| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Falk by Joseph Conrad: It was bad for the children; they got unruly; and
yesterday he actually had to give Gustav a thrash-
ing.
For that, too, Falk was made responsible ap-
parently. And looking at my Hermann's heavy,
puffy, good-natured face, I knew he would not ex-
ert himself till greatly exasperated, and, therefore,
would thrash very hard, and being fat would resent
the necessity. How Falk had managed to turn the
girl's head was more difficult to understand. I sup-
posed Hermann would know. And then hadn't
Falk |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: laid upon my lips the coal of utterance.
My father having conceived some doubts as to the tendency of the
Oratorian teachings, took me from Pont-le-Voy, and sent me to Paris to
an institution in the Marais. I was then fifteen. When examined as to
my capacity, I, who was in the rhetoric class at Pont-le-Voy, was
pronounced worthy of the third class. The sufferings I had endured in
my family and in school were continued under another form during my
stay at the Lepitre Academy. My father gave me no money; I was to be
fed, clothed, and stuffed with Latin and Greek, for a sum agreed on.
During my school life I came in contact with over a thousand comrades;
but I never met with such an instance of neglect and indifference as
The Lily of the Valley |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: dagger thrusts to Felicite. Strange stubbornness of the bird which
would not talk when people watched him!
Nevertheless, he sought society; for on Sunday, when the ladies
Rochefeuille, Monsieur de Houppeville and the new habitues, Onfroy,
the chemist, Monsieur Varin and Captain Mathieu, dropped in for their
game of cards, he struck the window-panes with his wings and made such
a racket that it was impossible to talk.
Bourais' face must have appeared very funny to Loulou. As soon as he
saw him he would begin to roar. His voice re-echoed in the yard, and
the neighbours would come to the windows and begin to laugh, too; and
in order that the parrot might not see him, Monsieur Bourais edged
A Simple Soul |
