mute 17 year old daughter, Alicia . It begins on a Saturday market day. Mersile , a traveling mountebank, and his helper, Etheny , set up a booth decorated with thaumaturgical symbols where they sell balms, elixirs and papers with magical signs. Mersile, a rather classic type of Vancian character, also casts horoscopes, lances boils, pulls teeth and lays a concertina while his helper dances. Parnasse , the mayor, is there along with Lucian , an artist. The mayor longs for a son but his wife has not been able to conceive despite their use of extracts, exercises and astrology. ...