Vanity Fairby William Makepeace ThackerayBEFORE THE CURTAINAs the manager of the Performance sits before the curtainon the boards and looks into the Fair, a feeling of profoundmelancholy comes over him in his survey of the bustling place.There is a great quantity of eating and drinking, making loveand jilting, laughing and the contrary, smoking, cheating,fighting, dancing and fiddling; there are bullies pushing about,bucks ogling the women, knaves picking pockets, policemenon the look-out, quacks (OTHER quacks, plague take them!)...
The Americanization of Edward BokThe Autobiography of a Dutch Boy Fifty Years Afterby Edward William BokTo the American woman I owe much, but to two women I owe more, My mother and my wife. And to them I dedicate this account of the boy to whom one gave birth and brought to manhood and the other blessed with all a home and family may mean.An ExplanationThis book was to have been written in 1914, when I foresaw some leisure to write it, for I then intended to retire from active editorship. But the war came, an entirely new set of duties commanded, and the project was laid aside....
RUSSIA IN 1919RUSSIA IN 1919ARTHUR RANSOME- Page 2-RUSSIA IN 1919INTRODUCTIONI am well aware that there is material in this book which will bemisused by fools both white and red. That is not my fault. My objecthas been narrowly limited. I have tried by means of a bald record ofconversations and things seen, to provide material for those who wish to...
The Discovery of Guianaby Walter RaleighINTRODUCTORY NOTESir Walter Raleigh may be taken as the great typical figure of theage of Elizabeth. Courtier and statesman, soldier and sailor,scientist and man of letters, he engaged in almost all the mainlines of public activity in his time, and was distinguished inthem all.His father was a Devonshire gentleman of property, connected withmany of the distinguished families of the south of England. Walterwas born about 1552 and was educated at Oxford. He first sawmilitary service in the Huguenot army in France in 1569, and in...
ANTHEMANTHEMby Ayn Rand1- Page 2-ANTHEMPART ONEIt is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think andto put them down upon a paper no others are to see. It is base and evil. Itis as if we were speaking alone to no ears but our own. And we know wellthat there is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone. We have...
Burlesquesby William Makepeace ThackerayCONTENTSNOTES BY EMINENT HANDS.George de Barnwell. By Sir E. L. B. L., Bart.Codlingsby. By D. Shrewsberry, Esq.Phil Fogarty. A Tale of the Fighting Onety-Oneth. By HarryRollickerBarbazure. By G. P. R. Jeames, Esq., etc.Lords and Liveries. By the Authoress of "Dukes and Dejeuners,""Hearts and Diamonds," "Marchionesses and Milliners," etc., etc.Crinoline. By Je-mes Pl-sh, Esq.The Stars and Stripes. By the Author of "The Last of the...
FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE SHIRT-COLLARby Hans Christian AndersenTHERE was once a fine gentleman who possessed among other things aboot-jack and a hair-brush; but he had also the finest shirt-collar inthe world, and of this collar we are about to hear a story. The collarhad become so old that he began to think about getting married; andone day he happened to find himself in the same washing-tub as agarter. "Upon my word," said the shirt-collar, "I have never seenanything so slim and delicate, so neat and soft before. May I...
The American Claimantby Mark TwainEXPLANATORYThe Colonel Mulberry Sellers here re-introduced to the public is the sameperson who appeared as Eschol Sellers in the first edition of the taleentitled "The Gilded Age," years ago, and as Beriah Sellers in thesubsequent editions of the same book, and finally as Mulberry Sellers inthe drama played afterward by John T. Raymond.The name was changed from Eschol to Beriah to accommodate an EscholSellers who rose up out of the vasty deeps of uncharted space andpreferred his requestbacked by threat of a libel suitthen went his...
The Duchesse de Langeaisby Honore de BalzacTHE DUCHESS OF LANGEAISIIn a Spanish city on an island in the Mediterranean, there stands a convent of the Order of Barefoot Carmelites, where the rule instituted by St. Theresa is still preserved with all the first rigour of the reformation brought about by that illustrious woman. Extraordinary as this may seem, it is none the less true.Almost every religious house in the Peninsula, or in Europe for that matter, was either destroyed or disorganised by the outbreak of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars; but as this island was protected th
THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE"She said that she would dance with me if I brought her red roses,"cried the young Student; "but in all my garden there is no redrose."From her nest in the holm-oak tree the Nightingale heard him, andshe looked out through the leaves, and wondered."No red rose in all my garden!" he cried, and his beautiful eyesfilled with tears. "Ah, on what little things does happinessdepend! I have read all that the wise men have written, and allthe secrets of philosophy are mine, yet for want of a red rose is...
"Speaking of Operations"by Irvin S. CobbRespectfully dedicated to two classes:Those who have already been operated onThose who have not yet been operated onNow that the last belated bill for services professionally renderedhas been properly paid and properly receipted; now that the memoryof the event, like the mark of the stitches, has faded out from avivid red to a becoming pink shade; now that I pass a display ofadhesive tape in a drug-store window without flinchingI sit medown to write a little piece about a certain mattera small thing,but mine ownto wit, That Operation....
Adventure XIThe Final ProblemIt is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen towrite these the last words in which I shall everrecord the singular gifts by which my friend Mr.Sherlock Holmes was distinguished. In an incoherentand, as I deeply feel, an entirely inadequate fashion,I have endeavored to give some account of my strangeexperiences in his company from the chance which firstbrought us together at the period of the "Study inScarlet," up to the time of his interference in thematter of the "Naval Treaty"and interference which...
Ernest Miller Hemingway was born in 1899 at Oak Park, a highly respectable suburb of Chicago, where his father, a keen sportsman, was a doctor. He was the second of six children. The family spent holidays in a lakeside hunting lodge in Michigan, near Indian settlements. Although energetic and successful in all school activities, Ernest twice ran away from home before joining the Kansas City Star as a cub reporter in 1917. Next year he volunteered as an ambulance driver on the Italian front and was badly wounded. Returning to America he began to write features for the Toronto Star Weekly in 19
HOW TO TELL A TRUE PRINCESSThere was once upon a time a Prince who wanted to marry aPrincess, but she must be a true Princess. So he travelledthrough the whole world to find one, but there was alwayssomething against each. There were plenty of Princesses, but hecould not find out if they were true Princesses. In every casethere was some little defect, which showed the genuine articlewas not yet found. So he came home again in very low spirits,for he had wanted very much to have a true Princess. One nightthere was a dreadful storm; it thundered and lightened and the...
The Efficiency Expertby Edgar Rice BurroughsCHAPTER I.JIMMY TORRANCE, JR.The gymnasium was packed as Jimmy Torrance stepped into the ring for the final event of the evening that was to decide the boxing championship of the university. Drawing to a close were the nearly four years of his college careerprofitable years, Jimmy considered them, and certainly successful up to this point. In the beginning of his senior year he had captained the varsity eleven, and in the coming spring he would again sally forth upon the diamond as the star initial sacker of collegedom....
Adventures and Lettersby Richard Harding DavisEDITED BYCHARLES BELMONT DAVISCONTENTSCHAPTERI. THE EARLY DAYSII. COLLEGE DAYSIII. FIRST NEWSPAPER EXPERIENCESIV. NEW YORKV. FIRST TRAVEL ARTICLESVI. THE MEDITERRANEAN AND PARISVII. FIRST PLAYSVIII. CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICAIX. MOSCOW, BUDAPEST, LONDONX. CAMPAIGNING IN CUBA, AND GREECEXI. THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WARXII. THE BOER WARXIII. THE SPANISH AND ENGLISH CORONATIONSXIV. THE JAPANESE-RUSSIAN WARXV. MOUNT KISCO...