Extracts from Literature
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Extracts from Literature’
An enduringly popular poem by the author of ‘Treasure Island’.
Robert Louis Stevenson, better known today for ‘Treasure Island’ and ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, first published ‘A Child’s Garden of Verses’ in 1885. He uses simple rhymes and a ‘rum-ti-tum’ rhythm to create a sense of childhood innocence, though he does not by any means romanticise childhood, and many poems in the set are tinged with sorrow.
England’s first and greatest historian explains why history is so important.
St Bede begins his famous ‘History’, written in AD 731, with an open letter to the King of Northumbria, Ceolwulf, explaining that history, rightly told, teaches us to refuse the evil, and choose the good. King Ceolwulf later resigned his throne to become a monk, and a saint.
Elizabeth Bennet began to wonder if being Mr Darcy’s wife might have had its compensations.
Elizabeth Bennet has recently turned down a proposal of marriage from Mr Darcy; now, having recently visited his snobbish aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, she is on a guided tour round Mr Darcy’s own magnificent country house in Derbyshire, ‘Pemberley’.
Mark Twain covets the supreme sensation of being a trailblazer.
On a visit to Rome, American novelist Mark Twain reflects (tongue-in-cheek) that everything in that ancient city has been seen before by someone. How much better, he suggests, to be an idle Roman, for then all the undiscovered secrets of the New World would be yours to find!
A cat’s affection is not easy to win, but the rewards make the effort worthwhile.
Théophile Gautier was a French artist, critic and writer whose friends included Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas, and whose many admirers have included TS Eliot and Oscar Wilde. His ‘Ménagerie intime’ (1869) includes fond recollections of the many cats in his life.
True moral integrity comes from within.
Henry Crawford has decided it would be fun to break Fanny Price’s heart by making her fall in love with him. He thinks that Fanny, whose life is guided by strict principle, will jump at the chance to mould someone in her own image — thereby revealing how little he understands of principle, or of Fanny.