A Mixed Bag of Novels Part A: Soldiers of Misfortune & Valiant Dust

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A Mixed Bag of Novels Part A contains Soldiers of Misfortune and Valiant Dust, which could be considered as one long novel since Valiant Dust is a direct sequel. Soldiers of Misfortune is the story of a young man, Otho Bellême, the son of Sir Bellême and his cook, Mary. After the death of Sir Bellême Otho and his mother have to leave their home and move in with Mary's poor relations. Otho is able to attend Oxford because Joe Mummery, the heavy-weight boxing champion, who is an old boyfriend of of Mary, pays Otho's expenses. Otho is a shoo-in for the amateur (and eventually English, European, and World) boxing championship. Those goals goes awry when Otho tries to win the Oxford championship on "points" against his old boyhood friend, Jack Maykings, since he does not wish to embarrass his old friend and, more importantly, Jack's sister, Margaret. Through a tragic series of events, at the end of the book the star-crossed lovers, remain apart. Margaret marries a man she does not really love, and Otho joins the French Foreign Legion. In Valiant Dust Otho is in the Foreign Legion, and part of a company lead by an egomaniac, Major Napoleon Riccoli, who tries to carve out his own Empire in the Atlas Mountains of North Africa. Margaret and her husband Jules are visiting Jules's relatives in the same North Africa town. In a series of events where Otho, Margaret, Jules, Riccoli, and others all scheme for escape from, or control, of the Kaid's castle, Otho and Margaret are finally reunited at the end.