| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Foolish Virgin by Thomas Dixon: him to speak, she cried nervously at last:
"Well--well--what else did he say?"
"That he took the little duffer to New York and
raised him."
"RAISED him?"
She fairly screamed the words, springing to her
feet trembling from head to foot.
"Till he was big enough to kick into the streets to
shuffle for himself."
"The scoundrel said he was dead."
Her voice was far away and sank into dreamy
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ferragus by Honore de Balzac: must renounce his desire, because, in a city where the number of tears
shed on black draperies is tariffed, where the laws recognize seven
classes of funerals, where the scrap of ground to hold the dead is
sold at its weight in silver, where grief is worked for what it is
worth, where the prayers of the Church are costly, and the vestry
claim payment for extra voices in the /Dies irae/,--all attempt to get
out of the rut prescribed by the authorities for sorrow is useless and
impossible.
"It would have been to me," said Jules, "a comfort in my misery. I
meant to have died away from here, and I hoped to hold her in my arms
in a distant grave. I did not know that bureaucracy could send its
Ferragus |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Emma by Jane Austen: a woman feels in the society of one of her own sex, after being used
to it all her life. I can imagine your objection to Harriet Smith.
She is not the superior young woman which Emma's friend ought to be.
But on the other hand, as Emma wants to see her better informed,
it will be an inducement to her to read more herself. They will
read together. She means it, I know."
"Emma has been meaning to read more ever since she was twelve
years old. I have seen a great many lists of her drawing-up at
various times of books that she meant to read regularly through--and
very good lists they were--very well chosen, and very neatly
arranged--sometimes alphabetically, and sometimes by some other rule.
Emma |
