| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: no account, the most gratifying success of the moment and the most
enthusiastic approval of as augurs cannot make them endure. The
waste-paper press can devour them as it has devoured many others,
and I will not shed a tear . . . and the world will move on just the
same."'--RICHARD STRAUSS.
The contents of this volume require some explanation of an
historical nature. It is scarcely realised by the present
generation that Wilde's works on their first appearance, with the
exception of De Profundis, were met with almost general condemnation
and ridicule. The plays on their first production were grudgingly
praised because their obvious success could not be ignored; but on
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson: Now, however, and in the light of that morning's accident, I was
led to remark that whereas, in the beginning, the difficulty had
been to throw off the body of Jekyll, it had of late gradually but
decidedly transferred itself to the other side. All things
therefore seemed to point to this; that I was slowly losing hold
of my original and better self, and becoming slowly incorporated
with my second and worse.
Between these two, I now felt I had to choose. My two natures
had memory in common, but all other faculties were most unequally
shared between them. Jekyll (who was composite) now with the most
sensitive apprehensions, now with a greedy gusto, projected and
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: bleeding, and her torn dress revealed her in a state of semi-nudity,
with the scratches on her breasts. She was sublime so. Her head, eager
and maddened, exhaled the odor of blood. Her panting mouth was open,
and her nostrils were not sufficient for her breath. There are certain
animals who fall upon their enemy in their rage, do it to death, and
seem in the tranquillity of victory to have forgotten it. There are
others who prowl around their victim, who guard it in fear lest it
should be taken away from them, and who, like the Achilles of Homer,
drag their enemy by the feet nine times round the walls of Troy. The
Marquise was like that. She did not see Henri. In the first place, she
was too secure of her solitude to be afraid of witnesses; and,
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
