| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Message by Honore de Balzac: charm possessed by every woman who loves; and, with even
supererogatory simplicity, afforded us that just sufficient spice
of danger which increases pleasure. Ah! how quickly the wind
swept away our talk and our happy laughter!
When we reached Pouilly, I scanned my new friend with much
interest, and truly, it was not difficult to imagine him the hero
of a very serious love affair. Picture to yourselves a young man
of middle height, but very well proportioned, a bright,
expressive face, dark hair, blue eyes, moist lips, and white and
even teeth. A certain not unbecoming pallor still overspread his
delicately cut features, and there were faint dark circles about
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: a coaster, with the appearance of disentangling
themselves slowly from under the branches, floated
clear of the foliage of the trees.
"Shipwrecked in the bay?" I said.
"Yes; he was a castaway. A poor emigrant
from Central Europe bound to America and washed
ashore here in a storm. And for him, who knew
nothing of the earth, England was an undiscovered
country. It was some time before he learned its
name; and for all I know he might have expected
to find wild beasts or wild men here, when, crawling
Amy Foster |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: oscillated in front of them, drawn by four horses whose ponderous
hoofs raised clouds of dust. Without a word from their driver they
turned to the right. He kissed her again and she went home. The
following week, Theodore obtained meetings.
They met in yards, behind walls or under isolated trees. She was not
ignorant, as girls of well-to-do families are--for the animals had
instructed her;--but her reason and her instinct of honour kept her
from falling. Her resistance exasperated Theodore's love and so in
order to satisfy it (or perchance ingenuously), he offered to marry
her. She would not believe him at first, so he made solemn promises.
But, in a short time he mentioned a difficulty; the previous year, his
A Simple Soul |
