| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: villainy those estimable personages were hatching now. At last,
when all hope seemed dead, he was overjoyed on hearing Dain's
voice; but Dain also appeared very anxious to see Lakamba, and
Almayer felt uneasy owing to a deep and ineradicable distrust as
to that ruler's disposition towards himself. Still, Dain had
returned at last. Evidently he meant to keep to his bargain.
Hope revived, and that night Almayer slept soundly, while Nina
watched the angry river under the lash of the thunderstorm
sweeping onward towards the sea.
CHAPTER VI.
Dain was not long in crossing the river after leaving Almayer.
Almayer's Folly |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: at first made her his mistress.
"Hey! hey!" he said to himself, in his soldierly fashion. "I am an old
wolf, and a sheep shall not make a fool of me. Castanier, old man,
before you set up housekeeping, reconnoitre the girl's character for a
bit, and see if she is a steady sort."
This irregular union gave the Piedmontese a status the most nearly
approaching respectability among those which the world declines to
recognize. During the first year she took the nom de guerre of
Aquilina, one of the characters in Venice Preserved which she had
chanced to read. She fancied that she resembled the courtesan in face
and general appearance, and in a certain precocity of heart and brain
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad: wonder, bitter irony, and downright chaff. I could hardly
breathe under its weight, and certainly had no words for an
answer. People wondered what Mr. T. B. would do now with his
worrying nephew and, I dare say, hoped kindly that he would make
short work of my nonsense.
What he did was to come down all the way from Ukraine to have it
out with me and to judge by himself, unprejudiced, impartial, and
just, taking his stand on the ground of wisdom and affection. As
far as is possible for a boy whose power of expression is still
unformed I opened the secret of my thoughts to him, and he in
return allowed me a glimpse into his mind and heart; the first
A Personal Record |
