| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Death of the Lion by Henry James: every one's telling every one where they put it last. I'm sure
it's rather smudgy about the twentieth page. I've a strong
impression, too, that the second volume is lost - has been packed
in the bag of some departing guest; and yet everybody has the
impression that somebody else has read to the end. You see
therefore that the beautiful book plays a great part in our
existence. Why should I take the occasion of such distinguished
honours to say that I begin to see deeper into Gustave Flaubert's
doleful refrain about the hatred of literature? I refer you again
to the perverse constitution of man.
"The Princess is a massive lady with the organisation of an athlete
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles: OEDIPUS
Monster! thy silence would incense a flint.
Will nothing loose thy tongue? Can nothing melt thee,
Or shake thy dogged taciturnity?
TEIRESIAS
Thou blam'st my mood and seest not thine own
Wherewith thou art mated; no, thou taxest me.
OEDIPUS
And who could stay his choler when he heard
How insolently thou dost flout the State?
TEIRESIAS
Oedipus Trilogy |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: thanks to his sober living. He made a few excursions to the boulevard
to see what became of his pictures, and there he underwent a singular
hallucination. His neat, clean paintings, hard as tin and shiny as
porcelain, were covered with a sort of mist; they looked like old
daubs. Magus was out, and Pierre could obtain no information on this
phenomenon. He fancied something was wrong with his eyes.
The painter went back to his studio and made more pictures. After
seven years of continued toil Fougeres managed to compose and execute
quite passable work. He did as well as any artist of the second class.
Elie bought and sold all the paintings of the poor Breton, who earned
laboriously about two thousand francs a year while he spent but twelve
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