Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:48

Excerpt #1, from Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen

…giving her husband a gentle reprimand on the subject five or six times every day. The young ladies arrived: their appearance was by no means ungenteel or unfashionable. Their dress was very smart, their manners very civil, they were delighted with the house, and in raptures with the furniture, and they happened to be so doatingly fond of children that Lady Middleton’s good opinion was engaged in their favour before they had been an hour at the Park. She declared them to be very agreeable girls indeed, which for her ladyship was enthusiastic admiration. Sir John’s confidence in his own judgment rose with this animated praise, and he set off directly for the cottage to tell the Miss Dashwoods of the Miss Steeles’ arrival, and to assure them of their being the sweetest girls in the world. From such commendation as this, however, there was not much to be learned; Elinor well knew that the sweetest girls in the world were to be met with in every part of England, under every possible variation of form, face, temper and understanding. Sir John wanted the whole family to walk to the Park directly and look at his guests. Benevolent, philanthropic man! It was painful to him even to keep a third cousin to himself. “Do come now,” said he—“pray come—you must come—I declare you shall come—You can’t think how you will like them. Lucy is monstrous pretty,…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #2, from The Railway Children, by E. Nesbit

…scrag-end of the neck for your dinners to-morrow, and I can have some of the broth. Yes, I should like some more water now, love. And will you get a basin and sponge my hands?” Roberta obeyed. When she had done everything she could to make Mother less uncomfortable, she went down to the others. Her cheeks were very red, her lips set tight, and her eyes almost as bright as Mother’s. She told them what the Doctor had said, and what Mother had said. “And now,” said she, when she had told all, “there’s no one but us to do anything, and we’ve got to do it. I’ve got the shilling for the mutton.” “We can do without the beastly mutton,” said Peter; “bread and butter will support life. People have lived on less on desert islands many a time.” “Of course,” said his sister. And Mrs. Viney was sent to the village to get as much brandy and soda-water and beef tea as she could buy for a shilling. “But even if we never have anything to eat at all,” said Phyllis, “you can’t get all those other things with our dinner money.” “No,” said Bobbie, frowning, “we must find out some other way. Now THINK, everybody, just as hard as ever you can.” They did think. And presently they talked. And later, when Bobbie had gone up to sit with Mother in case she wanted anything, the other two…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #3, from Champions of the Fleet, by Edward Fraser

…and preparations for large encampments next summer in the vicinity of the French Channel ports—at Dunkirk and Calais, Havre and St. Malo, and in Lower Brittany on the shores of Quiberon Bay. In every county of England and Wales the local authorities were getting ready for the early muster of the new militia levies—now, for the first time in our history, to be formed into regiments. Along the coasts of Sussex and Kent, from Selsea to beyond Dungeness and Hythe, where the open coast-line might seem to invite attack—at Littlehampton, Brighton, Blatchington, Seaford, Hastings, Rye, Hythe, Folkestone—the sites for four- and six-gun batteries were being pegged out by military engineers, to be thrown up by local labourers under expert supervision. At every point along the seashore from Spurn Head to the Lizard the beacons were being watched night and day, while the local authorities of every seaboard district had standing orders to be ready, on the first alarm of a hostile landing, to transport the women and children in farm carts to the nearest towns, and drive inland the horses and sheep and cattle. We have to turn over many pages of the world’s history to get to the year that saw the Victory brought into the British Navy. The Seven Years’ War itself, the exigencies of which called the Victory into existence, is nowadays but a schoolbook term. Frederick the Great, in the year that the Victory first figures in the Navy Estimates, was the man of the…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #4, from Argot and Slang, by Albert Barrère

…Jardinier_. The pair induce a simpleton to dig at the foot of a tree for a buried treasure, when they rob him of his money; a swindler who pretends he has just returned from America; (familiar) a drink, something between grog and punch. Faire l’œil —-, to scrutinize with searching glance. Oeil —-, eye with purposely amorous, “killing,” expression; also a very sharp eye. AMÉRICAINE, vol à l’ (see CHARRIAGE). AMI (thieves’), expert thief, “gonnof;” —- de collège, prison chum. AMICABLEMENT (popular), in a friendly manner, affectionately. AMINCHE, AMINCHEMAR, AMINCHEMINCE, m. (thieves’), friend, “ben cull;” —- d’aff, accomplice, “stallsman.” AMIS, m. pl. (popular), comme cochons, “thick” friends. AMITEUX, adj. (popular), friendly, amiable, gentle. AMOCHER (popular), to bruise, to ill-treat, to “manhandle.” S’—- la gueule, to maul one another’s face, to “mug” one another. AMORCÉ, adj. (popular), furnished, garnished. V’la qu’est richement amorcé, j’en suis moi-même ébaubi.–=RICHEPIN.= AMOUREUX (popular), hunchback, or “lord;” —- de carême, a timid lover. Literally a “Lent lover.” (Printers’) Papier —-, _paper that…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #5, from The Student’s Elements of Geology, by Sir Charles Lyell

…present in lavas than was formerly supposed. It had been argued that the quartz in granite having a specific gravity of 2·6, was not of purely igneous origin, because the silica resulting from fusion in the laboratory has only a specific gravity of 2·3. But Mr. David Forbes has ascertained that the free quartz in trachytes, which are known to have flowed as lava, has the same specific gravity as the ordinary quartz of granite; and the recent researches of Von Rath and others prove that the mineral Tridymite, which is crystallised silica of specific gravity 2·3 (see Table, p. 499), is of common occurrence in the volcanic rocks of Mexico, Auvergne, the Rhine, and elsewhere, although hitherto entirely overlooked. Feldspar Group.—In the Feldspar group (Table, p. 499) the five mineral species most commonly met with as rock constituents are: 1. Orthoclase, often called common or potash-feldspar. 2. Albite, or soda-feldspar, a mineral which plays a more subordinate part than was formerly supposed, this name having been given to much which has since been proved to be Oligoclase. 3. Oligoclase, or soda-lime feldspar, in which soda is present in much larger proportion than lime, and of which mineral andesite are andesine, is considered to be a variety. 4. Labradorite, or lime-soda-feldspar, in which the proportions of lime and soda are the reverse to what they are in Oligoclase. 5. Anorthite or…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #6, from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience, by Henry David Thoreau

…much they have reaped. Who would live there where a body can never think for the barking of Bose? And O, the housekeeping! to keep bright the devil’s door-knobs, and scour his tubs this bright day! Better not keep a house. Say, some hollow tree; and then for morning calls and dinner-parties! Only a woodpecker tapping. O, they swarm; the sun is too warm there; they are born too far into life for me. I have water from the spring, and a loaf of brown bread on the shelf.—Hark! I hear a rustling of the leaves. Is it some ill-fed village hound yielding to the instinct of the chase? or the lost pig which is said to be in these woods, whose tracks I saw after the rain? It comes on apace; my sumachs and sweet-briers tremble.—Eh, Mr. Poet, is it you? How do you like the world to-day? Poet. See those clouds; how they hang! That’s the greatest thing I have seen to-day. There’s nothing like it in old paintings, nothing like it in foreign lands,—unless when we were off the coast of Spain. That’s a true Mediterranean sky. I thought, as I have my living to get, and have not eaten to-day, that I might go a-fishing. That’s the true industry for poets. It is the only trade I have learned. Come, let’s along. Hermit. I cannot resist. My brown bread will soon be gone. I will go with you gladly soon, but I am just concluding a serious meditation. I…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #7, from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated, by Alexandre Dumas

…new landlord that we had with the old; and it was of this man that I intended to ask shelter.” “What was his name?” inquired the count, who seemed to become somewhat interested in Bertuccio’s story. “Gaspard Caderousse; he had married a woman from the village of Carconte, and whom we did not know by any other name than that of her village. She was suffering from malarial fever, and seemed dying by inches. As for her husband, he was a strapping fellow of forty, or five-and-forty, who had more than once, in time of danger, given ample proof of his presence of mind and courage.” “And you say,” interrupted Monte Cristo “that this took place towards the year——” “1829, your excellency.” “In what month?” “June.” “The beginning or the end?” “The evening of the 3rd.” 20303m “Ah,” said Monte Cristo “the evening of the 3rd of June, 1829. Go on.” “It was from Caderousse that I intended demanding shelter, and, as we never entered by the door that opened onto the road, I resolved not to…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #8, from The Pirates’ Who’s Who, by Philip Gosse

…managed to get their money and jewellery away in safety. Gow’s crew marched back to their ship with a bagpiper playing at their head. They now sailed to Calfsound, seized three girls and took them aboard. Then to the Island of Eda to plunder the house of Mr. Fea, an old schoolmate of Gow’s. Arriving there on February 13th, by bad management they ran their vessel on the rocks. The bo’son and five men went ashore and met Mr. Fea, who entertained them at the local public-house. By a simple stratagem, Mr. Fea seized first the bo’son and afterwards the five men. Soon after this, Fea trapped Gow and all the rest of his crew of twenty-eight men. Help was sent for, and eventually the Greyhound frigate arrived and took Gow and his crew to London, arriving off Woolwich on March 26th, 1725. The prisoners were taken to the Marshalsea Prison in Southwark, and there found their old companion, Lieutenant Williams. Four men turned King’s evidence–viz., George Dobson, Job Phinnies, Tim Murphy, and William Booth. The trial at Newgate began on May 8th, when Gow was sullen and reserved and refused to plead. He was ordered to be pressed to death, which was the only form of torture still allowed by the law. At the last moment Gow yielded, and pleaded “not guilty.” Gow was found guilty, and hanged on June 11th, 1725, but "as he was turned off, he fell down from the Gibbit, the rope breaking by the weight of some that pulled his leg. Although…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #9, from Seven O’Clock Stories, by Robert Gordon Anderson

…Who could they be talking about? Then they went through the gate. “Be very quiet,” said Mother as they entered the door, “and you’ll see the end of another true fairy story.” So they tiptoed in. There in a bed lay Mrs. Brown, looking very happy. And curled up in her arm she had–well, what do you think she had? A little sleeping baby! Like the little Orioles Baby had been born just a few days ago. “That,” said Mother, “is the prettiest fairy story of all.” And the children thought so too. There–we’ve finished just in time. We hear the Little Clock. There goes his silver tongue now. Good-night! Sweet Dreams. ELEVENTH NIGHT MOTHER HEN AND ROBBER HAWK Jehosophat and Marmaduke were whispering together. “Let’s try it,” said Jehosophat. “An’ see what happens,” added Marmaduke. So they tiptoed into the House of the White Wyandottes and placed the big duck’s eggs in with the smaller eggs under the setting hen. Mother Hen did not like that, oh no!…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #10, 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…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #11, from The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Emmuska Orczy Orczy

…into the box, and the next moment was standing behind Marguerite’s chair. “A word with you, citoyenne,” he said quietly. Marguerite turned quickly, in alarm, which was not altogether feigned. “Lud, man! you frightened me,” she said with a forced little laugh, “your presence is entirely inopportune. I want to listen to Glück, and have no mind for talking.” “But this is my only opportunity,” he said, as quietly, and without waiting for permission, he drew a chair close behind her—so close that he could whisper in her ear, without disturbing the audience, and without being seen, in the dark background of the box. “This is my only opportunity,” he repeated, as she vouchsafed him no reply, “Lady Blakeney is always so surrounded, so fêted by her court, that a mere old friend has but very little chance.” “Faith, man!” she said impatiently, “you must seek for another opportunity then. I am going to Lord Grenville’s ball to-night after the opera. So are you, probably. I’ll give you five minutes then. . . .” “Three minutes in the privacy of this box are quite sufficient for me,” he rejoined placidly, “and I think that you would be wise to listen to me, Citoyenne St. Just.”…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #12, from The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins

…than enough of excitement and change of scene, and is pleased at the prospect of country tranquillity and retirement which her husband’s prudence provides for her. As for me, I am ready to be happy anywhere in her society. We are all, therefore, well contented in our various ways, to begin with. Last night I slept in London, and was delayed there so long to-day by various calls and commissions, that I did not reach Blackwater this evening till after dusk. Judging by my vague impressions of the place thus far, it is the exact opposite of Limmeridge. The house is situated on a dead flat, and seems to be shut in–almost suffocated, to my north-country notions, by trees. I have seen nobody but the man-servant who opened the door to me, and the housekeeper, a very civil person, who showed me the way to my own room, and got me my tea. I have a nice little boudoir and bedroom, at the end of a long passage on the first floor. The servants and some of the spare rooms are on the second floor, and all the living rooms are on the ground floor. I have not seen one of them yet, and I know nothing about the house, except that one wing of it is said to be five hundred years old, that it had a moat round it once, and that it gets its name of Blackwater from a lake in the park….

More: Read or Listen on IA →

A production of Friendlyskies.net