Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
215,528
edits
On One Condition: Difference between revisions
→Literature
No edit summary |
|||
Line 64:
== Literature ==
* [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[The Number of the Beast]]'' had a character named Zebadiah Carter. It turns out his grandfather Zachariah had left a large inheritance, with two conditions: (for the males, at least) They had to have a name starting with Z, and they had to earn and hold assets ''equal'' to the amount they would receive. (So if you got wealthy, it'd make you twice as wealthy. If you didn't get wealthy, you got nothing).
* In ''[[Doorways in The Sand]]'' by [[Roger Zelazny]], the protagonist's uncle has set up a fund which will pay for his living as long as he remains a full-time
** The 1969 British TV series ''Doctor in the House'' also has an eternal student like this.
* ''Last to Die'' by James Grippando features a millionaire who left his considerable fortune in trust with the stipulation that the last surviving member of a particular group of people would inherit the entire amount. He did it because he hated all of the prospective heirs and wanted them to fight one another for the money.
* The [[Isaac Asimov]] ''Black Widowers'' story "To the Barest". The founder of the Black Widowers, Ralph Ottur, dies and leaves a will requiring them to solve a pun riddle. They must determine which of them is the "barest", and that person gets $10,000. If they fail, the money will go to the American Nazi Party. You can [http://tinyurl.com/5td59o
** The kicker here is that Ralph Ottur ''hated'' the American Nazi Party. He picked them as the next-in-line heir to make sure the living Black Widowers put enough effort into solving the riddle.
* One [[Lord Peter Wimsey]] story turned on a will by which [[The Unfavorite]] son inherited until his father was buried, whereupon it would all pass to the other son. Friends of [[The Unfavorite]] stole the body to prevent burial, Lord Peter discovers the will in a book, family disputes erupt, and the final touch is Lord Peter's deducing that from the water stain in the book but not the will, that the other son had hidden the will so [[The Unfavorite]] would not find out about the condition in time.
Line 77:
* One of [[O. Henry]]'s stories featured a young man addicted to gambling who was granted his inheritance on the condition that he not gamble for a set period. On the last day of his abstinence, he learns that the inheritance will instead go to a pretty young female relative should he fail. Of course, his next action is to go into the lawyer's office and solemnly proclaim that he just finished betting on the horses and that he was yielding the inheritance.
* [[Discworld]]:
** In the novel ''[[Making Money]]'', Mrs. Lavish, the primary stakeholder of the Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork dies and leaves all her shares to her dog, Mr. Fusspot - and leaves the dog to Moist von Lipwig, with a retainer of ten thousand dollars a year "for being so kind as to look after her poor little doggie" - oh, and if the dog dies in any untoward way, a contract with the Guild of
** There's another advantage - the Assassin's Guild will ''not'' take a second contract out on someone, technically granting Moist some slight degree of safety. Also, no self-respecting Assassin would [[Even Evil Has Standards|even consider accepting a contract on a dog]], so Mr. Fusspot is safe on that end, too.
** ''[[Moving Pictures]]'' possibly{{verify}} as a reference to ''[[Doorways in The Sand]]'' (see above). Victor is left a large yearly sum on the condition that he enters the Unseen University to become a wizard and never scores under 80% on his exams, to ensure that he actually tries. However Victor very carefully scores above 80 but too low to pass, to avoid having to deal with the stress and danger of being a full wizard. The wizards eventually catch on (the time he passed and told the university he'd actually got a question wrong was a hint), and give him an exam with only one question: What is your name?
| |||