Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:25:54

Excerpt #1, from The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

…possibly let you stand in front of that picture.” “You will some day, surely?” “Never.” “Well, perhaps you are right. And now good-bye, Dorian. You have been the one person in my life who has really influenced my art. Whatever I have done that is good, I owe to you. Ah! you don’t know what it cost me to tell you all that I have told you.” “My dear Basil,” said Dorian, “what have you told me? Simply that you felt that you admired me too much. That is not even a compliment.” “It was not intended as a compliment. It was a confession. Now that I have made it, something seems to have gone out of me. Perhaps one should never put one’s worship into words.” “It was a very disappointing confession.” “Why, what did you expect, Dorian? You didn’t see anything else in the picture, did you? There was nothing else to see?” “No; there was nothing else to see. Why do you ask? But you mustn’t talk about worship. It is foolish. You and I are friends, Basil, and we must always remain so.” “You have got Harry,” said the painter sadly. “Oh, Harry!” cried the lad, with a ripple of laughter. “Harry spends his days in saying what is incredible and his evenings in doing what is…

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Excerpt #2, from Japan: From the Japanese Government History, by Kan’ichi Asakawa

…and civilian classes alike were plunged in poverty. The laws were discarded; the administration of justice was in disorder. The territorial magnates in the provinces discontinued the payment of taxes, closed their districts against communication from without, and governed according to their own will. The mandates of the sovereign commanded no respect. After the palace was leveled with the ground its inner buildings were later reconstructed, but, inasmuch as the territorial magnates ceased to pay taxes to the central government, the court nobles found themselves without revenues and the administrative officials were without salaries, so that some of them had no resource but to wander about the country and depend on the farmers for means of sustenance. Under such circumstances the usual court ceremonials were, of course, dispensed with. Such was the impecuniosity in Kyōto that the Emperor Gotsuchimikado was unable to hold the wonted ceremony on the occasion of his accession, and at the time of his death, his funeral rites could not be performed owing to lack of funds for the funeral. It was not until the utmost exertions had been employed that the sum of a thousand hiki (2500 yen) was collected and the burial rites were performed. On the succession of Gokashiwabara, also, the coronation ceremony had to be abandoned for similar reasons, nor could it be performed until twenty-two years had elapsed, when the lord abbot of Hongwan-ji…

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Excerpt #3, from The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins

…I hurriedly gave Betteredge my address in London, so that he might write to me, if necessary; promising, on my side, to inform him of any news which I might have to communicate. This done, and just as I was bidding him farewell, I happened to glance towards the book-and-newspaper stall. There was Mr. Candy’s remarkable-looking assistant again, speaking to the keeper of the stall! Our eyes met at the same moment. Ezra Jennings took off his hat to me. I returned the salute, and got into a carriage just as the train started. It was a relief to my mind, I suppose, to dwell on any subject which appeared to be, personally, of no sort of importance to me. At all events, I began the momentous journey back which was to take me to Mr. Bruff, wondering—absurdly enough, I admit—that I should have seen the man with the piebald hair twice in one day! The hour at which I arrived in London precluded all hope of my finding Mr. Bruff at his place of business. I drove from the railway to his private residence at Hampstead, and disturbed the old lawyer dozing alone in his dining-room, with his favourite pug-dog on his lap, and his bottle of wine at his elbow. I shall best describe the effect which my story produced on the mind of Mr. Bruff by relating his proceedings when he had heard it to the end. He ordered lights, and strong tea, to be taken into his study; and he…

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Excerpt #4, from The Railway Children, by E. Nesbit

…him. And Daddy never quite trusted that man.” “Couldn’t we explain all that to someone?” “Nobody will listen,” said Mother, very bitterly, “nobody at all. Do you suppose I’ve not tried everything? No, my dearest, there’s nothing to be done. All we can do, you and I and Daddy, is to be brave, and patient, and–” she spoke very softly–“to pray, Bobbie, dear.” “Mother, you’ve got very thin,” said Bobbie, abruptly. “A little, perhaps.” “And oh,” said Bobbie, “I do think you’re the bravest person in the world as well as the nicest!” “We won’t talk of all this any more, will we, dear?” said Mother; “we must bear it and be brave. And, darling, try not to think of it. Try to be cheerful, and to amuse yourself and the others. It’s much easier for me if you can be a little bit happy and enjoy things. Wash your poor little round face, and let’s go out into the garden for a bit.” The other two were very gentle and kind to Bobbie. And they did not ask her what was the matter. This was Peter’s idea, and he had drilled Phyllis, who would have asked a hundred questions if she had been left to herself. A week later Bobbie managed to get away alone. And once more she wrote a letter. And once more it was to the old gentleman….

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Excerpt #5, from Trouble on Titan, by Henry Kuttner

…rusty. “Salvage,” Sherman said. He went to a corner, dropped Quade into a shallow depression in the floor and tossed his whip aside. Quade’s body sank down a few inches, as though into an air mattress. “Well, take off your helmet,” Sherman said coolly. “Make yourself at home. You’ll be here for life—since there’s no way of getting out of this valley!” CHAPTER V Perilous Valley Kathleen sat down limply on a rusty chair that squeaked under her weight. Her fingers felt cold and clumsy as she unscrewed her helmet, deflated the spacesuit and shook her hair free. “No way out?” she said. “We could climb—” “You could try it,” Sherman said, “till you got tired. The glaciers wall us in. And they crumble. I broke my arm six years ago trying to escape.” “Six years!” “I’ve been here seven,” Sherman told her. “I’m the last survivor of the patrol ship Kestrel, wrecked while making a forced landing in the Devil’s Range. Three of us escaped with our lives from the crash—the ship’s doctor, myself and another patrolman. Their graves are down the valley a bit.” His eyes were blank….

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Excerpt #6, from Astounding Stories, August, 1931, by Various

…silence was shattered now as if by the thunder of many guns. There was no time for easing themselves into gradual flight. Chet thrust forward on the ball-control, and the blast from their stern threw the ship as if it had been fired from a giant cannon. The self-compensating floor swung back and up; Chet’s weight was almost unbearable as the ship beneath him leaped out and on, and the terrific blast that screamed and thundered urged this speeding shell to greater and still greater speed. And then, with the facility that that speed gave, Chet’s careful hands moved a tiny metal ball within its magnetic cage, and the great ship bellowed from many ports as it followed the motion of that ball. Could an eye have seen the wild, twisting flight, it must have seemed as if pilot and ship had gone suddenly mad. The craft corkscrewed and whirled; it leaped upward and aside; and, as the glowing mass was thrown clear of the lookout, Chet’s hand moved again to that maximum forward position, and again the titanic blast from astern drove them on and out. There were other shapes ahead, glowing lines of fire, luminous masses like streamers of cloud that looped themselves into contorted forms and writhed vividly until they straightened into sharp lines of speed that bore down upon the fleeing craft and the human food that was…

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Excerpt #7, from Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens

…know. Come.” “Mrs. Corney,” said the beadle, smiling as men smile who are conscious of superior information, “out-of-door relief, properly managed: properly managed, ma’am: is the porochial safeguard. The great principle of out-of-door relief is, to give the paupers exactly what they don’t want; and then they get tired of coming.” “Dear me!” exclaimed Mrs. Corney. “Well, that is a good one, too!” “Yes. Betwixt you and me, ma’am,” returned Mr. Bumble, “that’s the great principle; and that’s the reason why, if you look at any cases that get into them owdacious newspapers, you’ll always observe that sick families have been relieved with slices of cheese. That’s the rule now, Mrs. Corney, all over the country. But, however,” said the beadle, stopping to unpack his bundle, “these are official secrets, ma’am; not to be spoken of; except, as I may say, among the porochial officers, such as ourselves. This is the port wine, ma’am, that the board ordered for the infirmary; real, fresh, genuine port wine; only out of the cask this forenoon; clear as a bell, and no sediment!” Having held the first bottle up to the light, and shaken it well to test its excellence, Mr. Bumble placed them both on top of a chest of drawers; folded the handkerchief in which they had been wrapped; put it carefully in his pocket; and took up his hat, as if to go….

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Excerpt #8, from Astrology: How to Make and Read Your Own Horoscope, by Sepharial

…heavens. Gain by marriage is shown by benefic planets in the 8th House, because the 8th is 2nd from the 7th, and the 7th House rules over the partner. The potential of each horoscope is capable of being increased by due attention to the sources of gain, as shown by the position and aspects of the planets in various parts of the heavens; but chiefly by associating oneself with persons whose horoscopes are in harmony with one’s own. Thus it happens that individuals are lifted to position and affluence through their association with persons whose horoscopes are in sympathy with theirs. (See Chap. XI. of this Section.) The Sun and Moon being in good aspect to one another will prevent disaster, or will always provide a means of restoration of fortunes, because it is an index of general good fortune and continual support. Such persons as have this aspect in their horoscopes need never fear misfortune, for if they should fall into disasters in one place, they will always turn up in another with a complete adjustment of their position. But when the Sun and Moon are in evil aspect, and particularly when the malefic planets are in elevation in the heavens, continual misfortune dogs the footsteps, and though there be spells of good fortune, they are brief and attended with troubles. The benefic planets, Jupiter, Venus, and Sun, being well elevated in the…

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Excerpt #9, from The Wyvern mystery, by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

…so useless; but you’re always right, Charlie.” “He’s a wonderful fellow, ain’t he?” said Harry, winking agreeably at Charles; “I never knew a bran new husband that wasn’t. Wait a bit and the gold rubs off the ginger-bread–Didn’t old Dulcibella–how’s she?–never buy you a ginger-bread husband down at Wyvern Fair? and they all went, I warrant, the same road; the gilding rubs away, and then off with his head, and eat him up slops! That’s not bad cognac–where do you get it?–don’t know, of course; well, it is good.” “Glad you like it, Harry,” said his brother. “It was very kind of you coming over here so soon; you must come often–won’t you?” “Well, you know, I thought I might as well, just to tell you how things was–but, mind, is any one here?” He looked over his shoulder to be sure that the old servant was not near. “Mind you’re not to tell the folk over at Wyvern that I came here, because you know it wouldn’t serve me, noways, with the old chap up there, and there’s no use.” “You may be very easy about that, Harry. I’m a banished man, you know. I shall never see the old man’s face again; and rely on it, I sha’n’t write.”…

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Excerpt #10, from The Valley of the Moon, by Jack London

…Oakland. It was the stupid that remained and bowed their heads to fate. But she and Billy were not stupid. They would not bow their heads. They would go forth and face fate.–Where, she did not know. But that would come. The world was large. Beyond the encircling hills, out through the Golden Gate, somewhere they would find what they desired. The boy had been wrong in one thing. She was not tied to Oakland, even if she was married. The world was free to her and Billy as it had been free to the wandering generations before them. It was only the stupid who had been left behind everywhere in the race’s wandering. The strong had gone on. Well, she and Billy were strong. They would go on, over the brown Contra Costa hills or out through the Golden Gate. The day before Billy’s release Saxon completed her meager preparations to receive him. She was without money, and, except for her resolve not to offend Billy in that way again, she would have borrowed ferry fare from Maggie Donahue and journeyed to San Francisco to sell some of her personal pretties. As it was, with bread and potatoes and salted sardines in the house, she went out at the afternoon low tide and dug clams for a chowder. Also, she gathered a load of driftwood, and it was nine in the evening when she emerged from the marsh, on her shoulder a bundle of wood and a short-handled spade, in her free hand the pail of clams. She sought the darker side of the street at the corner and…

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Excerpt #11, from The Third Officer: A Present

…the most dangerous situations, had gone for’ard to investigate the result of the damage. Colonel Vivian, his daughter, and the steward were bending over the deck-chair on which Mrs. Vivian had been reclining. She was still reclining but in a very different condition, for as Burgoyne approached he heard the steward say: “I can’t do any more, sir. Weak heart… the sudden shock… no, sir, no sign of life. I’ll have to be going. There’s work for me to do up there.” He indicated the bridge, where, between the gaping holes in the canvas of the bridge rails, could be seen prostrate writhing forms amidst the pungent eddying smoke. Grasping his first-aid outfit, the man ran along the deck, seemingly unmindful of the fact that more shells would soon be playing havoc with the devoted Donibristle. The steward’s words were only too true. The sudden and unexpected shock, when the cruiser dealt her cowardly blow, had deprived Mrs. Vivian of life. Never very strong, and suffering from a weak heart, she had died before either her husband or her daughter could get to her. It was no time for expressions of regret. Alwyn’s instructions were imperative. The passengers must be ordered below. “As sharp as you can, Colonel Vivian,” he said; "we don’t know what…

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Excerpt #12, from Survival at Altitude for Heavy and Very Heavy Bomber Crews

…operational or replacement training schools. The A-10-A mask is used in training where sufficient A-14 masks are not available. Both the A-10-A and the A-14 masks are suspended from the summer and winter flying helmets. NOTE: It is important that AERIAL GUNNERS obtain a properly fitting mask, fit to both summer and winter helmets at the first station available. Because of the extreme cold to which gunners are subjected under combat conditions, you MUST learn to remove and replace the mask quickly and accurately WEARING HEAVY GLOVES. It is not easy to manipulate a mask or unjam a .50 cal. gun with numb fingers in heavy flying gloves. PRACTICE these things on every training flight with gloves ON. FITTING THE MASK TO THE FACE – There are two considerations in obtaining a proper fit: (1) An AIR-TIGHT SEAL of mask to face. (2) Comfort of fit without undue pressure. The A-10-A and A-14 masks come in three sizes. Roughly, 60%!o(MISSING)f flyers will require the STANDARD (medium) size mask, 30%!t(MISSING)he LARGE mask, and the remaining 10%!t(MISSING)he SMALLER sizes. General instructions concerning fitting are….

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