| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from McTeague by Frank Norris: motionless air was like the mouth of a furnace. Cribbens's
pony lathered and panted. McTeague's mule began to droop
his long ears. Only the little burro plodded resolutely on,
picking the trail where McTeague could see but trackless
sand and stunted sage. Towards evening Cribbens, who was in
the lead, drew rein on the summit of the hills.
Behind them was the beautiful green Panamint Valley, but
before and below them for miles and miles, as far as the eye
could reach, a flat, white desert, empty even of sage-brush,
unrolled toward the horizon. In the immediate foreground a
broken system of arroyos, and little canyons tumbled down to
McTeague |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: weariness, sadness, at the sight of those long and over-crowded
galleries? Since 1830, the true Salon no longer exists. The Louvre has
again been taken by assault,--this time by a populace of artists who
have maintained themselves in it.
In other days, when the Salon presented only the choicest works of
art, it conferred the highest honor on the creations there exhibited.
Among the two hundred selected paintings, the public could still
choose: a crown was awarded to the masterpiece by hands unseen. Eager,
impassioned discussions arose about some picture. The abuse showered
on Delacroix, on Ingres, contributed no less to their fame than the
praises and fanaticism of their adherents. To-day, neither the crowd
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: that every one does it. He drove to the public meeting, where he
was to find his sister-in-law, so as to drive home with her.
At the public meeting of the committee there were a great many
people, and almost all the highest society. Levin was in time for
the report which, as every one said, was very interesting. When
the reading of the report was over, people moved about, and Levin
met Sviazhsky, who invited him very pressingly to come that
evening to a meeting of the Society of Agriculture, where a
celebrated lecture was to be delivered, and Stepan Arkadyevitch,
who had only just come from the races, and many other
acquaintances; and Levin heard and uttered various criticisms on
Anna Karenina |
