Preface Of The Author.It is not my intention to detain the reader by expatiatingon the variety or the importance of the subject, which I haveundertaken to treat; since the merit of the choice would serve torender the weakness of the execution still more apparent, andstill less excusable. But as I have presumed to lay before thepublic a first volume only ^1 of the History of the Decline andFall of the Roman Empire, it will, perhaps, be expected that Ishould explain, in a few words, the nature and limits of mygeneral plan....
The Wreck of the Golden Maryby Charles DickensTHE WRECKI was apprenticed to the Sea when I was twelve years old, and I haveencountered a great deal of rough weather, both literal andmetaphorical. It has always been my opinion since I first possessedsuch a thing as an opinion, that the man who knows only one subjectis next tiresome to the man who knows no subject. Therefore, in thecourse of my life I have taught myself whatever I could, andalthough I am not an educated man, I am able, I am thankful to say,to have an intelligent interest in most things....
TWICE-TOLD TALESOLD ESTHER DUDLEYby Nathaniel HawthorneTHE HOUR HAD COME- the hour of defeat and humiliation- when SirWilliam Howe was to pass over the threshold of the Province House, andembark, with no such triumphal ceremonies as he once promised himself,on board the British fleet. He bade his servants and militaryattendants go before him, and lingered a moment in the loneliness ofthe mansion, to quell the fierce emotions that struggled in hisbosom as with a death throb. Preferable, then, would he have deemed...
THE SLEEPING BEAUTY IN THE WOODTHERE were formerly a king and a queen, who were sosorry that they had no children; so sorry that it cannotbe expressed. They went to all the waters in the world;vows, pilgrimages, all ways were tried, and all to nopurpose.At last, however, the Queen had a daughter. There wasa very fine christening; and the Princess had for her god-mothers all the fairies they could find in the whole kingdom(they found seven), that every one of them mightgive her a gift, as was the custom of fairies in those days.By this means the Princess had all the perfections imaginable....
GULLIVER OF MARSby Edwin L. ArnoldOriginal Title: Lieut. Gulliver JonesCHAPTER IDare I say it? Dare I say that I, a plain, prosaic lieutenant in the republican service have done the incredible things here set out for the love of a womanfor a chimera in female shape; for a pale, vapid ghost of woman-loveliness? At times I tell myself I dare not: that you will laugh, and cast me aside as a fabricator; and then again I pick up my pen and collect the scattered pages, for I MUST write itthe pallid splendour of that thing I loved, and won, and lost is ever before me, and will not be forgotten. Th
THAISby ANATOLE FRANCETranslated by Robert B. DouglasCONTENTSPART I. THE LOTUSPART II. THE PAPYRUSTHE BANQUETTHE PAPYRUS (resumed)PART III. THE EUPHORBIATHAISPART THE FIRSTTHE LOTUSIn those days there were many hermits living in the desert. On bothbanks of the Nile numerous huts, built by these solitary dwellers, ofbranches held together by clay, were scattered at a little distancefrom each other, so that the inhabitants could live alone, and yethelp one another in case of need. Churches, each surmounted by a...
ClocksClocksby Jerome K. Jerome1- Page 2-ClocksThere are two kinds of clocks. There is the clock that is alwayswrong, and that knows it is wrong, and glories in it; and there is the clockthat is always rightexcept when you rely upon it, and then it is morewrong than you would think a clock _could_ be in a civilized country.I remember a clock of this latter type, that we had in the house when I...
Guy Manneringby Sir Walter ScottINTRODUCTION TO GUY MANNERING.The Novel or Romance of WAVERLEY made its way to the public slowly, of course, at first, but afterwards with such accumulating popularity as to encourage the author to a second attempt. He looked about for a name and a subject; and the manner in which the novels were composed cannot be better illustrated than by reciting the simple narrative on which Guy Mannering was originally founded; but to which, in the progress of the work, the production ceased to bear any, even the most distant resemblance. The tale was originally told me b
410 BCIPHIGENIA AT AULISby EuripidesCharacters in the PlayAgamemnonAttendant, an old manChorus of Women of ChalcisMenelausClytaemnestraIphigeniaAchillesMessengerThe sea-coast at Aulis. Enter AGAMEMNON and ATTENDANT.Agamemnon.Old man, come hither and stand before my dwelling.Attendant.I come; what new schemes now, king Agamemnon?AGAMEMNON...
STORIESSTORIESBY ENGLISH AUTHORS IN ITALY1- Page 2-STORIESA FAITHFUL RETAINERBY JAMES PAYNWhen I lived in the country,which was a long time ago,our nearestneighbours were the Luscombes. They were very great personages in thecountry indeed, and the family were greatly "respected"; though not, so faras I could discern, for any particular reason, except from their having been...
Modern Customs and Ancient Laws of Russiaby Maxime Kovalevsky1891Lecture 5.Old Russian Parliaments.In our last lecture we showed what causes produced the riseof monarchical power in Russia, and tried to prove that, powerfulas was the autocracy of the Czars of Moscovy, it was limited bythe political rights of the higher nobility. The exercise ofthese rights was entrusted to the Douma or Council, and similarpowers in matters ecclesiastical were vested in a HighCommission, often mentioned by the authors of the time under thename of the consecrated Sobor. This body was composed of the...
THE MIRROR OF KONG HOBY ERNEST BRAMAHA lively and amusing collection of letters onwestern living written by Kong Ho, a Chinesegentleman. These addressed to his homeland,refer to the Westerners in London asbarbarians and many of the aids to life in oursociety give Kong Ho endless food for thought.These are things such as the motor car and thepiano; unknown in China at this time.INTRODUCTIONESTIMABLE BARBARIAN,Your opportune suggestion that I should...
Father Goriotby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Ellen MarriageTo the great and illustrious Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, a token of admiration for his works and genius. DE BALZAC.Mme. Vauquer (nee de Conflans) is an elderly person, who for the past forty years has kept a lodging-house in the Rue Nueve- Sainte-Genevieve, in the district that lies between the Latin Quarter and the Faubourg Saint-Marcel. Her house (known in the neighborhood as the Maison Vauquer) receives men and women, old and young, and no word has ever been breathed against her respectable establishment; but, at the same time, it mus
Messer Marco Polo by Brian Oswald Donn-ByrneA NOTE ON THE AUTHOR OF MESSER MARCO POLOSo Celtic in feeling and atmosphere are the stories of Donn Byrne that many of his devotees have come to believe that he never lived anywhere but in Ireland. Actually, Donn Byrne was born in New York City. Shortly after his birth, however, his parents took him back to the land of his forefathers. There he was educated and came to know the people of whom he wrote so magically. At Dublin University his love for the Irish language and for a good fight won him many prizes, first as a writer in Gaelic and seco
PREFACE TO THE FIRST CHEAP EDITION OF "AMERICAN NOTES"IT is nearly eight years since this book was first published. Ipresent it, unaltered, in the Cheap Edition; and such of myopinions as it expresses, are quite unaltered too.My readers have opportunities of judging for themselves whether theinfluences and tendencies which I distrust in America, have anyexistence not in my imagination. They can examine for themselveswhether there has been anything in the public career of thatcountry during these past eight years, or whether there is anything...
THE CELESTIAL RAILROADNot a great while ago, passing through the gate of dreams, Ivisited that region of the earth in which lies the famous City ofDestruction. It interested me much to learn that by the publicspirit of some of the inhabitants a railroad has recently beenestablished between this populous and flourishing town and theCelestial City. Having a little time upon my hands, I resolved togratify a liberal curiosity by making a trip thither.Accordingly, one fine morning after paying my bill at the hotel,and directing the porter to stow my luggage behind a coach, I...