10,000 Dreams Interpreted
Cicero relates the story of two traveling Arcadians who went to different lodgings--one to an inn, and the other to a private house. During the night the latter dreamed that his friend was begging for help. The dreamer awoke; but, thinking the matter unworthy of notice, went to sleep again. The second time he dreamed his friend appeared, saying it would be too late, for he had already been murdered --by Gustavus Hindman Miller
1601
This work is several orders of magnitude more profane than typical Mark Twain fare. Consider yourself warned.
20 Years At Hull House
I suppose all the children who were born about the time of the Civil War have recollections quite unlike those of the children who are living now. Although I was but four and a half years old when Lincoln died, I distinctly remember the day when I found on our two white gateposts American flags companioned with black. --by Jane Addams
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Three seconds before the arrival of J. B. Hobson's letter I no more thought of pursuing the unicorn than of attempting the passage of the North Sea. Three seconds after reading the letter of the honourable Secretary of Marine, I felt that my true vocation, the sole end of my life, was to chase this disturbing monster and purge it from the world.
22 Goblins
Beware of Monks bearing gifts. Short fantastic tales from the subcontinent.
5000 Miles Under
Cheap rip-off of Journey to Center of the Earth. Hey, if you liked Wing Commander, you'll love this one. Or at least appreciate it. By Roy Rockwood.
A Beleaguered City
But I recovered my calm. What she said reached my understanding at last. "Submit!" I said, "but to what? To come and turn us from our homes, to wrap our town in darkness, to banish our wives and our children, to leave us here to be scorched by the sun and drenched by the rain, -- this is not to convince us, my Agnès. And to what then do you bid us submit ----?" -- OK, more a historical romance.
A Bid For Fortune, Or Dr. Nikola's Vendetta
To begin with, there is a man living in this world today who has done me a great and lasting injury. What that injury is is no concern of yours. You would not understand if I told you. So we'll leave that out of the question. He is immensely rich. His cheque for £300,000 would be honoured by his bank at any minute. Obviously he is a power. He has had reason to know that I am pitting my wits against his--first Dr. Nikola story.
A Blot In The 'Scutcheon
MERTOUN. Oh, Mildred, have I met your brother's face?/Compelled myself--if not to speak untruth,/Yet to disguise, to shun, to put aside/The truth, as--what had e'er prevailed on me/Save you to venture? Have I gained at last/Your brother, the one scarer of your dreams,
A Book of Remarkable Crimes
H.B. Irving compiled this anthology.
A Book of Scoundrels
Of all the heroes who have waged a private and undeclared war upon their neighbours, Louis-Dominique Cartouche was the most generously endowed. It was but his resolute contempt for politics, his unswerving love of plunder for its own sake, that prevented him from seizing a throne or questing after the empire of the world. -- By Charles Whibley
A Box of Dead Roses
"The wife heard enough to show her that the woman had thoughts for many things besides -- enough to tell her that those kisses were not the first by any means; that the man's life had been a long lie, except, perhaps, during the very early days of marriage. She liked to think that he was all hers then. A delusion also, possibly; but a harmless one. --by Ethel Mills
A Boy's Will
NOW close the windows and hush all the fields;/If the trees must, let them silently toss;/No bird is singing now, and if there is/Be it my loss./It will be long ere the marshes resume,
A Burlesque Autobiography
During all those long years he gave such satisfaction that he never was through with one contract a week till government gave him another. He was a perfect pet. And he was always a favorite with his fellow-artists, and was a conspicuous member of their benevolent secret society, called the Chain Gang. He always wore his hair short, had a preference for striped clothes, and died lamented by the government.
A Cathedral Courtship
Aunt Celia went up behind him, and, Van Tyck though she is, she could not restrain her admiration of
his work. I was surprised myself: I didn't suppose so good looking a youth could do such good work. I
retired to a safe distance, and they chatted together. He offered her the sketch; she refused to take
advantage of his kindness. He said he would "dash off" another that evening, and bring it to our
hotel
A Changed Man and Other Tales
They had pursued their rounds for many years without meeting with any incident of an unusual kind, but to-night, according to the assertions of several, there prevailed, to begin with, an exceptionally solemn and thoughtful mood among two or three of the oldest in the band, as if they were thinking they might be joined by the phantoms of dead friends who had been of their number in earlier years, and now were mute in the churchyard under flattening mounds
A Chapter in the Philosophy of Value
The fact of economic exchange confers upon the value of things something super-individual. It detaches them from dissolution in the mere subjectivity of the agents, and causes them to determine each other reciprocally, since each exerts its economic function in the other. The practically effective value is conferred upon the object, not merely by its own desirability, but by the desirability of another object.
A Chaste Maid in Cheapside
MOLL /You must dispatch with all the speed you can, /
For I shall be missed straight; I made hard shift /For this small time I have.
A Child in the Dark
The father opened the door of the next room softly, and
propped that open, too. There was another boy on the sofa, younger than the first, but healthy
and sturdy-looking. He had nothing on him but a very dirty shirt, a patchwork quilt was slipping
from under him, and most of it was on the floor; the boy and the pillow were nearly off, too.--by Henry Lawson
A Child's History of England
It is supposed that the Phoenicians, who were an ancient people, famous for carrying on trade, came in ships to these Islands, and found that they produced tin and lead; both very useful things, as you know, and both produced to this very hour upon the sea-coast. The most celebrated tin mines in Cornwall are, still, close to the sea. (OK, not fiction)
A Christmas Carol
Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name was good upon `Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to.
A Cleric in Naples
Dear reader, I said enough at the end of the last chapter to make you guess what happened, but no language would be powerful enough to make you realize all the voluptuousness which that charming being had in store for me. She came close to me the moment I was in bed. Without uttering one word our lips met, and I found myself in the ecstasy of enjoyment before I had had time to seek for it.
A Confession
My life came to a standstill. I could breathe, eat, drink, and sleep, and I could not help doing these things; but there was no life, for there were no wishes the fulfillment of which I could consider reasonable. If I desired anything, I knew in advance that whether I satisfied my desire or not, nothing would come of it. Had a fairy come and offered to fulfil my desires I should not have know what to ask.
A Conjurer's Confessions
In his haste, he had given me two volumes of the Encyclopædia instead of Berthoud. Fascinated, however, by the announcement of such marvels, I devoured the mysterious pages, and the further my reading advanced, the more I saw laid bare before me the secrets of an art for which I was unconsciously predestined. -- M. Robert-Houdin
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
MAINLY the Round Table talk was monologues -- narrative accounts of the adventures in which these prisoners were captured and their friends and backers killed and stripped of their steeds and armor. As a general thing -- as far as I could make out -- these murderous adventures were not forays undertaken to avenge injuries, nor to settle old disputes or sudden fallings out; no, as a rule they were simply duels between strangers
A Crowded Funeral
Hardly a phenomenal success. But I'd had this job where I listened to NPR for seven hours a day and had to pay attention to it -- coming back from that was rather hard, hard to write one chapter a day to get the thing done.
A Crystal Age
The colour of their dresses varied, but in most cases different shades of blue and subdued
yellow predominated. In all, the stockings showed deeper and richer shades of colour than the other
garments; and in their curiously segmented appearance, and in the harmonious arrangement of the
tints, they seemed to represent the skins of pythons and other beautifully variegated serpents.--by William Henry Hudson
A Cumberland Vendetta
Isom lay on his bed within the circle of light, and his face in the brilliant glow was white, and his eyes shone feverishly. " Rome," he said, excitedly, " Uncle Rufe's hyeh, 'n' they laywayed him, 'n'____" He paused abruptly. His mother came in, and at her call the mountaineers trooped through the covered porch, and sat down to supper in the kitchen.
A Damsel in Distress
The family of Lord Marshmoreton.
A Dark Night's Work
One of Gaskell's biggest fans -- a Japanese scholar -- has converted many of her works. But he uses double-secret HTML to prove he's the one done it.
A Daughter of Eve
The most amusing society, but also the most mixed, which Madame Felix de Vandenesse
frequented, was that of the Comtesse de Montcornet, a charming little woman, who received
illustrious artists, leading financial personages, distinguished writers; but only after subjecting
them to so rigid an examination that the most exclusive aristocrat had nothing to fear in coming
in contact with this second-class society.
A Discourse on Political Economy
If our politicians were less blinded by their ambition, they would see how impossible it is for any establishment whatever to act in the spirit of its institution, unless it is guided in accordance with the law of duty; they would feel that the greatest support of public authority lies in the hearts of the citizens, and that nothing can take the place of morality in the maintenance of government.--by Jean Jacques Rousseau
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Lucien had not guessed as yet that Mme. de Bargeton's love was grafted on pride. He made another mistake when he failed to discern the meaning of certain smiles which flitted over Louise's lips from time to time; and instead of keeping himself to himself, he indulged in the playfulness of the young rat emerging from his hole for the first time.
A Dog of Flanders
No one knew it. He as little as any. No one knew it. Only indeed Patrasche, who, being with him always, saw him draw with chalk upon the stones any and every thing that grew or breathed, heard him on his little bed of hay murmur all manner of timid, pathetic prayers to the spirit of the great Master; watched his gaze darken and his face radiate at the evening glow of sunset or the rosy rising of the dawn
A Dog's Tale
My father was a St. Bernard, my mother was a collie, but I am a Presbyterian. This is what my mother told me, I do not know these nice distinctions myself. To me they are only fine large words meaning nothing. My mother had a fondness for such; she liked to say them, and see other dogs look surprised and envious, as wondering how she got so much education.
A Doll's House
That is like a woman! But seriously, Nora, you know what I think about that. No debt, no borrowing. There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt. We two have kept bravely on the straight road so far, and we will go on the same way for the short time longer that there need be any struggle. --by Henrik Ibsen
A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass
Far and lofty yet they glimmer,/Apples of Hesperides!/Blinded by their radiant shimmer,/Pushing forward just for these;
Dew-besprinkled, bramble-marred,/Poor duped mortal, travel-scarred,/Always thinking soon to seize/
A Double-Barreled Detective Story
It thus transpired that the Extraordinary Man's nephew was the only person in the camp who had a killing-grudge against Flint Buckner.
A Drama on the Seashore
Astride upon my thought, like Astolphe on his hippogriff, I was galloping through worlds, suiting them
to my fancy. Presently, as I looked about me to find some omen for the bold productions my wild
imagination was urging me to undertake, a pretty cry, the cry of a woman issuing refreshed and joyous
from a bath, rose above the murmur of the rippling fringes as their flux and reflux
A Dream of John Ball and a King's Lesson
Then he sung out, "Hob Wright, Rafe Wood, John Pargetter, and thou Will Green, bestir ye and marshal the bowshot; and thou Nicholas Woodyer shall be under me Jack Straw in ordering of the staves. Gregory Tailor and John Clerk, fair and fine are ye clad in the arms of the Canterbury bailiffs; ye shall shine from afar
A Fair Quarrel
CAPTAIN AGER/
The son of a whore? /
There is not such another murdering-piece /In all the stock of calumny; it kills/ At one report two reputations, /A mother's and a son's. If it were possible /That souls could fight after the bodies fell,/
A Far-Away Melody and Other Stories
"Be still, woman!" returned her husband, jerking the reins from her hand. "What think ye 'twould profit us
to turn back to Salem village? I trow if there be one black beast here, there is a full herd of them there.
There is naught left but to ride past it as best we may. Sit fast, an' listen you not to it, whatever it promise
you."
A Few Figs from Thistles; Poems and Sonnets
What should I be but a prophet and a liar,/Whose mother was a leprechaun, whose father was a friar?/Teethed on a crucifix and cradled under water,/What should I be but the fiend's god-daughter?
A First Year in Canterbury Settlement
On having clambered over the ship's side and found myself on deck, I was somewhat taken aback with the apparently inextricable confusion of everything on board; the slush upon the decks, the crying, the kissing, the mustering of the passengers, the stowing away of baggage still left upon the decks, the rain and the gloomy sky created a kind of half- amusing, half-distressing bewilderment
A Florentine Tragedy--A Fragment (and other works)
SIMONE. My good wife, you come slowly; were it not better/To run to meet your lord? Here, take my cloak./Take this pack first. 'Tis heavy. I have sold nothing:/Save a furred robe unto the Cardinal's son,/Who hopes to wear it when his father dies,/And hopes that will be soon.
A Footnote to History
Apia, the port and mart, is the seat of the political sickness of Samoa. At the foot of a peaked, woody mountain, the coast makes a deep indent, roughly semicircular. In front the barrier reef is broken by the fresh water of the streams; if the swell be from the north, it enters almost without diminution; and the war-ships roll dizzily at their moorings, and along the fringing coral which follows the configuration of the beach, the surf breaks with a continuous uproar--by Robert Louis Stevenson
A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar
The first rulers of Vijayanagar, however, did not dare to call themselves kings, nor did even the Brahmans do so who composed the text of their early inscriptions. It is for this reason that I have spoken of Harihara I. and Bukka I. as "Chiefs." The inscription referred to of Harihara in 1340 calls him "Hariyappa VODEYA," the former name being less honourable than "Harihara," and the latter definitely entitling him to rank only as a chieftain.--by Robert Sewell
A Gentle Spirit
Haven't read it yet, was just intrigued to find Fyodor doing anything with "gentle" in the title.
A Gentleman of France
Weyman loved 16th Century France -- intrigue, swashbuckling, some said he was like Dumas, without all the tediuous little bits.
A Girl Of The Limberlost
"Along the old Limberlost trail, my girl, torn to pieces sobbing. Her courage always has been fine, but the thing she met to-day was too much for her. We ought to have known better than to let her go that way. It wasn't only clothes; there were books, and entrance fees for out-of- town people, that she didn't know about; while there must have been jeers, whispers, and laughing.
A Group of Noble Dames
It was apparently an idea, rather than a passion, that inspired Lord Uplandtowers' resolve to win her. Nobody ever knew when he formed it, or whence he got his assurance of success in the face of her manifest dislike of him. Possibly not until after that first important act of her life which I shall presently mention. His matured and cynical doggedness at the age of nineteen, when impulse mostly rules calculation, was remarkable
A Hazard of New Fortunes V1
"No, I know that," he said; and with this a perverse desire to tempt her to the impossibility awoke in him, though he was really quite cold about the affair himself now. "Fulkerson thought we could get a nice flat in New York for about what the interest and taxes came to here, and provisions are cheaper. But I should rather not experiment at my time of life.
A Hazard of New Fortunes V2
Arnus Beaton's studio looked at first glance like many other painters' studios. A gray wall quadrangularly vaulted to a large north light; casts of feet, hands, faces hung to nails about; prints, sketches in oil and water-color stuck here and there lower down; a rickety table, with paint and palettes and bottles of varnish and siccative tossed comfortlessly on it; an easel, with a strip of some faded mediaeval silk trailing from it; a lay figure simpering in incomplete nakedness
A Hazard of New Fortunes V3
It was clear to Beaton that Dryfoos distrusted him; and the fact heightened his pleasure in Christine's liking for him. He was as sure of this as he was of the other, though he was not so sure of any reason for his pleasure in it. She had her charm; the charm of wildness to which a certain wildness in himself responded; and there were times when his fancy contrived a common future for them
A Hazard of New Fortunes V4
First and last, the Marches did a good deal of travel on the Elevated roads, which, he said, gave you such glimpses of material aspects in the city as some violent invasion of others' lives might afford in human nature. Once, when the impulse of adventure was very strong in them, they went quite the length of the West Side lines, and saw the city pushing its way by irregular advances into the country.
A Hazard of New Fortunes V5
"Oh, you did, did you?" said the girl, scarcely less insolently than she had spoken to Mrs. Mandel. "I should like to know what you did it for? I'd like to know what made you think I wasn't able to take care of myself. I just knew somebody had been meddling, but I didn't suppose it was you. I can manage my own affairs in my own way, if you please, and I'll thank you after this to leave me to myself in what don't concern you."
A Hero of Our Time
Story of General Ermolov, by author M.Y. Lermontov.
A History of New York
Subtitled: from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dufrom the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty; in two volumes.
A Honeymoon in Space
Their host had just left the deck-saloon, taking the early coffee apparatus with him, and Miss Zaidie, in the
first flush of her pride and re-found happiness, was taking a promenade of about twelve strides each way,
while Mrs. Van Stuyler, after partially relieving her feelings as above, had seated herself stiffly in her
wicker-chair, and was following her with eyes which were critical-- by George Griffith
A Horse's Tale
I am Buffalo Bill's horse. I have spent my life under his saddle - with him in it, too, and he is good for two hundred pounds, without his clothes; and there is no telling how much he does weigh when he is out on the war-path and has his batteries belted on. He is over six feet, is young, hasn't an ounce of waste flesh, is straight, graceful, springy in his motions, quick as a cat, and has a handsome face
A House to Let
At one period of its reverses, the House fell into the occupation of a Showman. He was found registered as its occupier, on the parish books of the time when he rented the House, and there was therefore no need of any clue to his name. But, he himself was less easy to be found; for, he had led a wandering life, and settled people had lost sight of him--by Dickens and others.
A House-Boat on the Styx
What do you suppose would happen if Charon the Boatman got promoted... to Janitor? By John Kendrick Bangs
A Hunter's Sketches
Kind of amazing, when you think of how many short story collections Constance Garrett translated into English. Right place, right time.
A Journey From This World to the Next
We had not been long arrived in our inn, where it seems we were to spend the remainder of the
day, before our host acquainted us that it was customary for all spirits, in their passage
through that city, to pay their respects to that lady Disease, to whose assistance they had
owed their deliverance from the lower world. --by Henry Fielding
A Journey to the Center of the Earth
"The manuscript volume and the smaller document are written in different hands," he said, "the
cryptograph is of much later date than the book; there is an undoubted proof of the correctness of my
surmise. [An irrefragable proof I took it to be.] The first letter is a double M, which was only added to
the Icelandic language in the twelfth century
A Jury of Her Peers
"We call it -- knot it, Mr. Henderson."
By Susan Glaspell
A Kidnapped Santa Claus
The Caves of the Daemons are five in number. A broad pathway leads up to the first cave, which is a finely arched cavern at the foot of the mountain, the entrance being beautifully carved and decorated. In it resides the Daemon of Selfishness. Back of this is another cavern inhabited by the Daemon of Envy. The cave of the Daemon of Hatred is next in order, and through this one passes to the home of the Daemon of Malice
A Lady of Quality
After their mother's death a youth desolate and strange indeed lay before them. A spinster who was a poor
relation was the only person of respectable breeding who ever came near them. To save herself from genteel
starvation, she had offered herself for the place of governess to them, though she was fitted for the position
neither by education nor character.
A Lady's Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia
EFORE commencing an account of our operations at the Eagle Hawk, it will be necessary to
write a few words in description of our gold-digging party there; their Christian names will be
sufficient distinction, and will leave their incognito undisturbed.--by Ellen Clacy
A LAODICEAN: A STORY OF TO-DAY
She wore a summer hat, beneath which her fair curly hair formed a thicket round her forehead. It would be impossible to describe her as she then appeared. Not sensuous enough for an Aphrodite, and too subdued for a Hebe, she would yet, with the adjunct of doves or nectar, have stood sufficiently well for either of those personages, if presented in a pink morning light, and with mythological scarcity of attire.
A Legend of Montrose
Notwithstanding the proverbial epicurism of the English, --proverbial, that is to say, in Scotland at the
period,--the English visitors made no figure whatever at the entertainment, compared with the portentous
voracity of Captain Dalgetty, although that gallant soldier had already displayed much steadiness and
pertinacity in his attack upon the lighter refreshment set before them at their entrance, by way of forlorn hope.
A Letter Concerning Toleration
For whatsoever some people
boast of the antiquity of places and names, or of the pomp of their outward worship; others, of
the reformation of their discipline; all, of the orthodoxy of their faith -- for everyone is orthodox
to himself -- these things, and all others of this nature, are much rather marks of men striving
for power and empire over one another than of the Church of Christ.--by John Locke
A Little Princess
Not very long after this a very exciting thing happened. Not only Sara, but the entire school, found it exciting, and
made it the chief subject of conversation for weeks after it occurred. In one of his letters Captain Crewe told a
most interesting story. A friend who had been at school with him when he was a boy had unexpectedly come to see him in India. He was the owner of a large tract of land upon which diamonds had been found, and he was engaged in developing the mines.
A Man of Business
"It all goes to the shoemakers," she said. "I left a milliner because she failed twice with my hats. The vixen has been here twenty-seven times to ask for twenty francs. She did not know that we never have twenty francs. One has a thousand francs, or one sends to one's notary for five hundred; but twenty francs I have never had in my life. My cook and my maid may, perhaps, have so much between them; but for my own part, I have nothing but credit
A Man of Letters as a Man of Business
He can say that, as the thing is, unless he sells his art he cannot live, that society will leave him to starve if he does not hit its fancy in a picture, or a poem, or a statue; and all this is bitterly true. He is, and he must be, only too glad if there is a market for his wares.
A Message From the Sea
Here the captain sat down on the foot of the bed, and glancing at a dreadful libel on Kitty which ornamented the wall,--the production of some wandering limner, whom the captain secretly admired as having studied portraiture from the figure-heads of ships,--motioned to the young man to take the rush-chair on the other side of the small round table. That done, the captain put his hand in the deep breast-pocket of his long-skirted blue coat, and took out of it a strong square case-bottle
A Millionaire of Yesterday
Was he to fall without a struggle from amongst the high places, to be stripped
of his wealth, shunned as a man who was morally, if not in fact, a murderer, to be looked upon with
never-ending scorn by the woman whose picture for years had been a religion to him, and whose
appearance only a few hours ago had been the most inspiring thing which had entered into his life?
A Modest Proposal
I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavouring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the publick good of my country, by advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich. I have no children, by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past child-bearing.
A Monk of Fife
It is not of my own will, nor for my own glory, that I, Norman Leslie, sometime of Pitcullo, and in religion called
Brother Norman, of the Order of Benedictines, of Dunfermline, indite this book. But on my coming out of
France, in the year of our Lord One thousand four hundred and fifty-nine, it was laid on me by my Superior,
Richard, Abbot in Dunfermline, that I should abbreviate the Great Chronicle of Scotland
A MORTAL ANTIPATHY
Pray, do you remember, when there was an accession to the nursery in which you have a special interest, whether the new-comer was commonly spoken of as a baby? Was it not, on the contrary, invariably, under all conditions, in all companies, by the whole household, spoken of as the baby? And was the small receptacle provided for it commonly spoken of as a cradle; or was it not always called the cradle, as if there were no other in existence?
A Mountain Europa
WHEN the great bell struck the hour of the next noon, mountaineers with long rifles across their shoulders were moving through the camp. The glen opened into a valley, which, blocked on the east by Pine Mountain, was thus shut in on every side by wooded heights. Here the marksmen gathered. All were mountaineers, lank, bearded, men, coatless for the most part, and dressed in brown home-made jeans
A Night in Acadie
More characters out of Southern Louisiana by Mrs. Chopin, single mom of six.
A Pair of Blue Eyes
Bede's Inn has this peculiarity, that it faces, receives from, and discharges into a bustling thoroughfare
speaking only of wealth and respectability, whilst its postern abuts on as crowded and poverty-stricken a
network of alleys as are to be found anywhere in the metropolis. The moral consequences are, first, that
those who occupy chambers in the Inn may see a great deal of shirtless humanity's habits and
enjoyments
A Passion in the Desert
When the brave Provencal saw that his enemies were no longer watching him, he made use of his teeth to steal a scimiter, fixed the blade between his knees, and cut the cords which prevented him from using his hands; in a moment he was free. He at once seized a rifle and a dagger
A PLEA FOR CAPTAIN JOHN BROWN
He was one of that class of whom we hear a great deal, but, for the most part, see nothing at all- the Puritans. It would be in vain to kill him. He died lately in the time of Cromwell, but he reappeared here. Why should he not? Some of the Puritan stock are said to have come over and settled in New England. They were a class that did something else than celebrate their forefathers' day, and eat parched corn in remembrance of that time.
A Plea For Old Cap Collier
The basic reason, the underlying motive, lay in the fact that in the schoolbooks of our adolescence, and notably in the school readers, our young mentalities were fed forcibly on a pap which affronted our intelligence at the same time that it cloyed our adolescent palates. It was not altogether the lack of action; it was more the lack of plain common sense in the literary spoon victuals which they ladled into us at school that caused our youthful souls to revolt.
A Poor Wise Man
Woslosky began to doubt. The pigeons might have seen his flashlight, might have heard his own stealthy
movements. He was intensely irritated. The shooting, if the alarm had been false, had ruined everything. He
saw, as in a vision, Doyle's sneering face when he told him. Beside him Cusick was reloading his revolver in
the darkness.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo His father told him that story: his father looked at him through a glass: he had a hairy face.
A Prince of Bohemia
. Bohemianism, which by rights should be called the doctrine of the Boulevard des Italiens, finds its recruits among young men between twenty and thirty, all of them men of genius in their way, little known, it is true, as yet, but sure of recognition one day, and when that day comes, of great distinction. They are distinguished as it is at carnival time, when their exuberant wit, repressed for the rest of the year, finds a vent in more or less ingenious buffoonery.
A Princess of Mars
I am a very old man; how old I do not know. Possibly I am a hundred, possibly more; but I cannot tell because I have never aged as other men, nor do I remember any childhood. So far as I can recollect I have always been a man, a man of about thirty. I appear today as I did forty years and more ago, and yet I feel that I cannot go on living forever
A QUARTER OF EIGHT
THE morning newspapers carried accounts that were accurate only so far as they went - accounts of a singular shooting fray wherein a dead man had been the only witness. Lately, New York had been troubled by some sporadic quarrels that were reminiscent of the gangster era, except that they were disorganized affairs, and this looked like just another instance.
A Rock in the Baltic
"Stop, you scoundrel, or I fire!" he shouted, but the Lieutenant had already disappeared. Quick as thought the cashier darted into the passage, and without waiting to unfasten the low door which separated the public and private rooms of the bank, leaped over it, and, bareheaded, gave chase. A. British naval officer in uniform, rapidly overtaking a young woman, quite unconscious of his approach, followed by an excited, bareheaded man with a revolver in his grasp--by Robert Barr
A Rogue's Life
Regard for the lovers of the Old Masters, and for the moral well-being of society, forbids me to be particular about the nature of my labors, or to go into dangerous detail on the subject of my first failures and my subsequent success. I may, however, harmlessly admit that my Rembrandt was to be of the small or cabinet size, and that, as there was a run on Burgomasters just then, my subject was naturally to be of the Burgomaster sort.
A Room With A View
If you liked the movie, read the book.
A Second Home
The Rue du Tourniquet-Saint-Jean, formerly one of the darkest and most tortuous of the streets
about the Hotel de Ville, zigzagged round the little gardens of the Paris Prefecture, and ended at
the Rue Martroi, exactly at the angle of an old wall now pulled down. Here stood the turnstile to
which the street owed its name; it was not removed till 1823
A Selection From The Lyrical Poems Of Robert Herrick
I sing of May-poles, hock-carts, wassails, wakes,/Of bride-grooms, brides, and of their bridal-cakes./I write of Youth, of Love;--and have access/By these, to sing of cleanly wantonness;/I sing of dews, of rains, and, piece by piece,/Of balm, of oil, of spice, and ambergris./--by Robert Herrick
A Simple Soul
Like every other woman, she had had an affair of the heart. Her father, who was a mason, was killed by falling
from a scaffolding. Then her mother died and her sisters went their different ways; a farmer took her in, and
while she was quite small, let her keep cows in the fields. She was clad in miserable rags, beaten for the
slightest offence and finally dismissed for a theft of thirty sous which she did not commit.
A Simpleton
He then told Lady Cicely there were more
reasons than he chose to mention: go he must, and would; and he implored her not to let the affair drop. In short,
he was sad but resolved, and she found she must go on with it, or break faith with him. She took her desk, and
wrote a letter concluding the bargain for him. She stipulated for half the year's fee in advance. She read Dr.
Staines the letter. -- by Charles Reade
A Spirit in Prison
He said to himself that he was madly
in love. Never yet had he been worsted in an amour by any man. The blood surged to his head at the
mere thought of being conquered in the only battle of life worth fighting--the battle for a woman, and
by a man of more than twice his age, a man who ought long ago to have been married and have had
children as old as the Signorina Vere. --by Robert Hichens
A Start in Life
As Pierrotin issued from the Cafe de l'Echiquier, after treating the valet, he saw in the gate-way
of the Lion d'Argent the lady and the young man in whom his perspicacity at once detected
customers, for the lady with outstretched neck and anxious face was evidently looking for him.
A Straight Deal
Do not suppose because I am reminding you of these things and shall remind you of some more, that I am trying to make you hate France. I am only trying to persuade you to stop hating England. I wish to show you how much reason you have not to hate her, which your school histories pass lightly over, or pass wholly by.
A Strange Disappearance
Mr. Blake was standing in the centre of the room when I entered, carelessly following with his eyes the motion of Mr. Gryce's finger as that gentleman pointed with unwearying assiduity to the various little details that had struck us.
A Study in Scarlet
"By Jove!" I cried, "if he really wants someone to share the rooms and the expense, I am the very man for him. I
should prefer having a partner to being alone." Young Stamford looked rather strangely at me over his wine-glass. "You don't know Sherlock Holmes yet," he
said; "perhaps you would not care for him as a constant companion."
A Summer in a Canyon
In a glorious tree near by was a 'sky parlour,' arranged by a few boards nailed high up in the leafy
branches, and reached from below by a primitive ladder. This was the favourite sitting-room of the
girls by day, and served for Pancho's bedroom at night. It was beautiful enough to be fit shelter for all
the woodland nymphs, with its festoons of mistletoe and wild grape-vines
A Tale of A Tub
These men seem, though very erroneously, to have understood the appellation of critic in a literal sense; that one principal part of his office was to praise and acquit; and that a critic, who sets up to read only for an occasion of censure and reproof, is a creature as barbarous as a judge, who should take up a resolution to hang all men that came before him upon a trial.
A Tale of Three Lions
"Something over a fortnight had passed since the night when I lost half-a-sovereign and found twelve hundred
and fifty pounds in looking for it, and instead of that horrid hole, for which, after all, Eldorado was hardly a
misnomer, a very different scene stretched away before us clad in the silver robe of the moonlight.
A Tale of Two Cities
Best of Times, Worst of Times...
A Texas Ranger
The sun had declined almost to a saddle in the Cuesta del Burro when the sleeper reopened his eyes. Even before he had shaken himself free of sleep he was uneasily aware of something wrong. Hazily the sound of voices drifted to him across an immense space. Blurred figures crossed before his unfocused gaze.
A Thief in the Night
If I must tell more tales of Raffles, I can but back to our earliest days together, and fill in the blanks left by discretion in existing annals. In so doing I may indeed fill some small part of an infinitely greater blank, across which you may conceive me to have stretched my canvas for the first frank portrait of my friend.
A Tour on the Prairies
Nothing, however, could restrain the romantic ardor of the Count for a campaign of buffalo
hunting with the Osages, and he had a game spirit that seemed always stimulated by the idea of
danger. His travelling companion, of discreeter age and calmer temperament, was convinced of
the rashness of the enterprise; but he could not control the impetuous zeal of his youthful
friend--by Washington Irving
A Tramp Abroad
Much as the modern French duel is ridiculed by certain smart people, it is in reality one of the most dangerous institutions of our day. Since it is always fought in the open air, the combatants are nearly sure to catch cold. M. Paul de Cassagnac, the most inveterate of the French duelists, had suffered so often in this way that he is at last a confirmed invalid
A Traveller from Altruria
I confess that with all my curiosity to meet an Altrurian, I was in no hospitable mood towards the traveller when he
finally presented himself, pursuant to the letter of advice sent me by the friend who introduced him. It would be
easy enough to take care of him in the hotel; I had merely to engage a room for him, and have the clerk tell him
his money was not good if he tried to pay for anything.
A TREATISE CONCERNING THE PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE
1. Philosophy being nothing else but the study of wisdom and truth, it may with reason be expected that those who have spent most time and pains in it should enjoy a greater calm and serenity of mind, a greater clearness and evidence of knowledge, and be less disturbed with doubts and difficulties than other men. --by George Berkeley
A Trick to Catch the Old One
LUCRE /
My adversary evermore twits me with my nephew, forsooth, my nephew; why may not a virtuous uncle have a dissolute nephew? What though he be a brotheller, a wastethrift, a common surfeiter, and, to conclude, a beggar; must sin in him call up shame in me? Since we have no part in their follies, why should we have part in their infamies? For my strict hand toward his mortgage, that I deny not, I confess I had an uncle's pen'worth
A VANISHED ARCADIA: Being Some Account of the Jesuits in Paraguay
THE GOVERNOR, like a prudent soldier, was biding his time. The Bishop, not yet strong enough to walk alone, dared not break openly with the Jesuits. Don Pedro Cardenas still following up his evil courses, poor Don Gregorio Hinostrosa, accustomed all his life to deal with 'officers and gentlemen', thought fit to bring this under his uncle's notice.--by R. B. Cunninghame Graham
A Victim of Higher Space
The doctor made an internal note of the man's halting description; he was pleased that the slight evidence of intuition which had induced him to engage Barker had not entirely failed at the first trial. Dr. Silence sought for this qualification in all his assistants, from secretary to serving-man, and if it surrounded him with a somewhat singular crew, the drawbacks were more than compensated for on the whole by their occasional flashes of insight.
A Village Stradivarius
Lyddy Butterfield's hen turkey was of a roving disposition. She had never appreciated her luxurious
country quarters in Edgewood, and was seemingly anxious to return to the modest back yard in her
native city. At any rate, she was in the habit of straying far from home, and the habit was growing
upon her to such an extent that she would even lead her docile little gobblers down to visit Anthony
Croft's hens and share their corn
A Voyage to Abyssinia
17th Century Portuguese Jesuit sent to convert Abyssinia from the "wrong" kind of Christianity. -- Father Jeronimo Lobo
A Voyage to Arcturus
On a march evening, at eight o'clock, Backhouse, the medium - a fast - rising star in the psychic world - was ushered into the study at Prolands, the Hampstead residence of Montague Faull. The room was illuminated only by the light of a blazing fire. -- by David Lindsay
A Woman of No Importance
LADY HUNSTANTON. Politics are in a sad way everywhere, I am told. They certainly are in England. Dear Mr. Cardew is ruining the country. I wonder Mrs. Cardew allows him. I am sure, Lord Illingworth, you don't think that uneducated people should be allowed to have votes?
A Woman of Thirty
Hither, at the close of the year 1820, came a woman, still young, well known in Paris for her
charm, her fair face, and her wit; and to the immense astonishment of the little village a mile
away, this woman of high rank and corresponding fortune took up her abode at Saint-Lange.
A Yorkshire Tragedy
MAID /Sleep, sweet babe: sorrow makes thy mother sleep. /It bodes small good when [Heaven] falls so deep. /Hush, pretty boy, thy hopes might have been better; /'Tis lost at dice what ancient honours won, /Hard when the father plays away the son; /Nothing but misery serves in this house.
A. V. Laider
A Very Old Envelop: He? Well, that's good! Ha, ha, ha! Why didn't he come last week, when YOU came? What reason have you for supposing he'll ever come now? It isn't as if he were a frequenter of the place. He's never been here. His name is utterly unknown here. You don't suppose he's coming on the chance of finding YOU?
Abraham Lincoln and the Union
The history of the North had virtually become, by April, 1861, the history of Lincoln himself, and during the
remaining four years of the President's life it is difficult to separate his personality from the trend of national
history. Any attempt to understand the achievements and the omissions of the Northern people without
undertaking an intelligent estimate of their leader would be only to duplicate the story of "Hamlet" with Hamlet
left out.--by Nathaniel W. Stephenson
Across The Plains
THE Bay of Monterey has been compared by no less a person than General Sherman to a bent
fishing-hook; and the comparison, if less important than the march through Georgia, still shows
the eye of a soldier for topography.
Actions and Reactions
"Our planet's over-lighted if anything," says Captain Purnall at
the wheel, as Cardiff-Bristol slides under. "I remember the old
days of common white verticals that 'ud show two or three hundred
feet up in a mist, if you knew where to look for 'em. In really
fluffy weather they might as well have been under your hat.
Active Service
In a secluded cove, in which the sea-maids once had played, no doubt, Marjory and Coleman sat in silence. He was below her, and if he looked at her he had to turn his glance obliquely upward. She was staring at the sea with woman's mystic gaze, a gaze which men at once... by Stephen Crane
Adam Bede
The exciting influence of the previous day, heightened at last by Dinah's unexpected presence, had not been counteracted by any bodily weariness, for he had not done his ordinary amount of hard work; and so when he went to bed; it was not till he had tired himself with hours of tossing wakefulness that drowsiness came,
Adieu
The village of Studzianka had been wholly taken to pieces and
conveyed from the heights on which it stood to the plain. However forlorn and dangerous that refuge
might be, its miseries and its perils only courted men who had lately seen nothing before them but the
awful deserts of Russia. It was, in fact, a vast asylum which had an existence of twenty-four hours
only.
Adventure
The bell had hardly rung, sending the labourers into the fields, when Sheldon had a visitor. He had had the couch taken out on the veranda, and he was lying on it when the canoes paddled in and hauled out on the beach. Forty men, armed with spears, bows and arrows, and war-clubs, gathered outside the gate of the compound, but only one entered.
Adventures of a Colonist; or Godfrey Arabin the Settler
In his humble sleeping-room Arabin lived in a fictitious world; from the occasional neglect of his
studies, he was regarded by his teachers as a boy of slender abilities; nay, he often feigned bad
health to escape the irksome restraints of a public school. At certain periods, however, the
meanness of such conduct would break upon his mind-- by Thomas McCombie
Adventures of Buffalo Bill from Boyhood to Manhood
He had discovered two things, however, and that was that Little Grey seemed more than a match for any of the herd with one exception, and that one was a large, gaunt-bodied black stallion, that appeared to drop him behind without much effort. --by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham
After London
When the ancients departed, great numbers of their cattle perished. It was not so much the want of food as the inability to endure exposure that caused their death; a few winters are related to have so reduced them that they died by hundreds, many mangled by dogs. The hardiest that remained became perfectly wild, and the wood cattle are now more difficult to approach than deer. -- by Richard Jeffries
Agnes Gray
AS WE drove along, my spirits revived again, and I turned, with pleasure, to the contemplation of the new
life upon which I was entering; but, though it was not far past the middle of September, the heavy clouds,
and strong north-easterly wind combined to render the day extremely cold and dreary, and the journey
seemed a very long one, for, as Smith observed, the roads were "very heavy;"--by Anne Bronte
Albert Savarus
What an ideal being was this
Albert--gloomy, unhappy, eloquent, laborious, as compared by Mademoiselle de Watteville to that
chubby fat Count, bursting with health, paying compliments, and talking of the fashions in the very
face of the splendor of the old counts of Rupt.
Alexander's Bridge
Late one brilliant April afternoon Professor Lucius Wilson stood at the head of Chestnut Street, looking about
him with the pleased air of a man of taste who does not very often get to Boston. He had lived there as a
student, but for twenty years and more, since he had been Professor of Philosophy in a Western university, he
had seldom come East except to take a steamer for some foreign port.
Alexandria and her Schools
In the year 331 B.C. one of the greatest intellects whose influence the world has ever felt, saw, with his eagle glance, the unrivalled advantage of the spot which is now Alexandria; and conceived the mighty project of making it the point of union of two, or rather of three worlds. In a new city, named after himself, Europe, Asia, and Africa were to meet and to hold communion. --by Charles Kingsley
Ali Pacha, The Countess of Saint Geran, Murat
A career of successful crime had established Ali's rule over a population equal to that of the two kingdoms of Sweden and
Norway. But his ambition was not yet satisfied. The occupation of Parga did not crown his desires, and the delight which it
caused him was much tempered by the escape of the Parganiotes, who found in exile a safe refuge from his persecution.
ALIBI TRAIL
Purnell gave his visitor a slightly tilted glance, but offered no criticism of his story. In fact, The Shadow had simply repeated what he told the police, when they found him back at the cab as Cranston. He'd remembered grabbing a thug with a gun and shoving him aside, but he wasn't sure whether the assailant had been the man who fell into the gully.
ALIBI TRAIL (2)
In their departure, the odd man moved ahead to the hallway door, while looking straight toward the inner room from which Harry and Jerry watched. At the door, the gunner paused to listen; then drew the door ajar. He let the trunk carriers pass him; then stepped to the lamp, pulled its cord, and wheeled to the door to follow. By then, the other pair had reached the stairs with the trunk, which meant that the man with the gun would be able to cover their trip from above.
Alice Adams
The device of the absentee partner has the defect that it cannot be employed for longer than ten or fifteen minutes at a time, and it may not be repeated more than twice in one evening: a single repetition, indeed, is weak, and may prove a betrayal. Alice knew that her present performance could be effective during only this interval between dances
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
`Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English); `now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!' (for when she looked down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they were getting so far off). `Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears?
Alice's Adventures Underground
Early (shorter) version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
All For Love
CLEOPATRA./I am no queen:/Is this to be a queen, to be besieged
By yon insulting Roman, and to wait/Each hour the victor's chain? These ills are small:/For Antony is lost, and I can mourn/For nothing else but him. Now come, ctavius,/I have no more to lose! prepare thy bands;
All Roads Lead to Calvary
"All roads lead to Calvary." It was curious how the words had dwelt with her, till gradually they had become a part of her creed. She remembered how at first they had seemed to her a threat chilling her with fear. They had grown to be a promise, a hope held out to all. The road to Calvary! It was the road to life. By the giving up of self we gained God.
Allan Quatermain
The Lad himself.
Allan's Wife
For a moment I literally staggered beneath the terror of the shock. Then I roused myself from my despair. I
bade the native run and alarm the people at the kraals, telling them to come armed, and bring me guns and
ammunition. He went like the wind, and I turned to follow the spoor. For a few yards it was plain
enough--Stella had been dragged along.
Almayer's Folly
At last the excitement had died out in Sambir. The inhabitants got used to the sight of comings and goings
between Almayer's house and the vessel, now moored to the opposite bank, and speculation as to the
feverish activity displayed by Almayer's boatmen in repairing old canoes ceased to interfere with the due
discharge of domestic duties by the women of the Settlement.
Alonzo Fitz and Other Stories
Alonzo opened his lips to say, "You ought to print that, and get it framed," but checked himself, for he heard his aunt speaking to some one else. He went and stood at the window and looked out upon the wintry prospect. The storm was driving the snow before it more furiously than ever; window-shutters were slamming and banging; a forlorn dog, with bowed head and tail withdrawn from service
Ambassador Morgenthau's Story
It was some time before the story of the Armenian atrocities reached the American Embassy in all its horrible details. In January and February fragmentary reports began to filter in, but the tendency was at first to regard them as mere manifestations of the disorders that had prevailed in the Armenian provinces for many years. When the reports came from Urumia, both Enver and Talaat dismissed them as wild exaggerations--by Henry Morgenthau
America Through the Spectacles of an Oriental Diplomat
America has performed great service for the Orient and especially for China. If, however, the people of the latter country were asked to express their candid opinion on the matter, the verdict would not be altogether pleasant, but would be given with mixed feelings of gratitude and
regret. -- written by Wu Tingfang some 80 years ago.
American Fairy Tales
She turned the next leaf, and saw a big picture of a clown, dressed in green and red and yellow, and having a very white face with three-cornered spots of red on each cheek and over the eyes. While she looked at this the book trembled in her hands, the leaf crackled and creaked and suddenly the clown jumped out of it and stood upon the floor beside her, becoming instantly as big as any ordinary clown.
American Notes
This place is the first American city I have encountered. It holds rather more than a million of people with bodies, and stands on the same sort of soil as Calcutta. Having seen it, I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages. Its water is the water of the Hooghly, and its air is dirt. Also it says that it is the "boss" town of America.
Amleth, Prince of Denmark
His discolored face and visage
smutched with slime denoted foolish and grotesque madness. All he said was of a piece with these
follies; all he did savored of utter lethargy. In a word, you would not have thought him a man at all,
but some absurd abortion due to a mad fit of destiny. -- by Saxo Grammaticus
Amoretti and Epithalamion
MY hungry eyes through greedy couetize,/still to behold the obiect of their paine:/with no contentment can themselues suffize,/but hauing pine and hauing not complaine.-- by Spenser
Amours de Voyage
Yes, we are fighting at last, it/appears. This morning as usual,/Murray, as usual, in hand, I enter the Caffe Nuovo;/Seating myself with a sense as it were of a change in the weather,/Not understanding, however, but thinking mostly of Murray,/And, for to-day is their day, of the Campidoglio Marbles;/Caffe-latte! I call to the waiter,--and Non c'e latte,/--by Arthur Clough
Amphitryon
SOS. What the deuce of a fellow is this? My heart thrills with clutching fear. But why should I tremble thus? Perhaps the rogue is as much afraid as I am, and talks in this way to hide his fear from me under a feigned audacity. Yes, yes, I will not allow him to think me a goose. If I am not bold, I will try to appear so. Let me seek courage by reason; he is alone, even as I am
An Account of Egypt
. Then as she was doing that which was enjoined by her father, the thief, hearing for what purpose this was done and having a desire to get the better of the king in resource, did thus:--from the body of one lately dead he cut off the arm at the shoulder and went with it under his mantle: and having gone in to the daughter of the king, and being asked that which the others also were asked, he related that he had done the most unholy deed when he cut off the head of his brother--by Herodotus
An account of some strange disturbances in Aungier Street
It is not worth telling, this story of mine--at least, not worth writing. Told, indeed, as I have sometimes been called upon to tell it, to a circle of intelligent and eager faces, lighted up by a good after-dinner fire on a winter's evening, with a cold wind rising and wailing outside, and all snug and cosy within, it has gone off--though I say it, who should not--indifferent well.
An Episode Under the Terror
"Nothing, nothing, my friends," she answered, in a gentle voice. She looked up at the man as she spoke, as if to thank him by a glance; but she saw the red cap on his head, and a cry broke from her. "Ah! YOU have betrayed me!"
An Essay on Comedy
When she has frolicked through her five Acts to surprise you with the information that Mr. Aimwell
is converted by a sudden death in the world outside the scenes into Lord Aimwell, and can marry
the lady in the light of day, it is to the credit of her vivacious nature that she does not anticipate
your calling her Farce.
An Historical Mystery
Also known as the Gondreville Mystery. By Honore de Balzac.
An Historical Mystery
The bailiff took his wife round the waist and drew her to him, saying in a voice of deep feeling: "If we never see each other again remember, my poor wife, that I loved you well. Follow minutely the instructions which you will find in a letter buried at the foot of the larch in that copse. It is enclosed in a tin tube. Do not touch it until after my death.
An Ideal Husband
MABEL CHILTERN. How can you say such a thing? Why, he rides in the Row at ten o'clock in the morning, goes to the Opera three times a week, changes his clothes at least five times a day, and dines out every night of the season. You don't call that leading an idle life, do you?
An Inland Voyage
THE rain took off near Laeken. But the sun was already down; the air was chill; and we had
scarcely a dry stitch between the pair of us. Nay, now we found ourselves near the end of the
Allee Verte, and on the very threshold of Brussels, we were confronted by a serious difficulty.
The shores were closely lined by canal boats
An Inquiry Into The Nature And Causes Of The Wealth Of Nations
THE annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniences of life which it annually consumes, and which consist always either in the immediate produce of that labour, or in what is purchased with that produce from other nations. -- By Adam Smith
An International Episode
the trees along the curbstone emitted strange exotic odors. The young men wandered through the adjoining square--that queer place without palings, and with marble walks arranged in black and white lozenges. There were a great many benches, crowded with shabby-looking people, and the travelers remarked, very justly, that it was not much like Belgrave Square. On one side was an enormous hotel, lifting up into the hot darkness an immense array of open, brightly lighted windows.
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and Other Stories
A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below.
The man's hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord. A rope closely encircled his neck. It
was attached to a stout cross-timber above his head and the slack feel to the level of his knees. Some loose
boards laid upon the ties supporting the rails of the railway supplied a footing for him and his executioners
An Old Maid
In nearly all the second-class prefectures of France there exists one salon which is the meeting-ground of those considerable and well- considered persons of the community who are, nevertheless, NOT the cream of the best society. The master and mistress of such an establishment are counted among the leading persons of the town; they are received wherever it may please them to visit
An Old-Fashioned Girl
POLLY soon found that she was in a new world, a world where the manners and customs were so different
from the simple ways at home, that she felt like a stranger in a strange land, and often wished that she had
not come. In the first place, she had nothing to do but lounge and gossip, read novels, parade the streets, and
dress;
An Open-Eyed Conspiracy
The girl had never known a mother's care, and it was affecting to see how willing she was to be
mothered by the chance kindness of a stranger. She probably felt more and more her ignorance of the
world as it unfolded itself to her in terms so altogether strange to the life of De Witt Point. I was not
sure that she would have been so grateful for the efforts made for her enjoyment if they had failed, but
as the case stood she was certainly grateful
An Outback Marriage
They drove through a rickety wire-and-sapling gate and across about a mile of bush, and
suddenly came on a little slab house nestling under the side of a hill. At the back were the
stockyards and the killing-pen, where a contrivance for raising dead cattle -- called a gallows --
waved its arms to the sky. In front of the house there was rather a nice little garden. --by Andrew Barton Paterson
An Unsocial Socialist
"Never mind to-morrow, Hetty. Be like the sun and the meadow, which are not in the least concerned about the coming winter. Why do you stare at that cursed canal, blindly dragging its load of filth from place to place until it pitches it into the sea--just as a crowded street pitches its load into the cemetery? Stare at ME, and give me a kiss." --by George Bernard Shaw
Ancient Law
It will be inferred from what has been said that the theory which transformed the Roman jurisprudence
had no claim to philosophical precision. It involved, in fact, one of those "mixed modes of thought" which
are now acknowledged to have characterised all but the highest minds during the infancy of
speculation, and which are far from undiscoverable even in the mental efforts of our own day. -- by Henry Sumner Maine
And Even Now
But how few, after all, the books that are books! Charles Lamb let his kind heart master him when he made that too brief list of books that aren't. Book is an honourable title, not to be conferred lightly. A volume is not necessarily, as Lamb would have had us think, a book because it can be read without difficulty.
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Many years ago, there was an Emperor, who was so excessively fond of new clothes, that he spent all his money in dress. He did not trouble himself in the least about his soldiers; nor did he care to go either to the theatre or the chase, except for the opportunities then afforded him for displaying his new clothes. He had a different suit for each hour of the day -- by Hans Christian Andersen
Andersonville
Subtitled: A STORY OF REBEL MILITARY PRISONS--FIFTEEN MONTHS A GUEST OF THE SO-CALLED--SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY--A PRIVATE SOLDIERS EXPERIENCE IN RICHMOND, ANDERSONVILLE, SAVANNAH, MILLEN, BLACKSHEAR AND FLORENCE--by John McElroy
Anna Karenina
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Anne of Avonlea
A Wedding at the Stone House, among other events in this sequel.
Anne of Green Gables
Instead of sending him and Marilla a boy, Mrs Spencer had sent them a girl.
Anne of the Island
Charlie Sloane, Gilbert Blythe and Anne Shirley left Avonlea the following Monday morning. Anne had hoped for
a fine day. Diana was to drive her to the station and they wanted this, their last drive together for some time, to
be a pleasant one. But when Anne went to bed Sunday night the east wind was moaning around Green
Gables with an ominous prophecy which was fulfilled in the morning.
Anne's House of Dreams
She recalled the first morning she had wakened in that little porch room, when the sunshine had crept in on
her through the blossom-drift of the old Snow Queen. That had not been a happy wakening, for it brought with
it the bitter disappointment of the preceding night. But since then the little room had been endeared and
consecrated by years of happy childhood dreams and maiden visions. --by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Another Study of Woman
Mademoiselle des Touches always insists on her guests remaining at table till they leave, having
frequently remarked the change which a move produces in the spirit of a party. Between the
dining-room and the drawing-room the charm is destroyed.
Anthem
It is a sin to write this. It is a sin
to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see. It is base and evil. It is as if we were speaking alone to no ears but our own.
And we know well that there is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone. --by Ayn Rand
Antigone
Soon shall we know, better than seer can tell./Learning may fixed decree anent thy bride,/Thou mean'st not, son, to rave against thy sire?/Know'st not whate'er we do is done in love?
Antonina, Or the Fall of Rome
THE perusal of the title to this chapter will, we fear, excite emotions of apprehension, rather than of curiosity, in the breasts of experienced readers. They will doubtless imagine that it is portentous of long rhapsodies on those wonders of antiquity, the description of which has long since become absolutely nauseous to them by incessant iteration. They will foresee wailings over the Palace of the Caesars
Antony and Cleopatra
Most worthy sir, you therein throw away
The absolute soldiership you have by land;
Distract your army, which doth most consist
Of war-mark'd footmen; leave unexecuted
Your own renowned knowledge;
Anything for a Quiet Life
KNAVESBEE /I had last night one of the strangest dreams;/Methought I was thy confessor, thou mine, /And we reveal'd between us privately /How often we had wrong'd each other's bed /Since we were married.
Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches
When a wizard, a worshipper of Diana, one who worships the Moon, desires the love of a woman,
he can change her into the form of a dog, when she, forgetting who she is, and all things besides,
will at once come to his house, and there, when by him, take on again her natural form and
remain with him. -- by Charles G. Leland
Arizona Nights
When we came to turn in, Anderson suggested that he should sleep aboard the boat. But Billy Simpson, in mind perhaps of the hundred ounces in the compass-box, insisted that he'd just as soon as not. After a little objection Handy Solomon gave in, but I thought he seemed sour about it. We built a good fire, and in about ten seconds were asleep.
Armadale
Excuse me for noticing it," added Allan, as the man, in sheer nervous helplessness, let his hat fall, instead of putting it back on his head; "but you seem a little out of sorts; a glass of good wine will do you no harm before you and my friend come to business. Whereabouts did you meet with Mr. Bashwood, Midwinter, when you lost your way?"
Around the World in 80 Days
an enigmatical personage, about whom little was known, except that he was a
polished man of the world. People said that he resembled Byron--at least that his head was Byronic; but he
was a bearded, tranquil Byron, who might live on a thousand years without growing old.
As We Go
In social life it is infinitely worse. You, an electric unmarried man, enter a room full of attractive women. How are you to know who is positive and who is negative, or who is a maiden lady in equilibrium, if it be true, as scientists affirm, that the genus old maid is one in whom the positive currents neutralize the negative currents? Your affinity is perhaps the plainest woman in the room. But beauty is a juggling sprite
Astoria; Or, Anecdotes Of An Enterprise Beyond The Rocky Mountains
THE success of the Northwest Company stimulated further enterprise in this opening and apparently boundless field of profit. The traffic of that company lay principally in the high northern latitudes, while there were immense regions to the south and west, known to abound with valuable peltries; but which, as yet, had been but little explored by the fur trader. --by Washington Irving
Astrophel and Stella
Ouing in trueth, and fayne in verse my loue to show,/That she, deare Shee, might take som pleasure of my paine,/
Pleasure might cause her reade, reading might make her know, -- by Sir Philip Sidney
At Suvla Bay
He lay flat under a huge rock. I left the stretcher-squads, and, crawling behind a bush, looked through the glasses. It certainly was a Turk, and his position was one of hiding. He kept perfectly motionless on his stomach and his rifle lay by his side. --by John Hargrave
At the Earth's Core
I WAS BORN IN CONNECTICUT ABOUT THIRTY YEARS ago. My name is David Innes. My father was a wealthy mine owner. When I was nineteen he died. All his property was to be mine when I had attained my majority--provided that I had devoted the two years intervening in close application to the great business I was to inherit.
At the Foot of the Rainbow
He shoved the bucket toward the barkeeper, and emptied his pocket on the bar. "There, Casey, you be the Sovereign Alchemist, and transmute that metal into Melwood pretty quick, for I've not wet me whistle in three days, and the belly of me is filled with burnin' autumn leaves. Gimme a loving cup, and come on boys, this is on me while it lasts."
At the Sign of the Cat and Racket
The old merchant was to be seen standing on the threshold of his shop, as if by a miracle, the
instant the servant withdrew. Monsieur Guillaume looked at the Rue Saint-Denis, at the neighboring
shops, and at the weather, like a man disembarking at Havre, and seeing France once more after a
long voyage.
ATOMS OF DEATH
To The Shadow, looking upward, the speaker's face was a blur, in which the spectacles appeared as a pair of owlish eyes. Above the face was a mass of whiteness; as The Shadow stared more steadily, he made out the old man's features, topped by a mass of shocky white hair.
Aurora Leigh
THEY met still sooner. 'Twas a year from thence/When Lucy Gresham, the sick semptress girl,/Who sewed by Marian's chair so still and quick,/And leant her head upon the back to cough/More freely when, the mistress turning round,/The others took occasion to laugh out,
Australia Felix
The big canvas tent on Bakery Hill, where the meeting was to be held, was already lighted; and at
the tinkle of a bell the diggers, who till then had stood cracking and hobnobbing outside, began to
push for the entrance. The bulk of them belonged to the race that is quickest to resent
injustice -- were Irish. After them in number came the Germans, swaggering and voluble
Australian Tales and Sketches
The first impression of Grumbler's Gully is, I confess, not a cheering one. I think it was Mr. Caxton who replied when asked what he though of his new-born infant, "it is very red, ma'am." The same remark would apply to Grumbler's Gully. It is very red. Long before you get to it you are covered with dust that looks and feels like finely-powdered bricks. --by Marcus Clarke
AVESTA: Vendidad
Ahura Mazda spake unto Spitama Zarathushtra, saying: I have
made every land dear (to its people), even though it had no charms
whatever in it: had I not made every land dear (to its people),
even though it had no charms whatever in it, then the whole living
world would have invaded the Airyana Vaeja.--Translated by James Darmesteter
Avesta: Visperad
And in this Zaothra with this Baresman I desire to approach the man who recites the ritual
rites with my praise, who is maintaining thus the thought well thought, and the word well
spoken, and the deed well done, and Piety the bountiful, even him who maintains the Mathra
of the Saoshyant, by whose actions the settlements are advanced in the righteous order.--Translated by L. H. Mills
Awakening and To Let
Emerging from the "pastry-cook's," Soames' first impulse was to vent his nerves by saying to his daughter:
'Dropping your hand-kerchief!' to which her reply might well be: 'I picked that up from you!' His second impulse
therefore was to let sleeping dogs lie. But she would surely question him. -- volume III in the Forsyte series.
Ayala's Angel
It was suggested to Lucy before she had been long in Kingsbury Crescent that she should take some exercise. For the first week she had hardly been out of the house; but this was attributed to her sorrow. Then she had accompanied her aunt for a few days during the half-hour's marketing which took place every morning, but in this there had been no sympathy. Lucy would not interest herself in the shoulder of mutton which must be of just such a weight as to last conveniently for two days
Bab: A Sub-Deb
Yes, I was driven to thoughts of murder. It shows how the first false step leads down and down, to crime and
even to death. Oh never, never, gentle reader, take that first False Step. Who knows to what it may lead! -- By Mary Roberts Rinehart, who has at least 10 other novels on this site.
Babbitt
THE towers of Zenith aspired above the morning mist; austere towers of steel and cement and limestone, sturdy as cliffs and delicate as silver rods. They were neither citadels nor churches, but frankly and beautifully office-buildings.
Backlog Studies
I would as soon have an Englishman without side-whiskers as a fire without a big backlog; and I would rather have no fire than one that required no tending,--one of dead wood that could not sing again the imprisoned songs of the forest, or give out in brilliant scintillations the sunshine it absorbed in its growth. Flame is an ethereal sprite, and the spice of danger in it gives zest to the care of the hearth-fire.
Baddeck and That Sort of Thing
Give us the quiet of a city on the night before a journey. As we mounted skyward in our hotel, and went to bed in a serene altitude, we congratulated ourselves upon a reposeful night. It began well. But as we sank into the first doze, we were startled by a sudden crash. Was it an earthquake, or another fire? Were the neighboring buildings all tumbling in upon us, or had a bomb fallen into the neighboring crockery-store?
Baile And Aillinn
I HARDLY hear the curlew cry,/Nor the grey rush when the wind is high,/Before my thoughts begin to run/On the heir of Uladh, Buan's son,/Baile, who had the honey mouth;/And that mild woman of the south,/Aillinn, who was King Lugaidh's heir.
Ballads of Peace in War
Ye who heed a nation's call/And speed to arms therefor,/Ye who fear your children's march/To perils of the war,--/Soldiers of the deck and camp/And mothers of our men,/Hearken to a tale of France/And tell it oft again.--by Michael Earls
Barchester Towers
The stepping-off point for Trollope begins here.
Bardelys the Magnificent
Being an Account of the Strange Wooing pursued by the Sieur Marcel de Saint-Pol; Marquis of Bardelys, and of the things that in the course of it befell him in Languedoc, in the year of the Rebellion.
Barlaam and Ioasaph
There was at that time a certain monk, learned in heavenly things, graced in word and deed, a model follower
of every monastic rule. Whence he sprang, and what his race, I cannot say, but he dwelt in a waste howling
wilderness in the land of Senaar, and had been perfected through the grace of the priesthood. Barlaam was
this elder's name. --by St. John Damascene
Barnaby Rudge
As soon as the business of the day was over, the locksmith sallied forth, alone, to visit the wounded gentleman and ascertain the progress of his recovery. The house where he had left him was in a by-street in Southwark, not far from London Bridge; and thither he hied with all speed, bent upon returning with as little delay as might be, and getting to bed betimes
Baron Trigault's Vengeance
Sequel to "The Count's Millions
Bartholomew Fair
Why? would my Booth have broake, if they had fal'ne out in it? Sir? or would their heate have fir'd it? in, you Rogue, and wipe the pigges, and mend the fire, that they fall not, or I will both baste and roast you, till your eyes drop out, like them. (Leaue the bottle behinde you, and be curst a while.)
Bartleby the Scrivener
At the period just preceding the advent of Bartleby, I had two persons as copyists in my employment, and a promising lad as an
office-boy. First, Turkey; second, Nippers; third, Ginger Nut. These may seem names, the like of which are not usually found in the
Directory. In truth they were nicknames, mutually conferred upon each other by my three clerks, and were deemed expressive of
their respective persons or characters.
Bayou Folk
Short fiction by much-more-than-local-color-writer Kate Chopin. Includes Ma'ame Pélagie, a character who shows up again later...
Beasts and Super-Beasts
Wide variation of short-stories here, including seven featuring Clovis.
Beasts, Men and Gods
The inhabitants of Urianhai, the Soyots, are proud of being the genuine Buddhists and of
retaining the pure doctrine of holy Rama and the deep wisdom of Sakkia-Mouni. They are the
eternal enemies of war and of the shedding of blood. Away back in the thirteenth century they
preferred to move out from their native land and take refuge in the north rather than fight -- by Ferdinand Ossendowski
Beatrice
A mile or more away from where Beatrice stood and saw visions, and further up the coast-line, a second group of rocks, known from their colour as the Red Rocks, or sometimes, for another reason, as the Bell Rocks, juts out between half and three-quarters of a mile into the waters of the Welsh Bay that lies behind Rumball Point.
Beatrix
The Comtesse de
Montcornet told him of a young lady in the department of the Orne, a Mademoiselle
Beatrix-Maximilienne-Rose de Casteran, the youngest daughter of the Marquis de Casteran, who
wished to marry his two daughters without dowries in order to reserve his whole fortune for the
Comte de Casteran, his son.
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare
Now, in Athens, where they lived, there was a wicked law, by which any girl who refused to marry
according to her father's wishes, might be put to death. Hermia's father was so angry with her
for refusing to do as he wished, that he actually brought her before the Duke of Athens to ask
that she might be killed, if she still refused to obey him.
Before Adam
The first morning, after my night's sleep with Lop-Ear, I learned the advantage of the narrow-mouthed caves. It was just daylight when old Saber-Tooth, the tiger, walked into the open space. Two of the Folk were already up. They made a rush for it. Whether they were panic-stricken, or whether he was too close on their heels for them to attempt to scramble up the bluff to the crevices, I do not know
Behind a Mask: Or, A Woman's Power
More from Louisa May Alcott. Hey, she might need a category.
Being a Boy
One of the best things in the world to be is a boy; it requires no experience, though it needs some practice to be a good one. The disadvantage of the position is that it does not last long enough; it is soon over; just as you get used to being a boy, you have to be something else, with a good deal more work to do and not half so much fun.
BELLS OF DOOM
But did Claverly intend to forego the signal? Something in the man's easy manner had impressed The Shadow. Those keen eyes that stared from the visage of Lamont Cranston were unflinching in their steady survey. The Shadow could observe something that others did not notice - a tenseness that Claverly showed in spite of his apparent ease.
Below And On Top and other stories
ABOUT ten years ago, not a day's tramp from Ballarat, set well back from a dusty track that started nowhere in particular and had no destination worth mentioning, stood the Shamrock Hotel. It was a low, rambling, disjointed structure, and bore strong evidence of having been designed by an amateur artist in a moment of vinous frenzy. --by Edward Dyson
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
"Thank thou thy God," he said to Ben-Hur, after a look at the galleys, "thank thou
thy God, as I do my many gods. A pirate would sink, not save, yon ship. By the act
and the helmet on the mast I know a Roman. The victory is mine. Fortune hath not
deserted me. We are saved. --by Lew Wallace
Benita
In this dilemma it occurred to me that the only thing I could do was to turn my shooting to practical account, and become a hunter of big game. Therefore I propose to kill elephants until an elephant kills me. At least," he added in a changed voice, "I did so propose until half an hour ago."
Benito Cereno and Billy Budd, Sailor
Famous Melville Stories, one, a decrepit ship's captain who lost this crew; the other, considered by some to be Melville's finest sailing novel.
Betty Zane
The Black Forest had changed autumn's gay crimson and yellow to the somber hue of winter and
now looked indescribably dreary. An ice gorge had formed in the bend of the river at the head of the island and
from bank to bank logs, driftwood, broken ice and giant floes were packed and jammed so tightly as to resist
the action of the mighty current.
Beyond
They who have known the doldrums--how the sails of the listless ship droop, and the hope of escape dies day
by day--may understand something of the life Gyp began living now. On a ship, even doldrums come to an
end. But a young woman of twenty-three, who has made a mistake in her marriage, and has only herself to
blame, looks forward to no end
Beyond The Horizon
MRS. ATKINS--Can't! It do make me mad, Kate Mayo, to see folks that God gave all the use of their limbs to potterin' round and wastin' time doin' every thing the wrong way--and me powerless to help and at their mercy, you might say. And it ain't that I haven't pointed the right way to 'em. I've talked to Robert thousands of times and told him how things ought to be done. You know that, Kate Mayo.--by Eugene O'Neill
Biographia Literaria
Philosophy by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Hey, there's some poetry in this one.
Birds and Bees, Sharp Eyes and Other Papers
How surely the birds know their enemies! See how the wrens and robins and bluebirds pursue and scold the cat, while they take little or no notice of the dog! Even the swallow will fight the cat, and, relying too confidently upon its powers of flight, sometimes swoops down so near to its enemy that it is caught by a sudden stroke of the cat's paw. The only case I know of in which our small birds fail to recognize their enemy is furnished by the shrike--by John Burroughs
Black Beauty
While I was young I lived upon my mother's milk, as I could not eat grass. In the daytime I ran by her side, and at night I lay down close by her. When it was hot we used to stand by the pond in the shade of the trees, and when it was cold we had a nice warm shed near the grove. -- by Anna Sewell
Black Heart and White Heart
The Black One was angry, and despatched us to catch you and make
an end of you. That is all. Come on now, quietly, and let us finish the matter. As the Doom Pool is
near, your deaths will be easy."
BLACK ROCK, A TALE OF THE SELKIRKS
The sports were over, and there remained still an hour to be filled in before dinner. It was an hour full of danger to Craig's hopes of victory, for the men were wild with excitement, and ready for the most reckless means of 'slinging their dust.' I could not but admire the skill with which Mr. Craig caught their attention.
BLACKMAIL BAY
It was completely dark by now, except for a thin crescent moon that showed through fleeting clouds, but from the blackness of the bay a semicircle of glimmering lights marked the shore line of Round Island with its cottages and boat houses. As Margo watched, a spot of green light gave two short blinks; and that was all she needed. Groping in a suitcase, Margo brought out a small but powerful flashlight and affixed a transparent green cap over its lens.
Bleak House
I said it with a stronger heart, for when he praised me thus and when I heard his voice thrill with his belief that what he said was true, I aspired to be more worthy of it. It was not too late for that. Although I closed this unforeseen page in my life to-night, I could be worthier of it all through my life. And it was a comfort to me, and an impulse to me, and I felt a dignity rise up within me that was derived from him when I thought so.
BLUE FACE
The street in the rear of the Barfield home was even quieter. A street light threw a small circle of brilliance on a deserted pavement. A high board fence closed off the rear of the mansion's grounds. The fence was tall enough to keep curious people from peeping into the property of the millionaire. Its coating of dull-gray paint made the fence blend into the darkness.
Bobok
To begin with the smell. There were fifteen hearses, with palls varying in expensiveness; there were actually two catafalques. One was a general's and one some lady's. There were many mourners, a great deal of feigned mourning and a great deal of open gaiety. The clergy have nothing to complain of; it brings them a good income. But the smell, the smell. I should not like to be one of the clergy here.
Books and Bookmen
And in the present imperfect arrangement of life one may be a bookman and yet have very few books, since he has not the wherewithal to purchase them. It is the foolishness of his kind to desire a loved author in some becoming dress, and his fastidiousness to ignore a friend in a fourpence- halfpenny edition. The bookman, like the poet, and a good many other people, is born and not made--by Ian Maclaren
"Boots And Saddles": Or Life In Dakota With General Custer
If time could have been measured by sensations, a cycle seemed to have passed in those few seconds. The Indians snatched up their guns, leaped upon their ponies, and prepared for attack. The officer with me was perfectly calm, spoke to them coolly without a change of voice, and rode quickly beside me, telling me to advance. My horse reared violently at first sight of the Indians, and started to run. --by Elizabeth B. Custer
Box and Cox
Cox. It is not the case only with the coals, Mrs. Bouncer,
but I've lately observed a gradual and steady increase
of evaporation among my candles, wood, sugar and
lucifer matches.
--by John Maddison Morton, Esq.
Boyhood
From the time of our arrival in Moscow, the change in my conception of objects, of persons, and of my connection with them became increasingly perceptible. When at my first meeting with Grandmamma, I saw her thin, wrinkled face and faded eyes, the mingled respect and fear with which she had hitherto inspired me gave place to compassion, and when, laying her cheek against Lubotshka's head, she sobbed as though she saw before her the corpse of her beloved daughter
BRAND OF THE WEREWOLF
This noise pealed out erratically. At times, there was five minutes of dead silence. Then weird, unearthly cries would shiver out, a babbling volley of them. They had a human quality, those cries. They were tremulous with an incoherent horror.
Broad Arrow: Being Passages From the History of Maida Gwynnham, a Lifer
He had seen a woman, who was already transported for life for manslaughter, again committed
amid the execration of the multitude for a similar attempt in Hobart Town; and upon this
woman, convicted of her second crime, he had heard passed the original sentence of
transportation for life, so that while her former sin was still unexpiated, her latter and
aggravated guilt went wholly unpunished.--by Caroline Leakey
Brother Jacob
Among the many fatalities attending the bloom of young desire, that of blindly taking to the confectionery line has not, perhaps, been sufficiently considered.
Bucky O'Connor
At the sound of Collins' voice, the masked man had started perceptibly, and his right hand had jumped forward an inch or two to cover the speaker more definitely. Thereafter, no matter what else engaged his attention, the gleaming eyes behind the red bandanna never wandered for a moment from the big plainsman. He was taking no risks, for he remembered the saying current in Arizona
Bulfinch's Mythology: Legends of Charlemagne, or Romance of the Middle Ages
Kinda history, kinda not. You know...
Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Chivalry, or Legends of King Arthur
A personal favorite.
Bureaucracy
At this moment the division of Monsieur de la Billardiere was in a state of unusual excitement, resulting very naturally from the event which was about to happen; for heads of divisions do not die every day, and there is no insurance office where the chances of life and death are calculated with more sagacity than in a government bureau.
Burning Daylight
In no blaze of glory did Burning Daylight descend upon San Francisco. Not only had he been forgotten, but the Klondike along with him. The world was interested in other things, and the Alaskan adventure, like the Spanish War, was an old story. Many things had happened since then. Exciting things were happening every day, and the sensation-space of newspapers was limited.
By Reef And Palm, and Other Stories
TIKENA the Clubfooted guided me to an open spot in the jungle-growth, and, sitting down on the
butt of a twisted toa, indicated by a sweep of his tattooed arm the lower course of what had once
been the White Man's dwelling. --by Louis Becke
Bygone Beliefs
Certain herbs, culled at favourable conjunctions of the planets and worn as amulets, were held to be very efficacious against various diseases. Precious stones and metals were also taken internally for the same purpose--"remedies" which in certain cases must have proved exceedingly harmful. One theory put forward for the supposed medical value of amulets was the Doctrine of Effluvia. --by H. Stanley Redgrove
Cabbages and Kings
Spilled milk draws few tears from an Anchurian administration. Many are its lacteal sources; and the clocks'
hands point forever to milking time. Even the rich cream skimmed from the treasury by the bewitched
Miraflores did not cause the newly installed patriots to waste time in unprofitable regrets.
Cabin Fever
They went on and on, through the rain and the wind, sometimes through the mud as well, where the roads were not paved. Foster had almost pounced upon the newspaper when he discovered it in Bud's pocket as he climbed in, and Bud knew that the two read that feature article avidly. But if they had any comments to make, they saved them for future privacy. Beyond a few muttered sentences they were silent.
California Joe, the Mysterious Plainsman
Captain Reynolds rode forward with him, and more and more interested in the strange youth, tried to draw him out to speak more of himself; but in vain, for Joe was reticent in a wonderful degree about himself, and made no account of why he was there in that wild region, the reason for his coming or whom he had come with. --by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham
Call of the Wild
Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tidewater dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego. Because men, groping in the Arctic darkness, had found a yellow metal, and because steamship and transportation companies were booming the find, thousands of men were rushing into the Northland.
Cambridge Pieces
Mr. Bridges had long been desirous of becoming a candidate for this distinction, but, until the death of Mr. Leader, no vacancy having occurred among the scholars, he had as yet had no opportunity of going in for it. The income to be derived from it was not inconsiderable, and as it led to the porter fellowship the mere pecuniary value was not to be despised, but thirst of fame and the desire of a more public position
Can Such Things Be?
There came to
them out of the fog--seemingly from a great distance--the sound of a laugh, a low, deliberate, soulless
laugh which had no more of joy than that of a hyena night-prowling in the desert; a laugh that rose by slow
gradation, louder and louder, clearer, more distinct and terrible, until it seemed barely outside the narrow
circle of their vision; a laugh so unnatural, so unhuman, so devilish, that it filled those hardy man-hunters
with a sense of dread unspeakable!
Can You Forgive Her?
Kate Vavasor remained only three days in London before she started for Yarmouth; and during those three days she was not much with her cousin. "I'm my aunt's, body and soul, for the next six weeks," she said to Alice, when she did come to Queen Anne Street on the morning after her arrival. "And she is exigeant in a manner I can't at all explain to you. You mustn't be surprised if I don't even write a line. I've escaped by stealth now.
Candide
'How is it possible that the lovely
Candide and the sage Pangloss should be at Lisbon, the one to receive a hundred lashes, and the
other to be hanged by order of My Lord Inquisitor, of whom I am so great a favorite? Pangloss deceived
me most cruelly, in saying that everything is for the best.' -- By Voltaire
Cap'n Eri: A Story of the Coast
Conversation among the captains was, for the next two days, confined to two topics, speculation as to how soon they might expect a reply from the Nantucket female and whether or not Mr. Langley would discharge Hazeltine. On the latter point Captain Eri was decided. --by the Other Joseph Lincoln
Cap'n Warren's Wards
Mr. Warren sprawled in the most comfortable chair in the room, was looking out through the window, across the wind-swept width of Central Park West, over the knolls and valleys of the Park itself, now bare of foliage and sprinkled with patches of snow. There was a discontented look on his face, and his hands were jammed deep in his trousers pockets. --by J.C. Lincoln
Captain Burle
... What! Burle, Colonel Burle's son, condemned for theft! That cannot be! I would sooner burn down the town. Now, thunder and lightning, don't worry; it is far more annoying for me than for you."
Captain Fracasse
It was a sad picture; this last
scion of a noble race, formerly rich and powerful, left wandering like an uneasy ghost in the castle of his
ancestors, with but one faithful old servant remaining to him of the numerous retinue of the olden times; one
poor old dog, half starved, and gray with age, where used to be a pack of thirty hounds
Captain John Smith
The London to which Smith returned was the London of Shakespeare. We should be thankful for one glimpse of him in this interesting town. Did he frequent the theatre? Did he perhaps see Shakespeare himself at the Globe? Did he loaf in the coffee-houses, and spin the fine thread of his adventures to the idlers and gallants who resorted to them?--by Charles D. Warner
Captains Courageous
It thrilled through him when he first felt the keel answer to his band on the spokes and slide over the long hollows as the foresail scythed back and forth against the blue sky. That was magnificent, in spite of Disko saying that it would break a snake's back to follow his wake. But, as usual, pride ran before a fall.
CARDS OF DEATH
A streak of blackness stretched across the table; for the moment, it formed a hawkish silhouette. The shaded image slid away as Weston looked up, to see a tall personage standing beside him. There was something placid in the face that Weston recognized; with it, a leisurely air.
Carmilla
Nothing remained to assure us that the adventure had not been an illusion of a moment but the young lady, who just at that moment opened her eyes.
Carnacki The Ghost Finder
a large estate and manor, about a mile and a half outside of the village of Korunton. This place is named Gannington Manor, and has been empty a great number of years; as you will find is almost always the case with Houses reputed to be haunted, as it is usually termed.
Cases Worth Looking At
TOWARD the beginning of the eighteenth century there stood on a rock in the sea, near a fishing village on the coast of Brittany, a ruined tower with a very bad reputation. No mortal was known to have inhabited it within the memory of living man.
CASEY - TWENTY YEARS LATER
Again that awful silence settled o'er the multitude./Was there a man among them with such recklessness imbued?/The captain stood with cap in hand, while hopeless was his glance,/And then a tall and stocky man cried out, "I'll take a chance!"--by Clarence P. McDonald
Casey at the Bat
The sneer is gone from Casey's lip, his teeth are clenched in hate;/He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate./And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,/And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow.--by Ernest Thayer. Happy Opening Day!
Cast Upon the Breakers
A wonderful change came over Mike Flynn. Until he met Rodney he seemed quite destitute of ambition. The ragged and dirty suit which he wore as bootblack were the best he had. His face and hands generally bore the marks of his business, and as long as he made enough to buy three meals a day, two taken at the Lodging House, with something over for lodging, and an occasional visit to a cheap theater, he was satisfied.
CASTLE OF DOOM
IN his forward spring, Harry Vincent came suddenly into light. Like an oblong shaft that cleaved the solid darkness, the glow stretched from the rectangular opening of a doorway in the house itself. Beginning from a lighted hallway, the rays produced a square upon both the sidewalk and a short flight of steps that led into the house.
Catherine de Medici
You will never have a safer and more sincere friend than your mother, or better
servants than those who have been so long attached to her person, without whose services you might
perhaps not even exist to-day. The Guises want both your life and your throne, be sure of that. If they
could sew me into a sack and fling me into the river," she said, pointing to the Seine, "it would be
done to-night.
Catherine: A Story
In this woeful plight, moneyless, wifeless, horseless, corporalless, with a gag in his mouth and a rope round
his body, are we compelled to leave the gallant Galgenstein, until his friends and the progress of this history
shall deliver him from his durance. Mr. Brock's adventures on the Captain's horse must likewise be
pretermitted
Catiline
When Orestilla by her bearing well/These my retirements, and stolne times for thought/Shall give their effects leaue to call her Queene/Of all the world, in place of humbled Rome.
Catriona
THE 25th day of August, 1751, about two in the afternoon, I, David Balfour, came forth of the
British Linen Company, a porter attending me with a bag of money, and some of the chief of
these merchants bowing me from their doors.(Sequel to Kidnapped)
Caught in the Net
The observer might have fancied it a robbers' den, but he would have been wrong; for the inhabitants were fairly honest. The Hotel de Perou was one of those refuges, growing scarcer and more scarce every day, where unhappy men and women, who had been worsted in the battle of life, could find a shelter in return for the change remaining from the last five-franc piece.
Ceres' Runaway and Other Essays
Trouble did not "try" the Elizabethan wild one, it undid her. She had no child, or if there had ever been a child of hers, she had long forgotten how it died. She hailed the wayfarer, who was more weary than she, with a song; she haunted the cheerful dawn; her "good-morrow" rings from Herrick's poem, fresh as cock-crow.
Chamber Music
The old piano plays an air,/Sedate and slow and gay;/She bends upon the yellow keys,/Her head inclines this way.
Chance--A Tale in Two Parts
And the best of it was that the danger was all over already. There was no danger any more. The supposed nephew's appearance
had a purpose. He had come, full, full to trembling--with the bigness of his news. There must have been rumours already as to
the shaky position of the de Barral's concerns; but only amongst those in the very inmost know. No rumour or echo of
rumour had reached the profane in the West-End
Chants for Socialists
Hear a word, a word in season, for the day is drawing nigh,/When the Cause shall call upon us, some to live, and some to die!/He that dies shall not die lonely, many an one hath gone before;/He that lives shall bear no burden heavier than the life they bore./
Nothing ancient is their story, e'en but yesterday they bled,/Youngest they of earth's beloved, last of all the valiant dead.-- by William Morris
Character
The poorest dwelling, presided over by a virtuous, thrifty, cheerful, and cleanly woman, may thus be the abode of comfort, virtue, and happiness; it may be the scene of every ennobling relation in family life; it may be endeared to a man by many delightful associations; furnishing a sanctuary for the heart, a refuge from the storms of life, a sweet resting-place after labour, --by Samuel Smiles
Charmides
Very well, he said; then I will call him; and turning to the attendant, he said, Call Charmides, and tell him that I want him to come and see a physician about the illness of which he spoke to me the day before yesterday. Then again addressing me, he added: He has been complaining lately of having a headache when he rises in the morning: now why should you not make him believe that you know a cure for the headache?
Chastelard, a tragedy
QUEEN./A maid may have kissed cheeks/And no shame in them--yet one would not swear./You have sworn that. /Pray God he be not mad:/A sickness in his eyes. The left side love/(I was told that) and the right courtesy.--by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Chicago Crime
This was no hallucination, the face that he saw above him! It was a beautiful face, rounded in its mold, with eyes that brimmed tears, lovely lips that quivered beneath a shapely nose. That face was angelic, against the background of dark hair that melted into the twilight of the room. As tender fingers grasped his hand, Herb spoke the name:
Chicago Poems
OF my city the worst that men will ever say is this:/You took little children away from the sun and the dew,/And the glimmers that played in the grass under the great sky,/And the reckless rain; you put them between walls/To work, broken and smothered, for bread and wages,/To eat dust in their throats and die empty-hearted/For a little handful of pay on a few Saturday nights.
Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair
Tells the tale that in the country which lay south of Oakenrealm, and was called Meadham, there was in these days a king whose wife was dead, but had left him a fair daughter, who was born some four years after King Christopher. A good man was this King Roland, mild, bounteous, and no regarder of persons in his justice; and well-beloved he was of his folk: yet could not their love keep him alive
Child of Storm
Whatever else may have been false in this man's nature, one thing rang true, namely, his love or his infatuation for the girl Mameena. Throughout his life she was his guiding star--about as evil a star as could have arisen upon any man's horizon; the fatal star that was to light him down to doom. Let me thank Providence, as I do, that I was so fortunate as to escape its baneful influences, although I admit that they attracted me not a little.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
When Paphos fell by Time -- accursed Time!
The Queen who conquers all must yield to thee --
The Pleasures fled, but sought as warm a clime;
And Venus, constant to her native sea,
To nought else constant, hither deign'd to flee,
Childhood
Karl Ivanitch was in a bad temper, This was clear from his contracted brows, and from the way in which he flung his frockcoat into a drawer, angrily donned his old dressing-gown again, and made deep dints with his nails to mark the place in the book of dialogues to which we were to learn by heart. Woloda began working diligently, but I was too distracted to do anything at all.
Childhood
I felt neither happy nor unhappy; I had nothing to say. I had neither fear nor hope, nor even a feeling of curiosity; I was neither cheerful nor sad. The only thing which grated upon me was the face of the mistress of the house. Although I had not the faintest idea either of beauty or of ugliness, her face, her countenance, her tone of voice, her language, everything in that woman was repulsive to me.
China and the Manchus
it is said that no fewer than
thirty thousand adherents were executed before the trouble was finally suppressed; from which
statement it is easy to gather that under whatever form the White Lily Society may have been
originally initiated, its activities were now of a much more serious character, and were, in fact, plainly
directed against the power and authority of the Manchus.--by Herbert A. Giles
Christ in Flanders
They were all poor people there. At first sight of the
bareheaded man in the brown camlet coat and trunk-hose, and plain stiff linen collar, they noticed that he
wore no ornaments, carried no cap nor bonnet in his hand, and had neither sword nor purse at his girdle,
and one and all took him for a burgomaster sure of his authority, a worthy and kindly burgomaster like
so many a Fleming of old times
Christian Science
No one doubts--certainly not I--that the mind exercises a powerful influence over the body. From the beginning of time, the sorcerer, the interpreter of dreams, the fortune-teller, the charlatan, the quack, the wild medicine-man, the educated physician, the mesmerist, and the hypnotist have made use of the client's imagination to help them in their work. They have all recognized the potency and availability of that force.
Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada
The parties fought backward and forward through the breach of the wall and in the narrow and winding streets adjacent with alternate success, and the vicinity of the tower was strewn with the dead and wounded. At length the Moors gradually gave way, disputing every inch of ground, until they were driven into the city, and the Christians remained masters of the greater part of the suburb
CITY OF CRIME
As yet, The Shadow had not clashed directly with any of the city's loyal police. Bluecoats had joined the khaki-clad squadron men in last night's chase; but The Shadow had been speeding away when the regular police took up the chase. Hence, he was an unknown factor to the real supporters of the law in Westford.
Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy
Sometimes the pretenders lived abroad in exile, like the Visconti, who practiced the fisherman's craft on the Lake of Garda, viewed the situation with patient indifference. When asked by a messenger of his rival when and how he thought of returning to Milan, he gave the reply, 'By the same means as those by which I was expelled, but not till his crimes have outweighed my own.' -- by Jacob Burckhardt
Cleopatra
Thus it came to pass that on the next day I arrayed myself in a long and flowing robe, after the fashion of a
magician or astrologer. I placed a cap on my head, about which were broidered images of the stars, and in my
belt a scribe's palette and a roll of papyrus written over with magic spells and signs. In my hand I held a wand
of ebony, tipped with ivory, such as is used by priests and masters of magic.
Cliges
He who wrote of Erec and Enide, and translated into French the commands of Ovid and the Art of
Love, and wrote the Shoulder Bite, and about King Mark and the fair Iseut, and about the
metamorphosis of the Lapwing, the Swallow, and the Nightingale, will tell another story now about a youth
who lived in Greece and was a member of King Arthur's line.
Clocks
There are two kinds of clocks. There is the clock that is always wrong, and that knows it is wrong, and glories in it; and there is the clock that is always right--except when you rely upon it, and then it is more wrong than you would think a clock _could_ be in a civilized country.
Clotelle
Or, the Colored Heroine (seen three names for this book.) Inspired, perhaps, by Jeffersonian rumors in the 1800s.
Cobb's Anatomy
In the main, though, we are born without teeth. We are born without a number of things--clothes for example--although Anthony Comstock is said to be pushing a law requiring all children to be born with overalls on; but teeth is the subject which we are now discussing. This absence of teeth tends to give the very young of our species the appearance in the face of an old fashioned buckskin purse with the draw string broken
Colomba
Now that every one is asleep--the beautiful Colomba, the colonel, and his daughter--I will seize the opportunity to acquaint my reader with certain details of which he must not be ignorant, if he desires to follow the further course of this veracious history. -- by Prosper Merimee, author of Carmen
Colonel Chabert
The
greasy furniture is handed down to successive owners with such scrupulous care, that in some
offices may still be seen boxes of remainders, machines for twisting parchment gut, and bags left
by the prosecuting parties of the Chatelet (abbreviated to Chlet)--a Court which, under the old
order of things, represented the present Court of First Instance (or County Court).
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
Guilt and misery shrink, by a natural instinct, from public notice: they court privacy and solitude: and even in their choice of a grave will sometimes sequester themselves from the general population of the churchyard, as if declining to claim fellowship with the great family of man -- by Thomas de Quincey
Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's philosophical notions -- ok, it ain't poetry.
Cornhuskers
I CRIED over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts.//The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf at the neck of the copper sunburned woman,/the mother of the year, the taker of/seeds.
CORPORAL CAMERON OF THE NORTH WEST MOUNTED POLICE
"In forty years I never remember having made such an error, Sir. This was an occasion for diplomacy. We should have taken time. We should have discovered his weak spots; every man has them. Now it is too late. The only thing left for us is fight, and the best we can hope for is a verdict of NOT PROVEN, and that leaves a stigma." --by Ralph Connor
Count Bunker
Sequel to Clouston's The Lunatic At Large
Countess Kate
She wove to herself dreams of possible delights with Sylvia and Charlie, if the summer visit could be paid to them; and at other times she imagined her Uncle Giles's two daughters still alive, and sent home for education, arranging in her busy brain wonderful scenes, in which she, with their assistance, should be happy in spite of Aunt Barbara. --by Charlotte M. Yonge
Cousin Betty
On looking down at her kid shoes, made, it was evident, by the veriest cobbler, a stranger would have hesitated to recognize Cousin Betty as a member of the family, for she looked exactly like a journeywoman sempstress. But she did not leave the room without bestowing a little friendly nod on Monsieur Crevel, to which that gentleman responded by a look of mutual understanding.
Cousin Pons
In the sitting-room La Cibot explained her position with regard to the pair of nutcrackers at very considerable length. She repeated the history of her loan with added embellishments, and gave a full account of the immense services rendered during the past ten years to MM. Pons and Schmucke.
Cow-Country
Buddy knew Indians as he knew cattle, horses, rattlesnakes and storms--by having them mixed in with his everyday life. He couldn't tell you where or when he had learned that Indians are tricky. Perhaps his first ideas on that subject were gleaned from the friendly tribes who lived along the Chisolm Trail and used to visit the chuck-wagon, their blankets held close around them and their eyes glancing everywhere while they grinned and talked and pointed
Cranford
Cratylus
HERMOGENES: I should explain to you, Socrates, that our friend Cratylus has been arguing about names; he says that they are natural and not conventional; not a portion of the human voice which men agree to use; but that there is a truth or correctness in them, which is the same for Hellenes as for barbarians. Whereupon I ask him, whether his own name of Cratylus is a true name or not, and he answers 'Yes.'
Crime and Punishment
Mistrustfully and with an
affectation of being alarmed and almost affronted, he scanned Raskolnikov's low and narrow "cabin." With the
same amazement he stared at Raskolnikov, who lay undressed, dishevelled, unwashed, on his miserable
dirty sofa, looking fixedly at him.
CRIME AT SEVEN OAKS
As he yelled, Trigg turned and stabbed bullets at the boxes. He had heard one spill and guessed its direction well. But Trigg was simply splintering a box above The Shadow's head. The cloaked fighter had not risen. His leg wouldn't lift him; the wrench that it took produced a half groan from The Shadow's lips.
CRIME CIRCUS
A mop of crinkly hair showed on the wild man's head. His eyes stared vacantly at the handful of people who watched him and his lips kept spreading to display an idiotic grin. Half a dozen snakes were squirming lazily about the pit. Cliff recognized them as large, but harmless "bull" snakes.
CRIME OUT OF MIND
Viewed from the outside, the Landworth formed what appeared to be a pyramid; in reality, the building was a hollow square, the step-backs existing only where the outer walls were concerned. Each of the pyramided sides had an arched entrance, one on an avenue, two on side streets, the last on an alleyway that bisected the block.
CRIME RIDES THE SEA
Two days had gone; with them, the law had no luck in its search for the criminals who had wrecked the Ozark. The one trace of them had been the finding of the motorized lifeboat in the shoal waters of an inlet some thirty miles north of Atlantic City; but that discovery was fruitless.
CRIME UNDER COVER
Certain it was that Crumpf and his pals were smooth and calculating workers; otherwise, Bradwell would not have hired them. At least, Crumpf was on a par with Hortland, and The Shadow could bear witness to Hortland's punch in a pinch. He knew instantly how Crumpf and the men with him would react when snared: they would attempt escape at any cost.
CRIME, INSURED
Duke coughed as his lips tried to phrase a word. His eyes went wild. He gasped something between his coughs; something about a croaker and a slug in the left lung. The cough changed to a violent choke.
Critical and Historical Essays, Volume 1
History, at least in its state of ideal perfection, is a compound of poetry and philosophy. It impresses general truths on the mind by a vivid representation of particular characters and incidents. But, in fact, the two hostile elements of which it consists have never been known to form a perfect amalgamation; and at length, in our own time, they have been completely and professedly separated.
Critical and Historical Essays, Volume 2
We are afraid that his aversion to war was not the effect of humanity, but was merely one of his thousand whims. His feeling about his troops seems to have resembled a miser's feeling about his money. He loved to collect them, to count them, to see them increase; but he could not find it in his heart to break in upon the precious hoard.
Criticism and Fiction
The misfortune rather than the fault of our individual critic is that he is the heir of the false theory and bad manners of the English school. The theory of that school has apparently been that almost any person of glib and lively expression is competent to write of almost any branch of polite literature; its manners are what we know. --by William Dean Howells
Crito
CRITO: I should not have liked myself, Socrates, to be in such great trouble and unrest as you are--indeed I should not: I have been watching with amazement your peaceful slumbers; and for that reason I did not awake you, because I wished to minimize the pain.
Crome Yellow
Ivor was gone. Lounging behind the wind-screen in his yellow sedan he was whirling across rural England. Social and amorous engagements of the most urgent character called him from hall to baronial hall, from castle to castle, from Elizabethan manor- house to Georgian mansion, over the whole expanse of the kingdom. To-day in Somerset, to-morrow in Warwickshire, on Saturday in the West riding--by Aldous Huxley
Crossways
I SAT on cushioned otter-skin:/My word was law from Ith to Emain,/And shook at Inver Amergin/The hearts of the world-troubling seamen,/And drove tumult and war away/From girl and boy and man and beast;/The fields grew fatter day by day,
Crotchet Castle
Miss Susannah often sat on the rock, with her feet resting on this tree:
in time, she made her seat on the tree itself, with her feet hanging over the abyss; and at length she
accustomed herself to lie along upon its trunk, with her side on the mossy boll of the fork, and an arm
round one of the branches. From this position a portion of the sky and the woods was reflected in the
pool, which, from its bank, was but a mass of darkness.
Cynthia's Revel's
Is that thy Boy Hedon?/G/2.2 Aye, what thinkst thou of him?/H/2.2 Shart, I would gelde him; I warrant he has the Philosophers stone.
Cyrano de Bergerac
'Tis enormous!/Old Flathead, empty-headed meddler, know/That I am proud possessing such appendice./'Tis well known, a big nose is indicative/Of a soul affable, and kind, and courteous,--by Edmond Rostand
CYRO
The order came in a quiet voice. The driver nodded. He had not heard the passenger enter; but he had expected this arrival. Moe Shrevnitz, the driver of that cab, was in agent of The Shadow. He had posted himself at this appointed spot in response to an order previously received.
EIGHT minutes later, the cab wheeled up in front of the exclusive
Daisy Miller: A Study
What I should say is, simply, that when certain persons
spoke of him they affirmed that the reason of his spending so much time at Geneva was that he was extremely
devoted to a lady who lived there--a foreign lady--a person older than himself. Very few Americans--indeed, I
think none--had ever seen this lady, about whom there were some singular stories.
Damaged Goods
"My God!" cried George. He sprang toward her, and tried to lift her, but she shrank from him,
repelling him with a gesture of disgust, of hatred, of the most profound terror. "Don't touch me!" she
screamed, like a maniac. "Don't touch me!" --A novelization of the play "Les Avaries, by Eugene Brieux
Dangerous Days
"I told Dr. Haverford that we would like to give him a car, Natalie," he began directly. It was typical of him, the "we."
Danny's Own Story
"Sixteen minutes past eleven," he says. "AT EXACTLY TWENTY-NINE MINUTES TO TWELVE MR. MURRAY WILL BE DEAD. I got the harmless one. I can tell by the taste." By Don Marquis, author of Cruise of the Jasper B.
Darkness and Dawn
The islands in the harbor, too, were thickly overgrown. On Ellis, no sign of the immigrant station remained. Castle William was quite gone. And with a gasp of dismay and pain, Beatrice pointed out the fact that no longer Liberty held her bronze torch aloft. Save for a black, misshapen mass protruding through the tree-tops, the huge gift of France was no more
David Copperfield
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody
else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as
I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o'clock at night. It was remarked that the clock
began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.
De Cive
All Authors agree not concerning the definition of the Naturall Law, who notwithstanding doe very often make
use of this terme in their Writings. The Method therefore, wherein we begin from definitions, and exclusion of
all equivocation, is only proper to them who leave no place for contrary Disputes; for the rest, if any man say,
that somwhat is done against the Law of Nature--by Thomas Hobbes
DEAD MAN'S CHEST
A frightened gasp sounded close beside Doug's own shoulder. Springing to his feet, he whirled and saw the very girl who had thrust herself into another death scene, at Jeffrey's. June Getty had come forward; she, too, had seen the tattooed message on the skipper's chest and now was horrified at sight of the knife. June turned her scared gaze toward Doug
DEAD MEN LIVE
Every gangster of Towley's ilk had an attorney; and even so prominent a man as Glade Tremont was willing to act as legal representative for persons who kept on the shady side of the law. Hence there was nothing out of the ordinary about Biff Towley's visit to this place.
Dead Men Tell No Tales
"You mean when Ready asked him if we were out of our course? I must say I thought it was a silly question to put. It was the same the other evening about the cargo. If the skipper says we're in ballast why not believe him? Why repeat steerage gossip, about mysterious cargoes, at the cuddy table? Captains are always touchy about that sort of thing. I wasn't surprised at his letting out."
Dead Souls
Meanwhile, Chichikov, seated in his britchka and bowling along the turnpike, was feeling greatly pleased with himself. From the preceding chapter the reader will have gathered the principal subject of his bent and inclinations: wherefore it is no matter for wonder that his body and his soul had ended by becoming wholly immersed therein. --by Nikolai Gogol
Deadwood Dick's Doom; or, Calamity Jane's Last Adventure, a Tale of Death N
The owner of the voice was Deadwood Dick! While Piute Dave was speaking, he had quietly slipped into the room, and now stood mounted upon a chair, but a few paces in the former's rear, with a pair of cocked 32's in his grasp. --by Edward L. Wheeler
DEATH ABOUT TOWN
The hands crinkled a sheet of paper. It contained a long list of names, some typed in blue, others in red. All were names of persons who knew James Laverock; those in red type stood for the men who were members of the Avenue Club. This list had been compiled for The Shadow by an agent named Rutledge Mann.
DEATH HAS GREY EYES
So two knives which had either been flung or lost in haste were lying on a table in the grill room of the Cobalt Club where Weston usually dined. They were getting attention from Cranston and a waiter, who supposed that they were merely a subtle protest on Weston's part over the toughness of the steaks that the chef had been preparing lately.
DEATH IN SILVER
His garb was the strange, the gripping thing. It was silver. The cloth was of the metallic stuff such as is used to make the stage costumes of show girls, and it was cut in one garment - a coverall. There was a hood over the head, also of silver, elastic and tight fitting. Because eye and mouth openings were dark against the shiny metallic hood, the affair had the aspect of a death's-head, a silver skull.
DEATH IN THE CRYSTAL
Reflections, perhaps of those that peered into those depths, for somehow the great ball had the magnetic power of drawing persons closer. Margo's dark hair was brushing the blonde locks of Sheila, while Xanadu was leaning forward until his turban almost touched the foreheads of the girls.
DEATH JEWELS
Reggie remembered that hard knockout blows frequently left victims wondering what had happened during the preceding interval. He saw his chance to take advantage of Clyde's state. He lifted the reporter's head. Clyde's eyes had a stare that showed his vision was blurred. He didn't even know who Reggie was.
DEATH RIDES THE SKYWAY
A rugged-faced man stepped up to the platform. Firm-jawed and cold-eyed, he looked over the chatting group. Better dressed than the other men, he appeared to be someone of authority. His arrival brought respectful nods of greeting from the men.
DEATH TOKEN
These printed reports were pleasing to one man, who chuckled when he read them. Courtney Radbard, comfortably ensconced in the office that formed a portion of his mansion, was confident that the law would never link him with Leo Jebbrey's death. On this particular evening, the tawny-faced magnate made mention of the fact to his secretary, Sideling.
DEATH'S MASQUERADE
This was proven the next afternoon, when Lamont Cranston sat idly by the window of his hotel room surveying the beautiful city of Industria by daylight. Though his thoughts seemed elsewhere, Cranston was listening quite intently to Burke's version of what was wrong in this city where all looked right.
DEATH'S PREMIUM
The man from the dark had made good his escape. Remembering how Rudy had bashed through hedges, Weston decided that Adico had done the same. He set the detectives to work probing the sides of the lawn; then, with a rueful headshake, the commissioner decided that he had set that task too late.
Declaration of Independence
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political
bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth,
the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a
decent respect to the opinions of mankind
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
The representatives of the French people, organized as a National Assembly, believing that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments, have determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, unalienable, and sacred rights of man
Defence of Usury
The first, I shall mention, is that of precluding so many people, altogether, from the getting the money they stand in need of, to answer their respective exigencies. Think what a distress it would produce, were the liberty of borrowing denied to every body: denied to those who have such security to offer, as renders the rate of interest, they have to offer, a sufficient inducement, for a man who has money, to trust them with it.
Deirdre of the Sorrows
I'll give
you a riddle, Deirdre: Why isn't my father as
ugly and old as Conchubor? You've no
answer? . . . . It's because Naisi killed him.
Democracy, An American Novel
Henry Adams called the rampant piracy of this work--published anonymously and redistributed illegally for years-- his greatest achievement.
Dennison Grant, A Novel of To-day
When Zen came to herself it was with a sense of a strange swimming in her head. Gradually it resolved itself into a sound of water about her head; a splashing, fighting water; two heads in the water; two heads in the water; a lash floating in the water-- --by Robert Stead
Derues and La Constantin
"And I am not in the habit of running useless risks, most noble cavaliers. You are, it is true, two against one;
but," he added, throwing back his cloak and grasping the hilts of a pair of pistols tucked in his belt, "these will
make us equal. You are mistaken as to my intentions. I had no thought of playing the spy; it was chance alone
that led me here
Desert Gold
"Your Yaqui was near dead, but guess we'll pull him through," said Belding. "Dick, the other day that Indian
came here by rail and foot and Lord only knows how else, all the way from New Orleans! He spoke English
better than most Indians, and I know a little Yaqui. I got some of his story and guessed the rest.
Desperate Remedies
The day of their departure was one of the most glowing that the climax of a long series of summer heats could evolve. The wide expanse of landscape quivered up and down like the flame of a taper, as they steamed along through the midst of it. Placid flocks of sheep reclining under trees a little way off appeared of a pale blue colour. Clover fields were livid with the brightness of the sun upon their deep red flowers.
Diary of a Pedestrian in Cashmere and Thibet
The first event after being settled in our new quarters was the arrival of a sheep, presented to us by the Kardar, or chief dignitary of the town, as a mark of affection and distinction. This, according to the strict letter of the law, we should have refused to accept; twenty days marching, however, while it had sharpened our appetites, had rather diminished our stores. --by William Henry Knight
Diary of a trip to Australia
Ink is too valuable, &, and so is time, so I must put down my impressions of Sydney University in
pencil. I do so much wish it were finer, as the view from there must be lovely, but one could only
see a few towers & chimneys through the thick haze of rain. They have not had a rainfall like this
for many years, & many places which are usually green fields are converted into lakes. --by Evelyn Louise Nicholson
DICTATOR OF CRIME
On tables and chairs in the center of the room were the coffers that had come from the armored truck, open for inspection by the bankers. The smaller coffers were by far the heavier, for they contained gold, in coin. Gold from the treasury of Centralba, stored up through years: governmental proceeds from such commodities as oil, bananas, and mahogany.
Discourse on Inequality
IT is of man that I have to speak; and the question I am investigating shows me that it is to men that I must address myself: for questions of this sort are not asked by those who are afraid to honour truth. I shall then confidently uphold the cause of humanity before the wise men who invite me to do so, and shall not be dissatisfied if I acquit myself in a manner worthy of my subject and of my judges. --by Jean Jacques Rousseau
Diversities of American Life
a striking social feature of the period is that one-half--that is hardly an overestimate-- one-half of the activity in America of which we speak with so much enthusiasm, is not directed to the production of wealth, to increasing its volume, but to getting the money of other people away from them. In barbarous ages this object was accomplished by violence; it is now attained by skill and adroitness.
Doctor Marigold
I am a Cheap Jack, and my own father's name was Willum Marigold. It was in his lifetime supposed by some that his name was William, but my own father always consistently said, No, it was Willum. On which point I content myself with looking at the argument this way: If a man is not allowed to know his own name in a free country, how much is he allowed to know in a land of slavery?
Dombey and Son
Dombey sat in the corner of the darkened room in the great arm-chair by the bedside, and Son lay tucked up warm in a little basket bedstead, carefully disposed on a low settee immediately in front of the fire and close to it, as if his constitution were analogous to that of a muffin, and it was essential to toast him brown while he was very new.
Domestic Peace
"Why, my dear Martial, where have you dropped from? If you are ever sent with an embassy, I have
small hopes of your success. Do not you see a triple rank of the most undaunted coquettes of
Paris between her and the swarm of dancing men that buzz under the chandelier? And was it not
only by the help of your eyeglass that you were able to discover her at all in the corner by that
pillar
Don Juan
Hey, you know all those guys, trying to play it cool, moving on, but as though you've got a little bad in the past? Without this poem, you're nothing. (My definition of a Byronic hero)
Don Quixote
In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived not long since one of
those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing.
Don Tarquinio
We stood up, openly looking at him as though we were astounded at his audacity: for, in
starting, he had knocked down the double-cross, golden, which leaned against the pedestal of the
ivory faun near him, nor did he attempt to replace it. Indeed, his. eyes began to glare like those of
one who unadvisedly had looked upon a cluster of hobgoblins. His knees also began to bend like those
of one pressed downward by an incubus, gently, irresistible-- by Frederick William Rolfe
Donal Grant
He had not gone far when he found himself on a wide moor. He sat down on a big stone, and began to turn things over in his mind. This is how his thoughts went:
"I can never be the man I was! The thoucht o' my heart 's ta'en frae me! I canna think aboot things as I used. There's naething sae bonny as afore. By George MacDonald
DOOM ON THE HILL
There was a touch of irony in this statement; one that The Shadow appreciated even though Zach Hoyler did not. The Shadow had learned the reason for Nubin's hasty progress along the track. He knew that the detective had been prowling the fields near the Breck house. He also understood that Nubin wanted to create the definite impression that he had just arrived in the vicinity of Chanburg.
Dope
That Pyne had planned this trick, with Rita Irvin's consent, he did not doubt, and his passive dislike of the man became active hatred of the woman he dared not think. He had for long looked upon Sir Lucien in the light of a rival, and the irregularity of his own infatuation for another's wife in no degree lessened his resentment.
Dora Thorne
The passion and despair of that undisciplined heart were something painful to see. Reason,
sense, and honor, for a time were all dead. If Dora could have stamped out the calm beauty of
Valentine's magnificent face, she would have done so. Ronald's anger, his bitter contempt, stung
her, until her whole heart and soul were in angry revolt--by Charlotte M. Braeme
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
When Dorothy recovered her senses they were still falling, but not so fast. The top of the buggy caught the air like a parachute or an umbrella filled with wind, and held them back so that they floated downward with a gentle motion that was not so very disagreeable to bear. The worst thing was their terror of reaching the bottom of this great crack in the earth, and the natural fear that sudden death was about to overtake them at any moment.
Dot And The Kangaroo
WHEN Dot awoke, she did so with a start of fear. Something in her sleep had seemed to tell her
that she was in danger. At a first glance she saw that the Kangaroo had left her, and coiled
upon her body was a young black Snake. Before Dot could move, she heard a voice from a tree,
outside the cave, say, very softly, "Don't be afraid! keep quite still--by Ethel C. Pedley
DOUBLE DEATH
He spat the liquor into the dead ashes in the fireplace. The Shadow resumed his limp pose. He knew that he was deliberately courting death. He expected to be tied up and kidnapped as a prelude to his murder. But he had a method to cut his bonds. And he was determined to find out who was the murderous chief of this treacherous artist's model.
Dr Thorne
Dr Thorne belonged to a family in one sense as good, and at any rate as old, as that of Mr Gresham; and much older, he was apt to boast, than that of the De Courcys. This trait in his character is mentioned first, as it was the weakness for which he was most conspicuous. He was second cousin to Mr Thorne of Ullathorne, a Barsetshire squire living in the neighbourhood of Barchester
Dr. Breen's Practice
Libby introduced Grace as Dr. Breen, and drove on, and Maynard gave her the title whenever he addressed her, with a perfect effect of single- mindedness in his gravity, as if it were an every-day thing with him to meet young ladies who were physicians. He had a certain neighborly manner of having known her a long time, and of being on good terms with her
Dr. Faustus
FAUSTUS. How am I glutted with conceit of this!/Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please,/Resolve me of all ambiguities,/Perform what desperate enterprise I will?/I'll have them fly to India for gold,/Ransack the ocean for orient pearl,
Dr. Wortle's School
The Doctor had found it difficult to carry out the scheme described in the last chapter. They indeed who know anything of such matters will be inclined to call it Utopian, and to say that one so wise in worldly matters as our schoolmaster should not have attempted to combine so many things. He wanted a gentleman, a schoolmaster, a curate, a matron, and a lady -- we may say all in one.
Dracula
I drove at once to Hillingham and arrived early. Keeping my cab at the gate, I went up the avenue alone. I knocked gently and rang as quietly as possible, for I feared to disturb Lucy or her mother, and hoped to only bring a servant to the door. After a while, finding no response, I knocked and rang again, still no answer.
DRACULA'S GUEST
Instinctively I raised my hand to my throat, and as I touch- ed it I cried out in pain. The men crowded round to look, some stooping down from their saddles;and again there came the calm voice of the young officer, "A dog, as I said. If aught else were said we should only be laughed at."
Dramatic Lyrics
Oh Galuppi, Baldassaro, this is very sad to find!/I can hardly misconceive you; it would prove me deaf and blind;/But although I take your meaning, 'tis with such a heavy mind!
Dramatic Romances
That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,/Looking as if she were alive. I call/That piece a wonder, now: Fra' Pandolf's hands/Worked busily a day, and there she stands./Will't please you sit and look at her? I said/
Fra' Pandolf'' by design, for never read
Dream Life and Real Life
Little Jannita sat alone beside a milk-bush. Before her and behind her stretched the plain, covered with red sand
and thorny karoo bushes; and here and there a milk-bush, looking like a bundle of pale green rods tied together.
Not a tree was to be seen anywhere, except on the banks of the river, and that was far away, and the sun beat on
her head. Round her fed the Angora goats she was herding
Dreams
Then again he came to her. And she moaned, and bent her head low, and turned to the gate. But as she went
out she looked back at the sunlight on the faces of the flowers, and wept in anguish. Then she went out, and it
shut behind her for ever; but still in her hand she held of the buds she had gathered, and the scent was very
sweet in the lonely desert.
Dreams
It is "those twin-jailers of the daring" thought, Knowledge and Experience, that teach us surprise. We are surprised and incredulous when, in novels and plays, we come across good men and women, because Knowledge and Experience have taught us how rare and problematical is the existence of such people. In waking life, my friends and relations would, of course, have been surprised at hearing that I had committed a murder
Dreams & Dust
We are ourselves, and not ourselves . . ./For ever thwarting pride and will/Some forebear's passion leaps from death/To claim a vital license still./Ancestral lusts that slew and died,/Resurgent, swell each living vein;/Old doubts and faiths, new panoplied,/Dispute the mastery of the brain.--by Don Marquis
Driven From Home; Or Carl Crawford's Experience
He congratulated himself upon being still the possessor of twenty-five cents in silver. It was not much, but it seemed a great deal better than being penniless. A week before he would have thought it impossible that such a paltry sum would have made him feel comfortable, but he had passed through a great deal since then.
Dubliners
Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance. On Saturday evenings when my aunt went marketing I had to go to carry some of the parcels. We walked through the flaring streets, jostled by drunken men and bargaining women, amid the curses of labourers, the shrill litanies of shop-boys who stood on guard by the barrels of pigs' cheeks -- from Araby
Early Australian Voyages
On the 24th of the same month, being in the latitude of 42 degrees 25 minutes south, and in the longitude of
163 degrees 50 minutes, I discovered land, which lay east-south-east at the distance of ten miles, which I
called Van Diemen's Land. The compass pointed right towards this land. The weather being bad, I steered
south and by east along the coast
Early Kings of Norway
Harald took the sword, drew it, or was half drawing
it, admiringly from the scabbard, when the English excellency broke into a scornful laugh, "Ha, ha;
thou art now the feudatory of my English king; thou hast accepted the sword from him, and art
now his man!" (acceptance of a sword in that manner being the symbol of investiture in those
days.) Harald looked a trifle flurried, it is probable; but held in his wrath, and did no damage to the
tricksy Englishman.--by Thomas Carlyle
Early Poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Sphynx is drowsy,/Her wings are furled,/Her ear is heavy,/She broods on the world.--/"Who'll tell me my secret
The ages have kept?/
Edison, His Life and Inventions
American youths to-day are given, if of a mechanical turn of mind, to amateur telegraphy or telephony, but seldom, if ever, have to make any part of the system constructed. In Edison's boyish days it was quite different, and telegraphic supplies were hard to obtain. But he and his "chum" had a line between their homes, built of common stove-pipe wire. The insulators were bottles set on nails driven into trees and short poles. --by Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin
Eight Cousins
Rose was sitting in her pretty room, where she would gladly have spent all her time if it had been allowed; but
she looked up with a smile, for she had ceased to fear her uncle's remedies, and was always ready to try a
new one. The last had been a set of light gardening tools, with which she had helped him put the flower-beds
in order, learning all sorts of new and pleasant things about the plants as she worked
Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon
TORRES SLEPT for about half an hour, and then there was a noise among the trees--a sound of light footsteps, as though some visitor was walking with naked feet, and taking all the precaution he could lest he should be heard. To have put himself on guard against any suspicious approach would have been the first care of our adventurer had his eyes been open at the time. But he had not then awoke, and what advanced was able to arrive in his presence
Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon
A population of some millions wholly dependent upon the supply of rice for their existence would be thrown into sudden starvation by the withdrawal of the water. Thus have the nations died out like a fire for lack of fuel. This cause will account for the decay of the great cities of Ceylon. The population gone, the wind and the rain would howl through the deserted dwellings, the white ants would devour the supporting beams
El Dorado
Pimpernel in the New World
El Verdugo
A cold sweat rolled from the officer's brow. He wore no sword. He was confident that his soldiers were
murdered, and that the English were about to disembark. He saw himself dishonored if he lived,
summoned before a council of war to explain his want of vigilance; then he measured with his eye the
depths of the descent, and was springing towards it when Clara's hand seized his.
Elinor Wyllys, Volume 1
Jane, too, left Elinor a few days later; and Miss Wyllys, who had charge of her--as Mr. and Mrs. Graham lived in Charleston--placed her at one of the fashionable boarding schools of New York. Miss Adeline Taylor had, in the mean time, informed her parents that she had changed her mind as to the school which was to have the honour of completing her education: she should NOT return to Mrs. A-----'s, but go to Mrs. G-----'s--by Susan Fenimore Cooper
Elinor Wyllys, Volume 2
"Something far better than mere decoration; however, is requisite to make society at all agreeable," continued Mr. Ellsworth. "There is luxury enough among us, in eating and drinking, dressing and furniture, for instance; and yet what can well be more silly, more puerile, than the general tone of conversation at common parties among us? --by Susan Fenimore Cooper, edited by her father James
Elissa, or The Doom of Zimbabwe
At length, as the two men sat thus silently, for the place and its gloom oppressed them, a sound broke upon the quiet of the night, that beginning with a low wail such as might come from the lips of a mourner, ended in a chant or song. The voice, which seemed close at hand, was low, rich and passionate. At times it sank almost to a sob
Elsie Venner
"Nobody can tell. Elsie is not like anybody else. The girls who have seen most of her think she hates men, all but
'Dudley,' as she calls her father. Some of them doubt whether she loves him. They doubt whether she can love
anything human, except perhaps the old black woman who has taken care of her since she was a baby.
Emma
Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.
Endymion
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases; it will never...
by John Keats
England
England has played a part in modern history altogether out of proportion to its size. The whole of Great Britain, including Ireland, has only eleven thousand more square miles than Italy; and England and Wales alone are not half so large as Italy. England alone is about the size of North Carolina.
English Traits
my narrow and desultory reading had inspired the wish to see the faces of three or four writers, -- Coleridge, Wordsworth, Landor, De Quincey, and the latest and strongest contributor to the critical journals, Carlyle; and I suppose if I had sifted the reasons that led me to Europe, when I was ill and was advised to travel, it was mainly the attraction of these persons.
Enoch Arden and Other Poems
Three children of three houses, Annie Lee,/The prettiest little damsel in the port,/And Philip Ray the miller's only son,/And Enoch Arden, a rough sailor's lad -- by Tennyson
Made orphan by a winter shipwreck
Enoch Soames
It occurs to you that he was a fool? It didn't to me. I was young, and had not the clarity of
judgment that Rothenstein already had. Soames was quite five or six years older than either of us.
Also--he had written a book. It was wonderful to have written a book.
Epicoene, or the Silent Woman
The doing of it, not the manner: that must be priuate. Many things, that seeme foule, in the doing, do please,
done. A lady should, indeede, study her face, when we thinke she sleepes: nor, when the dores are shut, should
men be inquiring; all is sacred within, then.
Equality
The well-known theory upon which Rousseau's superstructure rests is that society is the result of a compact, a partnership between men. They have not made an agreement to submit their individual sovereignty to some superior power, but they have made a covenant of brotherhood. It is a contract of association. Men were, and ought to be, equal cooperators, not only in politics, but in industries and all the affairs of life.
Erec et Enide
The damsel advanced and tried to pass him by force, holding the dwarf in slight esteem when
she saw that he was so small. Then the dwarf raised his whip, when he saw her coming toward him
and tried to strike her in the face. She raised her arm to protect herself, but he lifted his hand again
and struck her all unprotected on her bare hand
Erewhon
This is what I gathered. That in that country if a man falls into ill health, or catches any disorder, or fails bodily in any way before he is seventy years old, he is tried before a jury of his countrymen, and if convicted is held up to public scorn and sentenced more or less severely as the case may be. There are subdivisions of illnesses into crimes and misdemeanours
Erewhon Revisited
It was Panky, not Hanky, who had given him the Musical Bank money. Panky was the greater humbug of the two, for he would humbug even himself--a thing, by the way, not very hard to do; and yet he was the less successful humbug, for he could humbug no one who was worth humbugging--not for long.
Eric Brighteyes
"Make place, my father," said Gudruda, "for Eric bleeds." And she loosed the kerchief from her neck and
bound it about his wounded brow, and, taking the rich cloak from her body, threw it on his shoulders,
and no man said her nay.
Essay On Machiavelli
One hypothesis is, that Machiavelli intended to practice on the young Lorenzo de' Medici a fraud similar to that which Sunderland is said to have employed against our James II, and that he urged his pupil to violent and perfidious measures, as the surest means of accelerating the moment of deliverance and revenge. --by Thomas Babington Macaulay
Essays
THE inconstancy and various motions of fortune may reasonably make us expect she would present us with all sorts of faces. Can there be a more express act of justice than this? The Duke of Valentinois having resolved to poison Adrian, Cardinal of Corneto, with whom Pope Alexander VI., his father and himself, were to sup in the Vatican-- by Michel de Montaigne
Essays
A childish pleasure in producing small mechanical effects unaided must have some part in the sense of enterprise wherewith you gird your shoulders with the tackle, and set out, alone but necessary, on the even path of the lopped and grassy side of the Thames--the side of meadows.
ESSAYS ON SUICIDE AND THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
Matter, therefore, and spirit, are at bottom equally unknown, and we cannot determine what qualities inhere in the one or in the other. ([editor's note] 2) They likewise teach us that nothing can be decided concerning any cause or effect, and that experience being the only source of our judgements of this nature, we cannot know from any other principle, whether matter, by its structure or arrangement, may not be the cause of thought.--David Hume
Essays, First Series
This voice of fable has in it somewhat divine. It came from thought above the will of the writer.
That is the best part of each writer which has nothing private in it; that which he does not know;
that which flowed out of his constitution and not from his too active invention; that which in the
study of a single artist you might not easily find,
Essays, Second Series
If I have described life as a flux of moods, I must now add that there is that in us which changes not and which ranks all sensations and
states of mind. The consciousness in each man is a sliding scale, which identifies him now with the First Cause, and now with the flesh of his
body; life above life, in infinite degrees. The sentiment from which it sprung determines the dignity of any deed
Ethan Frome
ETHAN WENT OUT into the passage to hang up his wet garments. He listened for Zeena's step and, not
hearing it, called her name up the stairs. She did not answer, and after a moment's hesitation he went up and
opened her door. The room was almost dark, but in the obscurity he saw her sitting by the window, bolt
upright
Eugenie Grandet
You will excuse me if my occupations do not permit me to accompany you. You may perhaps hear people say that I am rich,--Monsieur Grandet this, Monsieur Grandet that. I let them talk; their gossip does not hurt my credit. But I have not a penny; I work in my old age like an apprentice whose worldly goods are a bad plane and two good arms.
Euthydemus
We contrived at last, somehow or other, to agree in a general conclusion, that he who had wisdom had no need of fortune. I then recalled to his mind the previous state of the question. You remember, I said, our making the admission that we should be happy and fortunate if many good things were present with us?
Euthyphro
Euth. I am amused, Socrates, at your making a distinction between one who is a relation and one who is not a relation; for surely the pollution is the same in either case, if you knowingly associate with the murderer when you ought to clear yourself and him by proceeding against him. The real question is whether the murdered man has been justly slain.
Evangeline
FOUR times the sun had risen and set; and now on the fifth day/Cheerily called the cock to the sleeping maids of the farm-house./Soon o'er the yellow fields, in silent and mournful procession,/Came from the neighboring hamlets and farms the Acadian women,/Driving in ponderous wains their household goods to the sea-shore,--by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Eve and David
Marriage brings profound mental and physical perturbations into a girl's life; and if she marries under the ordinary conditions of lower middle-class life, she must moreover begin to study totally new interests and initiate herself in the intricacies of business. With marriage, therefore, she enters upon a phase of her existence when she is necessarily on the watch before she can act.
Evergreens
In the mellow days of autumn, when the trees, like dames no longer young, seek to forget their aged looks under gorgeous bright-toned robes of gold and brown and purple, and the grain is yellow in the fields, and the ruddy fruit hangs clustering from the drooping boughs, and the wooded hills in their thousand hues stretched like leafy rainbows above the vale--ah! surely they look their dullest and dowdiest then.
Every Man in His Humour
How happy would I estimate my selfe,/Could I (by any meane) retyre my son,/From one vayne course of study he affects?/He is a scholler (if a man may trust/The lib'rall voyce of double-toung'd report)
Evolution and Ethics
Let us now imagine that some administrative authority, as far superior in power and intelligence to
men, as men are to their cattle, is set over the colony, charged to deal with its human elements in
such a manner as to assure the victory of the settlement over the antagonistic influences of the
state of nature in which it is set down. He would proceed in the same fashion as that in which the
gardener dealt with his garden.--by T.H. Huxley
Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven
Then I fainted. I don't know how long I was insensible, but it must have been a good while, for, when I came to, the darkness was all gone and there was the loveliest sunshine and the balmiest, fragrantest air in its place. And there was such a marvellous world spread out before me - such a glowing, beautiful, bewitching country.
Extracts From Adam's Diary
This new creature with the long hair is a good deal in the way. It is always hanging around and following me about. I don't like this; I am not used to company. I wish it would stay with the other animals. Cloudy to-day, wind in the east; think we shall have rain. ... Where did I get that word? ... I remember now-- the new creature uses it.
EYES OF THE SHADOW
"You are wise, my boy. From what you have told me, your uncle must have some enemy. I thought about it as I came home last night. We must be wise when we are dealing with unknown dangers. We must meet guile with guile. Your uncle was a brave and fearless man; better than that, he was keen and perceptive. He knew how to meet those who plotted against him. You remind me of your uncle."
Fables
"Here is a pretty state of things!" said the traveller. "Dying for a smoke; only one match left;
and that certain to miss fire! Was there ever a creature so unfortunate? And yet," thought the
traveller, "suppose I light this match, and smoke my pipe, and shake out the dottle here in the
grass - the grass might catch on fire, for it is dry like tinder
Facino Cane
My ideas, no doubt, were passing through his mind, for all processes of thought- communications are far more swift, I think, in blind people, because their blindness compels them to concentrate their attention. I had not long to wait for proof that we were in sympathy in this way. Facino Cane left off playing, and came up to me.
Falk
And I liked this because I had a rather worrying time on board my own ship. I had been appointed ex-officio by
the British Consul to take charge of her after a man who had died suddenly, leaving for the guidance of his
successor some suspiciously un- receipted bills, a few dry-dock estimates hinting at bribery, and a quantity of
vouchers for three years' extravagant expenditure; all these mixed up to- gether in a dusty old violin-case lined
with ruby velvet.
Fanny and the Servant Problem
FANNY. I can't help what other people may have done. Because some silly idiot of a man may possibly--[She will try a new tack. She leaves the door and comes to him.] Uncle, dear, wouldn't it be simpler for you all to go away? He's awfully fond of me. He'll do anything I ask him. I could merely say that I didn't like you and get him to pension you off. --by Jerome K. Jerome
Fanny Hill
Additional proofing provided by Eben Visher. The notorious work by author John Cleland. Not a book for children.
Far From the Madding Crowd
She was the young woman of the night before. Gabriel instantly thought of the hat she had
mentioned as having lost in the wind; possibly she had come to look for it. He hastily scanned the ditch
and after walking about ten yards along it found the hat among the leaves. Gabriel took it in his hand
and returned to his hut. Here he ensconced himself, and peeped through the loophole in the direction of
the rider's approach.
Faraday As A Discoverer
Faraday subjected these
secondary actions to an exhaustive examination. Instructed by his experiments, and rendered
competent by them to distinguish between primary and secondary results, he proceeds to
establish the doctrine of 'Definite Electro-chemical Decomposition.' --by John Tyndall
Fashions in Literature
The more important result of the study of past fashions, in engravings and paintings, remains to be spoken of. It is that in all the illustrations, from the simplicity of Athens, through the artificiality of Louis XIV and the monstrosities of Elizabeth, down to the undescribed modistic inventions of the first McKinley, there is discoverable a radical and primitive law of beauty.
Father Goriot
Eugene stared at his neighbor in dumb and dazed bewilderment. He thought of Vautrin, of that duel to be fought to-morrow morning, and of this realization of his dearest hopes, and the violent contrast between the two sets of ideas gave him all the sensations of nightmare. He went to the chimney-piece, saw the little square case, opened it, and found a watch of Breguet's make wrapped in paper, on which these words were written:
Father Sergius
For some weeks Father Sergius had been living with one persistent thought: whether he was right in accepting the position in which he had not so much placed himself as been placed by the Archimandrite and the Abbot. That position had begun after the recovery of the fourteen-year-old boy. From that time, with each month, week, and day that passed, Sergius felt his own inner life wasting away and being replaced by external life.
Fathers and Sons
His name was Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov. He owned, about twelve miles from the posting station, a fine property of two hundred serfs or, as he called it--since he had arranged the division of his land with the peasants--a "farm" of nearly five thousand acres. His father, a general in the army, who had served in 1812, a crude, almost illiterate, but good-natured type of Russian, had stuck to a routine job all his life
Faust
From the same to the same/
VILLAGE OF M....OE, June 16, 1850./
WELL, my dear fellow, I have been at her house, I have seen her. First of all, I must communicate to thee a remarkable circumstance: believe me or not, as thou wilt, but she has hardly changed at all, either in face or in figure.
FEAR CAY
Doc was listening. His sense of hearing was fabulously keen, due to a scientific device, an apparatus emitting sound waves of a frequency above and below the audible range, with which he attuned his ears for a certain period each day, as a part of a two-hour exercise routine that he had not missed taking each twenty-four hours for many years.
Federal Usurpation
Kings have ever been the bugaboo of our American people; but the President of the United States to-day, in the legitimate exercise of his authority, exercises a greater power than any constitutional sovereign on the face of the earth, his power in Europe being exceeded only by that of the czar or the sultan. All the bulwarks of liberty were reared not against the English Parliament but against the English king.
Fennel and Rue
Even in the time which was then coming and which now is, when successful authors are almost as many as millionaires, Verrian's book brought him a pretty celebrity; and this celebrity was in a way specific. It related to the quality of his work, which was quietly artistic and psychological, whatever liveliness of incident it uttered on the surface. He belonged to the good school which is of no fashion
Ferragus
A fine thing is the task of a spy, when performed for one's own benefit and in the interests of a passion. Is it not giving ourselves the pleasure of a thief and a rascal while continuing honest men? But there is another side to it; we must resign ourselves to boil with anger, to roar with impatience, to freeze our feet in the mud, to be numbed, and roasted, and torn by false hopes. We must go, on the faith of a mere indication, to a vague object
Findelkind
When spring came, Findelkind sat by the edge of the bright pure water among the flowering grasses, and felt his heart heavy. Findelkind of Arlberg who was in heaven now must look down, he fancied, and think him so stupid and so selfish, sitting there. The first Findelkind, a few centuries before, had trotted down on his bare feet from his mountain pass, and taken his little crook, and gone out boldly over all the land on his pilgrimage
FINGERS OF DEATH
Any person who had visited the Preston home could shortly have familiarized itself with its devious side halls and stairways. Another visitor, therefore, would have chosen such a course; but to The Shadow, walls were as accessible as stairs; and with the party in progress on the ground floor, the wall was preferable.
Finished
Waking very early, as is my habit, I peeped out of the wagon, and through the morning mist perceived Footsack in converse with a particularly villainous-looking person. I at once concluded this must be Karl, evidently a Bastard compounded of about fifteen parts of various native bloods to one of white, who, to add to his attractions, was deeply scarred with smallpox and possessed a really alarming squint.
Fire-Tongue
His investigation of the case of the man with the shaven skull afforded an instance of this, and even more notable was his first meeting with Major Jack Ragstaff of the Cavalry Club, a meeting which took place after the office had been closed, but which led to the unmasking of perhaps the most cunning murderer in the annals of crime.
First Across the Continent
The despatches sent to Washington by these men contained the first official report from Lewis and Clark since their departure from St. Louis, May 16, 1803; and they were the last word from the explorers until their return in September, 1806. During all that long interval, the adventurers were not heard of in the States.--by Noah Brooks
Five Children and It
The morning after the children had been the possessors of boundless wealth, and had been
unable to buy anything really useful or enjoyable with it, except two pairs of cotton gloves,
twelve penny buns, an imitation crocodile-skin purse, and a ride in a pony-cart, they awoke
without any of the enthusiastic happiness which they had felt on the previous day
Five Comedies -- As You Like It, Pericles
Cymbeline, Measure for Measure, and Troilus and Cressida. In one vol. Also have the Chaucer version of Troilus and Creseyde, will soon have the Chretian de Troyes.
Five Comedies -- The Merry Wives of Windsor,
A Midsummer Night's
Dream, Love's Labours Lost, All's Well That Ends
Well, The Comedy of Errors -- in one volume
Five Tales
In the last day of May in the early 'nineties, about six o'clock of the evening, old Jolyon Forsyte sat under the oak
tree below the terrace of his house at Robin Hill. He was waiting for the midges to bite him, before
abandoning the glory of the afternoon. His thin brown hand, where blue veins stood out, held the end of a cigar
in its tapering, long-nailed fingers
Five Tragedies -- Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Coriolanus,
Timon of Athens, and Titus Andronicus. Complete in one vol.
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
There being no sun nor other heavenly bodies, it is impossible for us to determine the North in the usual way; but we have a method of our own. By a Law of Nature with us, there is a constant attraction to the South; and, although in temperate climates this is very slight -- so that even a Woman in reasonable health can journey several furlongs northward without much difficulty--by Edwin A. Abbot
Flower Fables
DOWN among the grass and fragrant clover lay little Eva by the brook-side, watching the bright waves, as they
went singing by under the drooping flowers that grew on its banks. As she was wondering where the waters
went, she heard a faint, low sound, as of far-off music. She thought it was the wind, but not a leaf was stirring,
and soon through the rippling water came a strange little boat
Flying U Ranch
Just at present an unthinking, unobserving person might pass over this sheep outfit as a mere unsavory incident; but Weary was neither unobserving nor unthinking--nor, for the matter of that, were the rest of the Happy Family. It needed no Happy Jack, with his foreboding nature, to point out the unpleasant possibilities that night when the committee of two made their informal report at the supper table.
FOGGERTY'S FAIRY
REBECCA [looking at FOGGERTY]. Well, it's about time to wake him.
Poor fellow, he little thinks how materially his acquaintance with
Miss Spiff has affected his subsequent adventures! Now that he has
obliterated her and all the complicated consequences that came of his
having known her, he won't know whether he's on his head or his heels.
I'm really rather sorry for him. --by W.S. Gilbert
Folle-Farine
The old serving woman, terrified in so far as her dull brutish nature could be roused to fear, did what she knew, what she dared. She raised the little wounded naked creature, and carried her to her own pallet bed; restored her to consciousness by such rude means as she had knowledge of, and staunched the flow of blood.
Following the Equator
There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is
cowardice.
--Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.
Names are not always what they seem. The common Welsh name Bzjxxllwep is
pronounced Jackson.
--Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.
(More to this book, but the calender entries tripped me out)
For The Term of His Natural Life
So far the appearance of the vessel differed in nowise from that of an ordinary transport. But
in the waist a curious sight presented itself. It was as though one had built a cattle-pen there.
At the foot of the foremast, and at the quarter-deck, a strong barricade, loop-holed and
furnished with doors for ingress and egress, ran across the deck from bulwark to bulwark.--by Marcus Clarke
FORGOTTEN GOLD
Althorn scarcely heard what Bob told him. His milky eyes had a faraway stare. His lips, half opened, were delivering little moans, which made the onlookers think that Althorn still blamed himself for Peld's death, until they saw his eyes turn toward the wrecked gold-finder.
FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE
NOT everybody in the world had heard of Doc Savage. But too many had. Doc Savage - Clark Savage, Jr. - had of late been trying to evade further publicity, and he had an understanding, finally, with the newspaper press associations, with some of the larger newspapers, and with most of the fact-story magazines extant. They weren't to print anything about him. They were to leave his name out of their headlines.
FOUNTAIN OF DEATH
Clever of Claybourne to have his wall safe in this room, the last place where anyone would look for it. All around the walls were trophies of the hunt, not Claybourne's expeditions but those of less grasping relatives who had wasted time as sportsmen during the last few generations.
FOXHOUND
Cranston had called up Weston the evening before, had innocently led the talk to the subject of Leland Payne's death and the pier murders; and Weston, excited and jubilant, had given him a tip. The tip, just received from Washington, concerned the identity of the mysterious "Herbert Baker," whose still unsolved murder aboard the Loire had plunged the city into its most baffling crime puzzle of a decade.
Framley Parsonage
It will be necessary that I should say a word or two of some of the people named in the few preceding pages,
and also of the localities in which they lived. Of Lady Lufton herself enough, perhaps, has been written to
introduce her to my readers. The Framley property belonged to her son; but as Lufton Park--an ancient
ramshackle place in another county--had heretofore been the family residence of the Lufton family
Francis Drake's Voyage Round the World
But the wind falling contrary, he was
forced the next morning to put into Falmouth Haven, in Cornwall, where such and so terrible a
tempest took us, as few men have seen the like, and was indeed so vehement that all our ships
were like to have gone to wrack. But it pleased God to preserve us from that extremity and to
afflict us only for that present with these two particulars--by Francis Pretty
Frank Merriwell's Limit
"There," said Frank, as he stood the caddish little wretch on his feet, "that's just a taste of what you really deserve, and it's a warning, of what you'll get if I ever hear you mention those young ladies again! You have told your dirty stories about me till you have reached the limit, along with the rest of your set. Go tell them what has happened to you-- by Burt L. Standish
Frank's Campaign; Or the Farm and the Camp
"It isn't so much that which is required. A man could easily be found to do the hardest of the work. But somebody is needed who understands farming, and is qualified to give directions. How much do you know of that?"
Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus
It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out
Fraternity
The marriage of Sylvanus Stone, Professor of the Natural Sciences, to Anne, daughter of Mr. Justice Carfax, of
the well-known county family--the Carfaxes of Spring Deans, Hants--was recorded in the sixties. The baptisms
of Martin, Cecilia, and Bianca, son and daughters of Sylvanus and Anne Stone, were to be discovered
registered in Kensington in the three consecutive years following
FREAK SHOW MURDERS
Everybody lost when they played Pop's games, but they didn't ordinarily blame him for it. This trip the carnival folk had occasion to grouse because instead of unpacking in the morning, they had been traveling all day with nothing to do but toss away more money and the fault was definitely Pop's.
Freckles
The Boss showed him around the timber-line, and engaged him a place to board with the family of his head teamster, Duncan, whom he had brought from Scotland with him, and who lived in a small clearing he was working out between the swamp and the corduroy. When the gang was started for the south camp, Freckles was left to guard a fortune in the Limberlost. That he was under guard himself those first weeks he never knew.
Fred Fearnot's Day, or The Great Reunion at Avon
Mr. Tracy was a small, thin man, wearing eyeglasses, and always carried himself with as much dignity as Professor Lambert. The students always stood in awe of him, but now that they were no longer students, they remembered him only as a kind teacher, and were anxious to show their appreciation of him. -- by Hal Standish
Fred Fearnot's Revenge, or Defeating a Congressman
The letter that gave him the most uneasiness was from his lawyer at Ashton. He stated that the member of the Legislature from that County, at the instance of about two score farmers, living within a radius of eight or ten miles of the lake, had introduced a hill in the Legislature to take from him the right to control the fishing in the lake, and it had come very near being passed, pretty nearly all the members from the rural districts being in favor of it. --by Hal Standish
From Ghost Stories of An Antiquary
At last, some time past midnight, he was
disposed to turn in, and he put out his lamp after lighting his bedroom candle. The picture lay face upwards on
the table where the last man who looked at it had put it, and it caught his eye as he turned the lamp down.
What he saw made him very nearly drop the candle on the floor -- by M.R. James
From Hebrew Melodies
SHE walks in beauty like the night /Of cloudless climes and starry skies, /And all that's best of dark and bright /Meet in her aspect and her eyes; --by Lord Byron
From Mosses From An Old Manse
Includes the very controversial tale "The Birthmark."
From Mountain Interval
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,/And sorry I could not travel both/
And be one traveler, long I stood/And looked down one as far as I could/To where it bent in the undergrowth;
From the Earth to the Moon
On the 5th of October, at eight p.m., a dense crowd pressed toward the saloons of the Gun Club at
No. 21 Union Square. All the members of the association resident in Baltimore attended the invitation
of their president. As regards the corresponding members, notices were delivered by hundreds
throughout the streets of the city, and, large as was the great hall, it was quite inadequate to
accommodate the crowd of savants.
From the Memoirs of a Minister of France
Same period as Gent. of France.
From The Snow Image
"I do believe," said he, soberly, "or, at least, I could believe, if I chose, that there is a devil in this pile of blotted papers. You have read them, and know what I mean,--that conception in which I endeavored to embody the character of a fiend, -- "The Devil in Manuscript"
From Twice-Told Tales
But under whatever titular blunders we receive this book it is most cordially welcome. We have seen no prose composition by any American which can compare with some of these articles in the higher merits, or indeed in the lower -- from review by Edgar Alan Poe
Froude's History of England
But it is more than unwise to boast and rejoice that the former times were worse than these; and to teach
young people to say in their hearts, 'What clever fellows we are, compared with our stupid old fogies of
fathers!' More than unwise; for possibly it may be false in fact. To look at the political and moral state of
Europe at this moment, Christendom can hardly afford to look down on any preceding century--by Charles Kingsley
Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals
We shall therefore have to investigate a priori the possibility of a categorical imperative, as we have not in this
case the advantage of its reality being given in experience, so that [the elucidation of] its possibility should be
requisite only for its explanation, not for its establishment. In the meantime it may be discerned beforehand
that the categorical imperative alone has the purport of a practical law
Further Considerations Concerning Raising the Value of Money
that the World will not wonder you should not be for such a lessening our Coin, as will, without any Reason, deprive great Numbers of blameless Men of a Fifth Part of their Estates, beyond the Relief of Chancery. I hope this Age will scape so great a Blemish. I doubt not but there are many, who, for the Service of their Countrey, and for the Support of the Government, would gladly part with, not only one Fifth, but a much larger Portion of their Estates--by John Locke
