| | 261 | Author: | Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | David Copperfield  | | | | Published: | 2000 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | I do not find it easy to get sufficiently far away from this Book,
in the first sensations of having finished it, to refer to it with
the composure which this formal heading would seem to require. My
interest in it, is so recent and strong; and my mind is so divided
between pleasure and regret -pleasure in the achievement of a long
design, regret in the separation from many companions -that I am
in danger of wearying the reader whom I love, with personal
confidences, and private emotions. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 275 | Author: | Doumic, René | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | George Sand; Some Aspects of her Life and Writings | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | In the whole of French literary history, there is,
perhaps, no subject of such inexhaustible and modern
interest as that of George Sand. Of what use is literary
history? It is not only a kind of museum, in which a few
masterpieces are preserved for the pleasure of beholders.
It is this certainly, but it is still more than this.
Fine books are, before anything else, living works. They
not only have lived, but they continue to live. They
live within us, underneath those ideas which form our
conscience and those sentiments which inspire our
actions. There is nothing of greater importance for any
society than to make an inventory of the ideas and the
sentiments which are composing its moral atmosphere every
instant that it exists. For every individual this work
is the very condition of his
dignity. The question is, should we have these
ideas and these sentiments, if,
in the times before us, there had not been some
exceptional individuals who seized them, as it were, in
the air and made them viable and durable? These
exceptional individuals were capable of thinking more
vigorously, of feeling more deeply, and of expressing
themselves more forcibly than we are. They bequeathed
these ideas and sentiments to us. Literary history is,
then, above and beyond all things, the perpetual
examination of the conscience of humanity. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 278 | Author: | Doyle, Arthur Conan | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Captain of the Polestar and other Tales | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | September 11th.—Lat. 81° 40' N.; long. 2° E. Still
lying-to amid enormous ice fields. The one which stretches away
to the north of us, and to which our ice-anchor is attached,
cannot be smaller than an English county. To the right and left
unbroken sheets extend to the horizon. This morning the mate
reported that there were signs of pack ice to the southward.
Should this form of sufficient thickness to bar our return, we
shall be in a position of danger, as the food, I hear, is
already running somewhat short. It is late in the season, and
the nights are beginning to reappear. This morning I saw a star
twinkling just over the fore-yard, the first since the beginning
of May. There is considerable discontent among the crew, many of
whom are anxious to get back home to be in time for the herring
season, when labour always commands a high price upon the Scotch
coast. As yet their displeasure is only signified by sullen
countenances and black looks, but I heard from the second mate
this afternoon that
they contemplated sending a deputation to the Captain to explain
their grievance. I much doubt how he will receive it, as he is a
man of fierce temper, and very sensitive about anything
approaching to an infringement of his rights. I shall venture
after dinner to say a few words to him upon the subject. I have
always found that he will tolerate from me what he would resent
from any other member of the crew. Amsterdam Island, at the
north-west corner of Spitzbergen, is visible upon our starboard
quarter—a rugged line of volcanic rocks, intersected by white
seams, which represent glaciers. It is curious to think that at
the present moment there is probably no human being nearer to us
than the Danish settlements in the south of Greenland—a good
nine hundred miles as the crow flies. A captain takes a great
responsibility upon himself when he
risks his vessel under such circumstances. No whaler has ever
remained in these latitudes till so advanced a period of the
year. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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