The Classic Crusade of Corbin Cobbs

Corbin Cobbs is a forty-three-year-old English teacher who is disenchanted with his mundane existence. In a span of fewer than fourteen hours, he will traverse the fields of his inner mind in order to discover the significance of his life. But he is a tormented soul, besieged by an illness that robs him of his consciousness at random times throughout the course of this day. It is in the midst Corbin’s “episodes” that he transfers himself into the pages of literature to interact with an assortment of the most beloved and reviled characters ever created for the page or stage. As the tale ticks by, with each chapter unfurling in linear time, Corbin learns about love and infidelity from the likes of Sir Lancelot, Hester Prynne, and Charles Bovary. He questions his valor and sacrifices during encounters with Hamlet, Henry Fleming, and Sydney Carton. He ponders the numbing effects of loneliness and manipulation through discourse shared with Frankenstein’s Monster, Grendel, and Iago. His mind transports him toward Chaucer’s medieval pilgrimage to Canterbury, and the tiered horrors of Dante’s Inferno. He will battle impulses of vengeance and the duality of his own nature by conversing with Captain Ahab, Mr. Kurtz, and Mr. Edward Hyde. What will become of Corbin as his life interweaves with the most memorable characters in the classic canon? The lessons he learns, of course, will endure for as long as the literature itself.