English Fiction from the Fifth to the Twentieth CenturyCentury Company, 1912 - 445 pages |
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admirable adventures ancient Anglo-Saxon Arthur battle beautiful become Beowulf British Cædmon Castle characters Charlemagne Charles Charles Dickens Charlotte Brontë charm Chaucer Cynewulf death declared deeds Defoe Dickens doubtless eighteenth century Elizabeth Gaskell England English fiction English Literature Euphues Euphuism Exeter Book fame famous father Fielding French gained Gawain genius George Eliot heart hero History human humor ideal Jane Austen King King Arthur knight lady land Layamon legend literary living London look lover manner married master mingling modern moral narrative nature ness never Norman novel novelists passion plot poet poetry popular portrayed possessed prose readers realistic Richardson romance Saxon scenes Scott seems sentiment shows Smollett social soul spirit story tale tell Thackeray theme things thou tion Tom Jones traits true truth uncle Toby Vanity Fair vivid warriors Widsith wife woman women writing wrote young
Popular passages
Page 257 - YE who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow ; attend to the history of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia.
Page 260 - no more silver than your saucepan." — " And so," returned she, " we have parted with the colt, and have only got a gross of green spectacles, with copper rims and shagreen cases. A murrain take such trumpery ! The blockhead has been imposed upon, and should have known his company better." — " There, my dear," cried 1, " you are wrong : he should not have known them at all.
Page 255 - Trim, — and what with thy care of him, and the old woman's, and his boy's, and mine together, we might recruit him again at once, and set him upon his legs. In a fortnight or three weeks, added my uncle Toby, smiling, he might march. He will never march ; an...
Page 189 - As I WALKED through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a Den, and I laid me down in that place to sleep: and as I slept I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and behold, I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back.
Page 213 - ... when I behold a lump of deformity and diseases both in body and mind, smitten with pride, it immediately breaks all the measures of my patience; neither shall I be ever able to comprehend how such an animal and such a vice could tally together.
Page 286 - That young lady had a talent for describing the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life, which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. The Big Bow-wow strain I can do myself like any now going ; but the exquisite touch, which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting, from the truth of the description and the sentiment, is denied to me.
Page 354 - MAY I join the choir invisible Of those immortal dead who live again In minds made better by their presence : live In pulses stirred to generosity, In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn For miserable aims that end with self. In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, And with their mild persistence urge man's search To vaster issues.
Page 221 - Why, Sir, if you were to read Richardson for the story, your impatience would be so much fretted that you would hang yourself. But you must read him for the sentiment, and consider the story as only giving occasion to the sentiment.
Page 169 - Musidorus's eyes (wearied with the wasted soil of Laconia) with delightful prospects. There were hills which garnished their proud heights with stately trees: humble vallies, whose base estate seemed comforted with the refreshing of silver rivers: meadows enamelled with all sorts of eye-pleasing...
Page 214 - I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin, that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.