| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: comprehend its meaning."
"Indeed?"
"And for that reason I did myself the honor of calling upon
you, in order to beg for an explanation."
"Go on, monsieur. Here I am, ready to give you any
explanation you desire."
"Why," said Danglers, "in the letter -- I believe I have it
about me" -- here he felt in his breast-pocket -- "yes, here
it is. Well, this letter gives the Count of Monte Cristo
unlimited credit on our house."
"Well, baron, what is there difficult to understand about
The Count of Monte Cristo |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: expression. The method of the drama is his, as well as the method
of the epos. He may use dialogue, as he did who set Milton talking
to Marvel on the nature of comedy and tragedy, and made Sidney and
Lord Brooke discourse on letters beneath the Penshurst oaks; or
adopt narration, as Mr. Pater is fond of doing, each of whose
Imaginary Portraits - is not that the title of the book? - presents
to us, under the fanciful guise of fiction, some fine and exquisite
piece of criticism, one on the painter Watteau, another on the
philosophy of Spinoza, a third on the Pagan elements of the early
Renaissance, and the last, and in some respects the most
suggestive, on the source of that Aufklarung, that enlightening
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: to be the wife a Dahomey chief.
I couldn't help but compare Dian's action with that
of a splendid young woman I had known in New York--I
mean splendid to look at and to talk to. She had been
head over heels in love with a chum of mine--a clean,
manly chap--but she had married a broken-down, disreputable
old debauchee because he was a count in some dinky
little European principality that was not even accorded
a distinctive color by Rand McNally.
Yes, I was mighty proud of Dian.
After a time we decided to set out for Sari, as I was anxious
At the Earth's Core |
