Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:24

Excerpt #1, from The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas

…The four Musketeers went to work; and as they were loading the last musket Grimaud announced that the breakfast was ready. Athos replied, always by gestures, that that was well, and indicated to Grimaud, by pointing to a turret that resembled a pepper caster, that he was to stand as sentinel. Only, to alleviate the tediousness of the duty, Athos allowed him to take a loaf, two cutlets, and a bottle of wine. “And now to table,” said Athos. The four friends seated themselves on the ground with their legs crossed like Turks, or even tailors. “And now,” said D’Artagnan, “as there is no longer any fear of being overheard, I hope you are going to let me into your secret.” “I hope at the same time to procure you amusement and glory, gentlemen,” said Athos. “I have induced you to take a charming promenade; here is a delicious breakfast; and yonder are five hundred persons, as you may see through the loopholes, taking us for heroes or madmen—two classes of imbeciles greatly resembling each other.” “But the secret!” said D’Artagnan. “The secret is,” said Athos, “that I saw Milady last night.” D’Artagnan was lifting a glass to his lips; but at the name of Milady, his hand trembled so, that he was obliged to put the glass on the…

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Excerpt #2, from The call of Cthulhu, by H. P. Lovecraft

…and shouted of what he had found. The rest followed him, and looked curiously at the immense carved door with the now familiar squid-dragon bas-relief. It was, Johansen said, like a great barn-door; and they all felt that it was a door because of the ornate lintel, threshold, and jambs around it, though they could not decide whether it lay flat like a trap-door or slantwise like an outside cellar-door. As Wilcox would have said, the geometry of the place was all wrong. One could not be sure that the sea and the ground were horizontal, hence the relative position of everything else seemed fantasmally variable. Briden pushed at the stone in several places without result. Then Donovan felt over it delicately around the edge, pressing each point separately as he went. He climbed interminably along the grotesque stone molding–that is, one would call it climbing if the thing was not after all horizontal–and the men wondered how any door in the universe could be so vast. Then, very softly and slowly, the acre-great panel began to give inward at the top; and they saw that it was balanced. Donovan slid or somehow propelled himself down or along the jamb and rejoined his fellows, and everyone watched the queer recession of the monstrously carven portal. In this fantasy of prismatic distortion it moved anomalously in a diagonal way, so that all the rules of matter and perspective seemed upset….

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Excerpt #3, from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, by Jules Verne

…it up the iron staircase by means of pulleys. At that moment, Captain Nemo turned to me. “And you were saying, sir?” said he. “I was saying nothing, Captain.” “Then, sir, if you will allow me, I will wish you good night.” Whereupon he turned and left the saloon. I returned to my room much troubled, as one may believe. I vainly tried to sleep—I sought the connecting link between the apparition of the diver and the chest filled with gold. Soon, I felt by certain movements of pitching and tossing that the Nautilus was leaving the depths and returning to the surface. Then I heard steps upon the platform; and I knew they were unfastening the pinnace and launching it upon the waves. For one instant it struck the side of the Nautilus, then all noise ceased. Two hours after, the same noise, the same going and coming was renewed; the boat was hoisted on board, replaced in its socket, and the Nautilus again plunged under the waves. So these millions had been transported to their address. To what point of the continent? Who was Captain Nemo’s correspondent? The next day I related to Conseil and the Canadian the events of the night, which had excited my curiosity to the highest degree. My…

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Excerpt #4, from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

…says: “Good lan’! is dat you, honey? Doan’ make no noise.” It was Jim’s voice–nothing ever sounded so good before. I run along the bank a piece and got aboard, and Jim he grabbed me and hugged me, he was so glad to see me. He says: “Laws bless you, chile, I ‘uz right down sho’ you’s dead agin. Jack’s been heah; he say he reck’n you’s ben shot, kase you didn’ come home no mo’; so I’s jes’ dis minute a startin’ de raf’ down towards de mouf er de crick, so’s to be all ready for to shove out en leave soon as Jack comes agin en tells me for certain you is dead. Lawsy, I’s mighty glad to git you back again, honey.” I says: “All right–that’s mighty good; they won’t find me, and they’ll think I’ve been killed, and floated down the river–there’s something up there that ’ll help them think so–so don’t you lose no time, Jim, but just shove off for the big water as fast as ever you can.” I never felt easy till the raft was two mile below there and out in the middle of the Mississippi. Then we hung up our signal lantern, and judged that we was free and safe once more. I hadn’t had a bite to eat since yesterday, so Jim he got out some corn-dodgers and buttermilk, and pork and cabbage and greens–there ain’t nothing in the world so good…

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Excerpt #5, from Legends of the Gods, by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge

…sti,[FN#107] at the town of Shas-hertet, and he perceived the most able of their enemies in the country of Uaua,[FN#108] and they were uttering treason against Horus their Lord. [FN#107] Northern Nubia; the name means “Land of the Bow.” [FN#108] A portion of Northern Nubia. And Heru-Behut changed his form into that of the Winged Disk, [and took his place] above the bow of the Boat of Ra. And he made the goddess Nekhebit[FN#109] and the goddess Uatchit[FN#110] to be with him in the form of serpents, so that they might make the Sebau fiends to quake in [all] their limbs (or, bodies). Their boldness (i.e., that of the fiends) subsided through the fear of him, they made no resistance whatsoever, and they died straightway. [FN#109] The goddess of the South. [FN#110] The goddess of the North. Then the gods who were in the following of the Boat of Heru-khuti said, “Great, great is that which he hath done among them by means of the two Serpent Goddesses,[FN#111] for he hath overthrown the enemy by means of their fear of him.” [FN#111] i.e., Nekhebit and Uatchit. And Ra Heru-khuti said, "The great one of the two Serpent Goddesses of Heru-Behutet shall be called ‘Ur-Uatchti’[FN#112] from this day…

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Excerpt #6, from The Story of the Barbary Corsairs, by J. D. Jerrold Kelley and Stanley Lane

…Sipāhis, Mustafa, nicknamed Bogotillos or “Whiskerandos,” who, though something of a coward, engaged in two successful campaigns against Tunis and one with Morocco, until he had the misfortune to find the bow-string round his throat in 1706. Uzeyn Khōja followed, and Oran fell during his one year’s reign, after which he was banished to the mountains, and died. Bektāsh Khōja, the next Dey, was murdered on his judgment-seat in the third year of his reign. A fifth Dey, Ibrahīm Deli, or “the Fool,” made himself so hated by his unconscionable licentiousness that he was assassinated, and his mutilated body exposed in the street, within a few months, and ’Ali, who succeeded in 1710, by murdering some three thousand Turks, contrived to reign eight years, and by some mistake died in his bed. The kingdom of Morocco is not strictly a Barbary state, and its history does not belong to this volume Nevertheless, the operations of the Morocco pirates outside the Straits of Gibraltar so closely resemble those of the Algerine Corsairs within, that a few words about them will not be out of place. At one time Tetwān, within the Straits, in spite of its exposed haven, was a famous place for rovers, but its prosperity was destroyed by Philip II. in 1564. Ceuta was always semi-European, half Genoese, then Portuguese (1415), and finally Spanish (1570 to this day). Tangiers, as the dowry of Charles…

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Excerpt #7, from You no longer count, by René Boylesve

…like you." “But they tell me that everything is changed.” “They are right, and you see it clearly because you are outside of Eden, which you had never left before. It is only that some of them accept the change quickly because they were prepared for it, and others because they are less sensitive than you.” “Then, if such a change exists, does that mean that I should cease to mourn my husband?” “No; but the day will come when you will mourn him more. Remember what I say: you will mourn him more. That is the way in which you will take your part in the change.” “More!” ejaculated Odette. “Is it possible? I do not understand you.” “I mean by ‘more’ another manner of mourning, which you will doubtless find more endurable. Let us not talk more about it now, but keep in mind what I have said.” She shrank more and more from society, till she could endure neither news nor the face of a friend. She caused herself to be denied at the door–forbade her maid to speak to her of the war, even to bring in the newspapers. She wished to hear nothing. Then Paris became odious to her because she could not keep herself sufficiently in retirement. Since she was not permitted to go and…

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Excerpt #8, from Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman, by Thomas Hardy

…losing her. What should he do about his skimming? Who would make the ornamental butter-pats for the Anglebury and Sandbourne ladies? Mrs Crick congratulated Tess on the shilly-shallying having at last come to an end, and said that directly she set eyes on Tess she divined that she was to be the chosen one of somebody who was no common outdoor man; Tess had looked so superior as she walked across the barton on that afternoon of her arrival; that she was of a good family she could have sworn. In point of fact Mrs Crick did remember thinking that Tess was graceful and good-looking as she approached; but the superiority might have been a growth of the imagination aided by subsequent knowledge. Tess was now carried along upon the wings of the hours, without the sense of a will. The word had been given; the number of the day written down. Her naturally bright intelligence had begun to admit the fatalistic convictions common to field-folk and those who associate more extensively with natural phenomena than with their fellow-creatures; and she accordingly drifted into that passive responsiveness to all things her lover suggested, characteristic of the frame of mind. But she wrote anew to her mother, ostensibly to notify the wedding-day; really to again implore her advice. It was a gentleman who had chosen her, which perhaps her mother had not sufficiently considered. A…

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Excerpt #9, from Candide, by Voltaire

…ARRIVAL OF CANDIDE AND HIS VALET AT EL DORADO, AND WHAT THEY SAW THERE. “You see,” said Cacambo to Candide, as soon as they had reached the frontiers of the Oreillons, “that this hemisphere is not better than the others, take my word for it; let us go back to Europe by the shortest way.” “How go back?” said Candide, “and where shall we go? to my own country? The Bulgarians and the Abares are slaying all; to Portugal? there I shall be burnt; and if we abide here we are every moment in danger of being spitted. But how can I resolve to quit a part of the world where my dear Cunegonde resides?” “Let us turn towards Cayenne,” said Cacambo, “there we shall find Frenchmen, who wander all over the world; they may assist us; God will perhaps have pity on us.” It was not easy to get to Cayenne; they knew vaguely in which direction to go, but rivers, precipices, robbers, savages, obstructed them all the way. Their horses died of fatigue. Their provisions were consumed; they fed a whole month upon wild fruits, and found themselves at last near a little river bordered with cocoa trees, which sustained their lives and their hopes. Cacambo, who was as good a counsellor as the old woman, said to Candide: "We are able to hold out no longer; we have walked enough. I see an…

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Excerpt #10, from My Man Jeeves, by P. G. Wodehouse

…“Hello!” I said. “Couldn’t you find her?” “Yes, I found her,” he replied, with one of those bitter, hollow laughs. “Well, then——?” Freddie sank into a chair and groaned. “This isn’t her cousin, you idiot!” he said. “He’s no relation at all. He’s just a kid she happened to meet on the beach. She had never seen him before in her life.” “What! Who is he, then?” “I don’t know. Oh, Lord, I’ve had a time! Thank goodness you’ll probably spend the next few years of your life in Dartmoor for kidnapping. That’s my only consolation. I’ll come and jeer at you through the bars.” “Tell me all, old boy,” I said. It took him a good long time to tell the story, for he broke off in the middle of nearly every sentence to call me names, but I gathered gradually what had happened. She had listened like an iceberg while he told the story he had prepared, and then—well, she didn’t actually call him a liar, but she gave him to understand in a general sort of way that if he and Dr. Cook ever happened to meet, and started swapping stories, it would be about the biggest duel on record. And then he had…

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Excerpt #11, from A history of Canada, 1763 to 1812, by Sir Charles Prestwood Lucas

…the line of advance, Wayne by August, 1794, had worn down the Indians and menaced the British fort on the Maumee river, to whose commandant, Major Campbell, he addressed threatening letters. On either side, however, the orders were to abstain from blows, while Jay and Grenville were negotiating, and the conclusion of the treaty ensured the abandonment by the British troops of this outpost of Detroit as well as of Detroit itself. Next year, on the 3rd of August, 1795, Wayne concluded the Treaty of Greenville with the Western Indians. Under its terms the Americans advanced their boundary beyond the Ohio, but still left to the Indians on the south of Lake Erie and in the peninsula of Michigan lands of which the treaty definitely recognized them to be owners, and where they were to dwell under the protection of the United States. [Sidenote: Dorchester and Simcoe leave Canada.] In September, 1795, the Duke of Portland wrote to Lord Dorchester telling him that General Prescott would be appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Lower Canada and would leave for Canada in the spring, so that Dorchester could suit his own convenience as to returning to England. At the same time the Secretary of State repeated his regret that Dorchester had determined to retire. Prescott arrived on the 18th of June, 1796, and on the 9th of July…

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Excerpt #12, from Investigation of Communist Activities in Seattle, Wash., Area, Hearings, Part 1

…Mr. DENNETT. I believe that I was first assigned to carry on this classwork in Portland, to keep this school going that was started. But that didn’t last very long because at that time the district organizer of the party was a man by the name of Alex Noral, who was here in Seattle. And Noral was troubled because they were unable to get someone to fill the function of a district agitprop director here in Seattle. So he was asking Fred Walker to come to Seattle to be the agitprop director because Fred Walker had organized such a successful school in Portland and had done such splendid work which met with the district approval. Walker, however, had personal reasons for not wanting to leave Portland. So he requested me to accept the assignment to Seattle. And I was perplexed as to what to do. I was in the middle of a school teaching year, but I was becoming more convinced all the time that there was no future in teaching–at least the way I wanted to do it. So I accepted, under a great deal of pressure, the assignment to come to Seattle. And that was, I say, under a great deal of pressure, too, because the way I was approached on it was that “Well, now you are a member of the party. You do what the party tells you to do, and you go where the party wants you to “go.” Mr. MOULDER. May I interrupt at that point before you start on…

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