| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: by a clever and adoring pen. She kissed Raoul's letters, written in
the midst of the ceaseless battles of the press, with time taken from
necessary studies; she felt their value; she was certain of being
loved, and loved only, with no rival but the fame and ambition he
adored. She found enough in her country solitude to fill her soul and
employ her faculties,--happy, indeed, to have been so chosen by such a
man, who to her was an angel.
During the last days of autumn Marie and Raoul again met and renewed
their walks in the Bois, where alone they could see each other until
the salons reopened. But when the winter fairly began, Raoul appeared
in social life at his apogee. He was almost a personage. Rastignac,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Daisy Miller by Henry James: American flirt, make a rendezvous with a presumably low-lived foreigner?
The rendezvous in this case, indeed, had been in broad daylight and in
the most crowded corner of Rome, but was it not impossible to regard
the choice of these circumstances as a proof of extreme cynicism?
Singular though it may seem, Winterbourne was vexed that the young girl,
in joining her amoroso, should not appear more impatient
of his own company, and he was vexed because of his inclination.
It was impossible to regard her as a perfectly well-conducted
young lady; she was wanting in a certain indispensable delicacy.
It would therefore simplify matters greatly to be able to treat
her as the object of one of those sentiments which are called by
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: understood; and there was consternation, then immense wrath.
From the bottom of the Mappalian quarter, from the heights of the
Acropolis, from the catacombs, from the borders of the lake, the
multitude came in haste. The patricians left their palaces, and the
traders left their shops; the women forsook their children; swords,
hatchets, and sticks were seized; but the obstacle which had stayed
Salammbo stayed them. How could the veil be taken back? The mere sight
of it was a crime; it was of the nature of the gods, and contact with
it was death.
The despairing priests wrung their hands on the peristyles of the
temples. The guards of the Legion galloped about at random; the people
Salammbo |
