Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:03

Excerpt #1, from The Sea

…any such sacrifice for Sir Oliver, could not believe Sir Oliver capable of persisting in such a sacrifice as future events might impose. He reverted to those words Sir Oliver had uttered in that very room two nights ago, and more firmly than ever he concluded that they could have but one meaning. Then came doubt, and, finally, assurance of another sort, assurance that this was not so and that he knew it; assurance that he lied to himself, seeking to condone the thing he did. He took his head in his hands and groaned loud. He was a villain, a black-hearted, soulless villain! He reviled himself again. There came a moment when he rose shuddering, resolved even in this eleventh hour to go after his brother and save him from the doom that awaited him out yonder in the night. But again that resolve was withered by the breath of selfish fear. Limply he resumed his seat, and his thoughts took a fresh turn. They considered now those matters which had engaged them on that day when Sir Oliver had ridden to Arwenack to claim satisfaction of Sir John Killigrew. He realized again that Oliver being removed, what he now enjoyed by his brother’s bounty he would enjoy henceforth in his own unquestioned right. The reflection brought him a certain consolation. If he must suffer for his villainy, at least there would be compensations….

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Excerpt #2, from The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, by Oscar Wilde

…vegetarians and people like that. Besides I have just made arrangements with Dr. Chasuble to be christened at a quarter to six under the name of Ernest. JACK. My dear fellow, the sooner you give up that nonsense the better. I made arrangements this morning with Dr. Chasuble to be christened myself at 5.30, and I naturally will take the name of Ernest. Gwendolen would wish it. We can’t both be christened Ernest. It’s absurd. Besides, I have a perfect right to be christened if I like. There is no evidence at all that I have ever been christened by anybody. I should think it extremely probable I never was, and so does Dr. Chasuble. It is entirely different in your case. You have been christened already. ALGERNON. Yes, but I have not been christened for years. JACK. Yes, but you have been christened. That is the important thing. ALGERNON. Quite so. So I know my constitution can stand it. If you are not quite sure about your ever having been christened, I must say I think it rather dangerous your venturing on it now. It might make you very unwell. You can hardly have forgotten that some one very closely…

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Excerpt #3, from Thought Forms, by Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater

…usually expands to life-size before it appears at its destination. 2. That which takes the image of some material object. When a man thinks of his friend he forms within his mental body a minute image of that friend, which often passes outward and usually floats suspended in the air before him. In the same way if he thinks of a room, a house, a landscape, tiny images of these things are formed within the mental body and afterwards externalised. This is equally true when he is exercising his imagination; the painter who forms a conception of his future picture builds it up out of the matter of his mental body, and then projects it into space in front of him, keeps it before his mind’s eye, and copies it. The novelist in the same way builds images of his character in mental matter, and by the exercise of his will moves these puppets from one position or grouping to another, so that the plot of his story is literally acted out before him. With our curiously inverted conceptions of reality it is hard for us to understand that these mental images actually exist, and are so entirely objective that they may readily be seen by the clairvoyant, and can even be rearranged by some one other than their creator. Some novelists have been dimly aware of such a process, and have testified that their characters when once created developed a will of their own, and insisted on carrying the plot of the story along lines quite different from those originally intended…

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Excerpt #4, from Greenmantle, by John Buchan

…where we have the pull on him. He’s welcome to the screws we left behind, and if he finds an operator before the evening I’m the worst kind of a Dutchman. I’m going to break all the rules and bucket this car for what she’s worth. Don’t you see that the nearer we get to Erzerum the safer we are?” “I don’t follow,” he said slowly. “At Erzerum I reckon they’ll be waiting for us with the handcuffs. Why in thunder couldn’t those hairy ragamuffins keep the little cuss safe? Your record’s a bit too precipitous, Major, for the most innocent-minded military boss.” “Do you remember what you said about the Germans being open to bluff? Well, I’m going to put up the steepest sort of bluff. Of course they’ll stop us. Rasta will do his damnedest. But remember that he and his friends are not very popular with the Germans, and Madame von Einem is. We’re her proteges, and the bigger the German swell I get before the safer I’ll feel. We’ve got our passports and our orders, and he’ll be a bold man that will stop us once we get into the German zone. Therefore I’m going to hurry as fast as God will let me.” It was a ride that deserved to have an epic written about it. The car was good, and I handled her well, though I say it who shouldn’t. The road in that big central plain was fair, and often I knocked fifty miles an hour out of her. We passed troops by a circuit over the veld,…

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Excerpt #5, from The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses, by Robert Louis Stevenson

…“It bears your father’s name,” continued the knight; “and our poor shrew of a parson is, by some mad soul, accused of slaying him.” “He did most eagerly deny it,” answered Dick. “He did?” cried the knight, very sharply. “Heed him not. He has a loose tongue; he babbles like a jack-sparrow. Some day, when I may find the leisure, Dick, I will myself more fully inform you of these matters. There was one Duckworth shrewdly blamed for it; but the times were troubled, and there was no justice to be got.” “It befell at the Moat House?” Dick ventured, with a beating at his heart. “It befell between the Moat House and Holywood,” replied Sir Daniel, calmly; but he shot a covert glance, black with suspicion, at Dick’s face. “And now,” added the knight, “speed you with your meal; ye shall return to Tunstall with a line from me.” Dick’s face fell sorely. “Prithee, Sir Daniel,” he cried, “send one of the villains! I beseech you let me to the battle. I can strike a stroke, I promise you.” “I misdoubt it not,” replied Sir Daniel, sitting down to write. "But here, Dick, is no honour to be won. I lie in Kettley till I have sure tidings of the war, and then ride to join me with the conqueror. Cry not on cowardice; it is but wisdom, Dick; for this poor realm so tosseth…

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Excerpt #6, from Ocean Steam Navigation and the Ocean Post, by Thomas Rainey

…Adriatic, 4,144-74/95 tons: Atlantic, 2,849-66/99 tons: Baltic, 2,733-1/95 tons. Havre Line, 2 steamers, 4,548 tons. Arago, 2,240 tons: Fulton, 2,308 tons. Vanderbilt Bremen Line, 3 steamers, 6,523 tons. North Star, 1,867-60/95 tons: Ariel, 1,295-28/95 tons: Vanderbilt[H], 3,360-54/95 tons. [H] Independent, running between New-York, Southampton, and Havre, in connection with the Bremen steamers. United States Mail Steamship Company, 6 steamers, 8,544 tons. Illinois, 2,123-65/95 tons: Empire City, 1,751-21/95 tons: Philadelphia, 1,238-1/95 tons: Granada, 1,058-90/95 tons: Moses Taylor, 1,200 tons: Star of the West, chartered, 1,172-1/95, (contracting for a new ship.) Pacific Mail Steamship Company, 13 steamers, 16,421 tons. Golden Gate, 2,067-35/95 tons: Golden Age, 2,280 tons: J. L. Stephens, 2,189 tons: Sonora, 1,616 tons: St. Louis, 1,621 tons: Panamá, 1,087-31/95 tons: California, 1,085-64/95 tons: Oregon, 1,099-9/95 tons: Columbia, 777-34/95 tons: Republic, 850 tons: Northerner, 1,010 tons: Fremont, 576 tons: Tobago, 189 tons. Charleston, Savannah, Key West, and Havana, 1 steamer, the Isabel,…

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Excerpt #7, from The Busy Life of Eighty Five Years of Ezra Meeker, by Ezra Meeker

…great numbers already on hand landed by previous steamers. The staking of lots on the tide flats at night, when the tide was out, seemed to be a staple industry. Driving of piles or planting of posts as permanent as possible often preceded and accompanied by high words between contestants came to be a commonplace occurrence. The belief among these people seemed to be that if they could get stakes or posts to stand on end, and a six-inch strip nailed to them to encompass a given spot of the flats, that they would thereby become the owner, and so the merry war went on until the bubble burst. A few days after my arrival four steamers came with an aggregate of over two thousand passengers, many of whom, however, did not leave the steamer and took passage either to their port of departure, San Francisco, Victoria, or points on the Sound. The ebb tide had set in, and although many steamers came later and landed passengers, their return lists soon became large and the population began to diminish. Taking my little dory that we had with us on the scow, I rowed out to the largest steamer lying at anchor surrounded by small boats so numerous that in common parlance the number was measured by the acre, “an acre of boats.” Whether or not an acre of space was covered by these craft striving to reach the steamer I will not pretend to say, but can say that I certainly could not get within a hundred feet of…

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Excerpt #8, from Ulysses, by James Joyce

…the forest. The flowers that bloom in the spring. It was pairing time. Capillary attraction is a natural phenomenon. Lotty Clarke, flaxenhaired, I saw at her night toilette through illclosed curtains with poor papa’s operaglasses: The wanton ate grass wildly. She rolled downhill at Rialto bridge to tempt me with her flow of animal spirits. She climbed their crooked tree and I… A saint couldn’t resist it. The demon possessed me. Besides, who saw? (Staggering Bob, a whitepolled calf, thrusts a ruminating head with humid nostrils through the foliage.) STAGGERING BOB: (Large teardrops rolling from his prominent eyes, snivels.) Me. Me see. BLOOM: Simply satisfying a need I… (With pathos.) No girl would when I went girling. Too ugly. They wouldn’t play… (High on Ben Howth through rhododendrons a nannygoat passes, plumpuddered, buttytailed, dropping currants.) THE NANNYGOAT: (Bleats.) Megeggaggegg! Nannannanny! BLOOM: (Hatless, flushed, covered with burrs of thistledown and gorsespine.) Regularly engaged. Circumstances alter cases. (He gazes intently downwards on the water.) Thirtytwo head over heels per second. Press nightmare. Giddy Elijah. Fall from cliff. Sad end of government printer’s clerk. _(Through silversilent summer air the dummy…

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Excerpt #9, from A Study in Scarlet, by Arthur Conan Doyle

…such occasions, Lucy was silent, but her blushing cheek and her bright, happy eyes, showed only too clearly that her young heart was no longer her own. Her honest father may not have observed these symptoms, but they were assuredly not thrown away upon the man who had won her affections. It was a summer evening when he came galloping down the road and pulled up at the gate. She was at the doorway, and came down to meet him. He threw the bridle over the fence and strode up the pathway. “I am off, Lucy,” he said, taking her two hands in his, and gazing tenderly down into her face; “I won’t ask you to come with me now, but will you be ready to come when I am here again?” “And when will that be?” she asked, blushing and laughing. “A couple of months at the outside. I will come and claim you then, my darling. There’s no one who can stand between us.” “And how about father?” she asked. “He has given his consent, provided we get these mines working all right. I have no fear on that head.” “Oh, well; of course, if you and father have arranged it all, there’s no more to be said,” she whispered, with her cheek against his broad breast. “Thank God!” he said, hoarsely, stooping and kissing her. “It is…

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Excerpt #10, from Guide to Fortune Telling, by Dreams, by Anonymous

…because such a dream indicates that you will not prosper in it; to the sailor it denotes storms and shipwreck, with disappointment in love. Fire.–To dream of this subtle element denotes health and happiness to the lover, marriage with the object of your affections, and many children; you will be very angry with some one on a trifling occasion. Burning lights descending, as it were from heaven, are a very bad sign; it portends some dreadful accident–having your brains dashed out, breaking your legs, getting into prison, or other strange accidents; to the lover it also denotes the loss of the affections of your sweetheart; to the tradesman bad fortune in business. To dream that you are burnt by fire denotes great danger, and that enemies will injure you. Fishing.–To dream you are fishing is a sure sign of sorrow and trouble; if you catch any fish you will be successful in love and business; if you catch none you will never marry your present sweetheart, nor succeed in your present undertakings; if they slip out of your hands after you have caught them, the person you marry will be of a roving disposition, and some pretended friend will deceive you. Flowers.–To dream you are gathering flowers is a very favorable omen; expect to thrive in everything you undertake, and that you will be successful in love, marry happily, and have beautiful children; should…

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Excerpt #11, from Ox Team Days on the Oregon Trail, by Howard R. Driggs and Ezra Meeker

…June 14. Passed seven new-made graves. June 16. Passed eleven new graves. June 17. Passed six new graves. June 18. We have passed twenty-one new graves today. June 19. Passed thirteen graves today. June 20. Passed ten graves. June 21. No report. June 22. Passed seven graves. If we should go by the camping grounds, we should see five times as many graves as we do. This report of Mrs. Adams’s, coupled with the facts that a parallel column from which we have no report was traveling up the south side of the river, and that the outbreak of cholera had taken place originally in this column coming from the southeast, fully confirms the estimate of five thousand deaths on the Plains in 1852. It is probably under rather than over the actual number. To the emigrants the fact that all the graves were new-made brought an added touch of sadness. The graves of previous years had disappeared, leveled by the storms of wind or rain, by the hoofs of the stock, or possibly by ravages of the hungry wolf. Many believed that the Indians had robbed the graves for the clothing on the bodies. Whatever the cause, all, or nearly all, graves of previous years were lost, and we…

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Excerpt #12, from The Satyricon — Complete, by Petronius Arbiter

…with whatever spoils the villa of Lycurgus had yielded when we robbed it; as for money against present needs, the Mother of the Gods would see to that, out of regard to her own good name! “Well, what’s to prevent our putting on an extravaganza?” demanded Eumolpus. “Make me the master if the business appeals to you.” No one ventured to condemn a scheme by which he could lose nothing, and so, that the lie would be kept safe among us all, we swore a solemn oath, the words of which were dictated by Eumolpus, to endure fire, chains, flogging, death by the sword, and whatever else Eumolpus might demand of us, just like regular gladiators! After the oath had been taken, we paid our respects to our master with pretended servility, and were informed that Eumolpus had lost a son, a young man of great eloquence and promise, and that it was for this reason the poor old man had left his native land that he might not see the companions and clients of his son, nor even his tomb, which was the cause of his daily tears. To this misfortune a recent shipwreck had been added, in which he had lost upwards of two millions of sesterces; not that he minded the loss but, destitute of a train of servants he could not keep up his proper dignity! Furthermore, he had, invested in Africa, thirty millions of sesterces in estates and bonds; such a horde of his slaves was scattered over the fields of Numidia that he could have even sacked Carthage! We demanded that Eumolpus cough frequently, to further…

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