| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: so white that it brought out the changeless leaden hue of an impassive
face, and the thin red line of the lips that seemed made to suck the
blood of corpses; and you can guess at once at the black gaiters
buttoned up to the knee, and the half-puritanical costume of a wealthy
Englishman dressed for a walking excursion. The intolerable glitter of
the stranger's eyes produced a vivid and unpleasant impression, which
was only deepened by the rigid outlines of his features. The dried-up,
emaciated creature seemed to carry within him some gnawing thought
that consumed him and could not be appeased.
He must have digested his food so rapidly that he could doubtless eat
continually without bringing any trace of color into his face or
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: from under the table, and made as though he would throw it at
Ulysses, but the other suitors all gave him something, and
filled his wallet with bread and meat; he was about, therefore,
to go back to the threshold and eat what the suitors had given
him, but he first went up to Antinous and said:
"Sir, give me something; you are not, surely, the poorest man
here; you seem to be a chief, foremost among them all; therefore
you should be the better giver, and I will tell far and wide of
your bounty. I too was a rich man once, and had a fine house of
my own; in those days I gave to many a tramp such as I now am,
no matter who he might be nor what he wanted. I had any number
The Odyssey |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: could intentionally forget her gloves in a deserted arbor."
"Unless she may be classed between the oyster and head-clerk of an
office, the two creatures nearest to marble in the zoological kingdom,
it is impossible to discern in Olympia--" Bianchon began.
"A woman of thirty," Madame de la Baudraye hastily interposed, fearing
some all too medical term.
"Then Adolphe must be two-and-twenty," the doctor went on, "for an
Italian woman at thirty is equivalent to a Parisian of forty."
"From these two facts, the romance may easily be reconstructed," said
Lousteau. "And this Cavaliere Paluzzi--what a man!--The style is weak
in these two passages; the author was perhaps a clerk in the Excise
The Muse of the Department |
