Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:47

Excerpt #1, from David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens

…listened to her, and then said: ‘Let you stay with your uncle? Why, you doen’t mean to ask me that! Stay with your uncle, Moppet? When your husband that’ll be so soon, is here fur to take you home? Now a person wouldn’t think it, fur to see this little thing alongside a rough-weather chap like me,’ said Mr. Peggotty, looking round at both of us, with infinite pride; ‘but the sea ain’t more salt in it than she has fondness in her for her uncle–a foolish little Em’ly!’ ‘Em’ly’s in the right in that, Mas’r Davy!’ said Ham. ‘Lookee here! As Em’ly wishes of it, and as she’s hurried and frightened, like, besides, I’ll leave her till morning. Let me stay too!’ ‘No, no,’ said Mr. Peggotty. ‘You doen’t ought–a married man like you–or what’s as good–to take and hull away a day’s work. And you doen’t ought to watch and work both. That won’t do. You go home and turn in. You ain’t afeerd of Em’ly not being took good care on, I know.’ Ham yielded to this persuasion, and took his hat to go. Even when he kissed her–and I never saw him approach her, but I felt that nature had given him the soul of a gentleman–she seemed to cling closer to her uncle, even to the avoidance of her chosen husband. I shut the door after him, that it might cause no disturbance of the quiet that prevailed; and when I turned back, I found Mr. Peggotty still talking to…

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Excerpt #2, from Why Men Fight: A method of abolishing the international duel, by Bertrand Russell

…And when the means of offense exist, even though their original purpose may have been defensive, the temptation to use them is likely, sooner or later, to prove overwhelming. In this way the very measures which promoted security within the borders of the State promote insecurity elsewhere. It is of the essence of the State to suppress violence within and to facilitate it without. The State makes an entirely artificial division of mankind and of our duties toward them: towards one group we are bound by the law, towards the other only by the prudence of highwaymen. The State is rendered evil by its exclusions, and by the fact that, whenever it embarks upon aggressive war, it becomes a combination of men for murder and robbery. The present system is irrational, since external and internal anarchy must be both right or both wrong. It is supported because, so long as others adopt it, it is thought the only road to safety, and because it secures the pleasures of triumph and dominion, which cannot be obtained in a good community. If these pleasures were no longer sought, or no longer possible to obtain, the problem of securing safety from invasion would not be difficult. Apart from war, the modern great State is harmful from its vastness and the resulting sense of individual helplessness. The citizen who is out of sympathy with the aims of the State, unless he is a man of very…

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Excerpt #3, from Bel Ami; Or, The History of a Scoundrel: A Novel, by Guy de Maupassant

…stammered: “Have you not been better since you are here?” His friend shrugged his shoulders impatiently: “You will see very soon.” And he bowed his head again. Duroy continued: “At home it is still wintry. It snows, hails, rains, and is so dark that they have to light the lamps at three o’clock in the afternoon.” Forestier asked: “Is there anything new at the office?” “Nothing. They have taken little Lacrin of the ‘Voltaire’ to fill your place, but he is incapable. It is time you came back.” The invalid muttered: “I? I will soon be writing under six feet of sod.” A long silence ensued. Mme. Forestier did not stir; she stood with her back to the room, her face toward the window. At length Forestier broke the silence in a gasping voice, heartrending to listen to: “How many more sunsets shall I see–eight–ten–fifteen–twenty–or perhaps thirty–no more. You have more time, you two–as for me–all is at an end. And everything will go on when I am gone as if I were here.” He paused a few moments, then continued: “Everything that I see reminds me that I shall not see them long. It is horrible. I shall no longer see the smallest objects–the glasses–the dishes–the beds on which we rest–the carriages. It is fine to drive in the evening. How I loved all that.”…

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Excerpt #4, from Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana

…time to be lost. We had nothing on but thin clothes, yet there was not a moment to spare, and at it we went. The boys of the other watch were in the tops, taking in the top-gallant studding-sails, and the lower and topmast studding-sails were coming down by the run. It was nothing but “haul down and clew up,” until we got all the studding-sails in, and the royals, flying-jib, and mizen top-gallant sail furled, and the ship kept off a little, to take the squall. The fore and main top-gallant sails were still on her, for the “old man” did not mean to be frightened in broad daylight, and was determined to carry sail till the last minute. We all stood waiting for its coming, when the first blast showed us that it was not be trifled with. Rain, sleet, snow, and wind, enough to take our breath from us, and make the toughest turn his back to windward! The ship lay nearly over on her beam-ends; the spars and rigging snapped and cracked; and her top-gallant masts bent like whip-sticks. “Clew up the fore and main top-gallant sails!” shouted the captain, and all hands sprang to the clewlines. The decks were standing nearly at an angle of forty-five degrees, and the ship going like a mad steed through the water, the whole forward part of her in a smother of foam. The halyards were let go and the yard clewed down, and the sheets started, and in a few minutes the sails smothered and…

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Excerpt #5, 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 #6, from The Diary of a Nobody, by George Grossmith and Weedon Grossmith

…London, with his uncle, Mr. Edgar Paul Finsworth (of Finsworth and Pultwell). He said he was sure his uncle would be only too pleased to see me, and he had a nice house, Watney Lodge, only a few minutes’ walk from Muswell Hill Station. I gave him our address, and we parted. In the evening, to my surprise, he called with a very nice letter from Mr. Finsworth, saying if we (including Carrie) would dine with them to-morrow (Sunday), at two o’clock, he would be delighted. Carrie did not like to go; but Teddy Finsworth pressed us so much we consented. Carrie sent Sarah round to the butcher’s and countermanded our half-leg of mutton, which we had ordered for to-morrow. APRIL 28, Sunday.—We found Watney Lodge farther off than we anticipated, and only arrived as the clock struck two, both feeling hot and uncomfortable. To make matters worse, a large collie dog pounced forward to receive us. He barked loudly and jumped up at Carrie, covering her light skirt, which she was wearing for the first time, with mud. Teddy Finsworth came out and drove the dog off and apologised. We were shown into the drawing-room, which was beautifully decorated. It was full of knick-knacks, and some plates hung up on the wall. There were several little wooden milk-stools with paintings on them; also a white wooden banjo, painted by one of Mr. Paul Finsworth’s nieces—a cousin of Teddy’s. Mr. Paul Finsworth seemed quite a distinguished-looking elderly…

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Excerpt #7, from Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), by Jerome K. Jerome

…ask the cat to find anything as expect you people to find it.” And, when half an hour had been spent in tying up his finger, and a new glass had been got, and the tools, and the ladder, and the chair, and the candle had been brought, he would have another go, the whole family, including the girl and the charwoman, standing round in a semi-circle, ready to help. Two people would have to hold the chair, and a third would help him up on it, and hold him there, and a fourth would hand him a nail, and a fifth would pass him up the hammer, and he would take hold of the nail, and drop it. “There!” he would say, in an injured tone, “now the nail’s gone.” And we would all have to go down on our knees and grovel for it, while he would stand on the chair, and grunt, and want to know if he was to be kept there all the evening. The nail would be found at last, but by that time he would have lost the hammer. “Where’s the hammer? What did I do with the hammer? Great heavens! Seven of you, gaping round there, and you don’t know what I did with the hammer!” We would find the hammer for him, and then he would have lost sight of the mark he had made on the wall, where the nail was to go in, and each of us had to get up on the chair, beside him, and see if we could find…

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Excerpt #8, from The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Emmuska Orczy Orczy

…awakened, smiling in happy response to the warmth of this glorious October morning. Only between these two hearts there lay a strong, impassable barrier, built up of pride on both sides, which neither of them cared to be the first to demolish. He had bent his tall figure in a low ceremonious bow, as she finally, with another bitter little sigh, began to mount the terrace steps. The long train of her gold-embroidered gown swept the dead leaves off the steps, making a faint harmonious sh—sh—sh as she glided up, with one hand resting on the balustrade, the rosy light of dawn making an aureole of gold round her hair, and causing the rubies on her head and arms to sparkle. She reached the tall glass doors which led into the house. Before entering, she paused once again to look at him, hoping against hope to see his arms stretched out to her, and to hear his voice calling her back. But he had not moved; his massive figure looked the very personification of unbending pride, of fierce obstinacy. Hot tears again surged to her eyes, and as she would not let him see them, she turned quickly within, and ran as fast as she could up to her own rooms. Had she but turned back then, and looked out once more on to the rose-lit garden, she would have seen that which would have made her own sufferings seem but light and easy to bear—a strong man, overwhelmed…

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Excerpt #9, from Radioisotopes and Life Processes (Revised), by Baserga and Kisieleski

…in Figure 8, the isotope ¹H, or ordinary hydrogen, consists of a nucleus containing a proton (charge: +1; mass: 1) around which revolves an electron (charge: -1; mass: negligible); ²H, known as deuterium, contains an additional nuclear particle, a neutron (charge: 0; mass: 1); ³H, or tritium, contains two neutrons. Since the chemical behavior of an element depends upon the number of its electrons, these three atoms, although differing in weight, behave identically in chemical reactions. For convenience, the atomic weight is written as a superscript to the left of the element’s symbol. For instance ¹⁴C is the isotope of carbon with an atomic weight of 14 (ordinary carbon is the isotope with an atomic weight of 12, and it is written ¹²C). [Illustration: Figure 8 Isotopes of hydrogen.] Hydrogen (¹H) Deuterium (²H) Tritium (³H) Practically all elements have more than one isotope. There are two general classes of isotopes, stable and radioactive. Stable isotopes have no distinguishing characteristic other than their mass; radioactive isotopes not only differ from their brothers in mass but also are characterized by unstable nuclei. When the nucleus of an atom is unstable, because of an unbalanced number of protons and neutrons, a…

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Excerpt #10, from The Sky Detectives; Or, How Jack Ralston Got His Man, by Ambrose Newcomb

…ducking planes—some of which were doing the barrel roll, and others making successive somersaults, with the daring pilots proceeding while in an inverted position—Jack could start spiraling, and climbing. Rapidly was Candler Field fading from view behind them since Jack had swung toward the south, as if to lay his course directly for New Orleans. Perk seemed to find a subtle attraction back where they had just come from, since he was again turning his head with nothing else to do save gratify his innocent curiosity. “Huh! ’pears like they might be meaning to strike for the Louisiana canebrake country, and black bear diggings, just like I said,” he was telling himself, with a chuckle of amusement over his shrewd guess. “And say, that little Ryan crate’s no slouch ’bout making speed, I’d mention. Come along you sportin’ crowd—plenty of room in the ceiling overhead, an’ nixey a chance to bring about a collision. Take your choice, and cut out for all you’re worth, boys. If you get there before we do, just tell ’em we’re acomin’ too.” So Perk continued to amuse himself in watching the antics of the rival ship, and indulging in all kinds of wild speculations as to what the real object of those two sporty looking occupants might prove to be. Evidently thus far not the slightest suspicion had entered his mind that the taking to the air of the shining Ryan boat had the first thing to do…

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Excerpt #11, from Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo

…Will that become an Ionian or a Bœotian? Wait, currit rota, the Spirit of Paris, that demon which creates the children of chance and the men of destiny, reversing the process of the Latin potter, makes of a jug an amphora. CHAPTER V—HIS FRONTIERS The gamin loves the city, he also loves solitude, since he has something of the sage in him. Urbis amator, like Fuscus; ruris amator, like Flaccus. To roam thoughtfully about, that is to say, to lounge, is a fine employment of time in the eyes of the philosopher; particularly in that rather illegitimate species of campaign, which is tolerably ugly but odd and composed of two natures, which surrounds certain great cities, notably Paris. To study the suburbs is to study the amphibious animal. End of the trees, beginning of the roofs; end of the grass, beginning of the pavements; end of the furrows, beginning of the shops, end of the wheel-ruts, beginning of the passions; end of the divine murmur, beginning of the human uproar; hence an extraordinary interest. Hence, in these not very attractive places, indelibly stamped by the passing stroller with the epithet: melancholy, the apparently objectless promenades of the dreamer. He who writes these lines has long been a prowler about the barriers of…

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Excerpt #12, from Beyond Good and Evil, by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

…a gilded, blue, mocking twilight this aging civilization with its dull gloomy seriousness! And if, nevertheless, our honesty should one day grow weary, and sigh, and stretch its limbs, and find us too hard, and would fain have it pleasanter, easier, and gentler, like an agreeable vice, let us remain HARD, we latest Stoics, and let us send to its help whatever devilry we have in us:–our disgust at the clumsy and undefined, our “NITIMUR IN VETITUM,” our love of adventure, our sharpened and fastidious curiosity, our most subtle, disguised, intellectual Will to Power and universal conquest, which rambles and roves avidiously around all the realms of the future–let us go with all our “devils” to the help of our “God”! It is probable that people will misunderstand and mistake us on that account: what does it matter! They will say: “Their ‘honesty’–that is their devilry, and nothing else!” What does it matter! And even if they were right–have not all Gods hitherto been such sanctified, re-baptized devils? And after all, what do we know of ourselves? And what the spirit that leads us wants TO BE CALLED? (It is a question of names.) And how many spirits we harbour? Our honesty, we free spirits–let us be careful lest it become our vanity, our ornament and ostentation, our limitation, our stupidity! Every virtue inclines to stupidity, every stupidity to virtue; “stupid to the point of sanctity,” they say in Russia,–let us be careful lest…

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