Name That Author

[wrdsandwrks]

While I'm not particularly fond of Jane Austen (or the Bronte sisters, for the matter),

I can't go as far as Mark Twain, who is quite brutal in his assessment of her work.

Suum cuique pulchrum est!

Wrds, I liked the short piece on your blog. Do I understand correctly that your example is from a textbook?

If so, that is a disgrace. The editors should have caught that mistake,

even if the author was not well-versed in 18th century English grammar.

Thanks. It's not exactly a textbook, more like a study-guide. It was sent out to schools by the Masterpiece Theatre to promote the Jane Austen series they were showing on Sunday nights. Yes, well I guess Jane Austin knew her English grammar better than the editors of the guide.

[wrdsandwrks]

Is it too soon for another quote?

Try this:

Many a man, brought up in the glib professional of some shallow form of Christianity, who comes through reading Astronomy to realise for the first time how majestically indifferent most reality is to man, and who perhaps abandons his religion on that account, may at that moment be having his first genuinely religious experience.

and this:

From all my lame defeats and oh! much more From all the victories that I seemed to score; From the cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf At which, while angels weep, the audience laugh; From all my proofs of Thy divinity, Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me. Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust, instead Of Thee, their thin-worn image of Thy head. From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee, O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free. Lord of the narrow gate and the needle s eye, Take from me my trumpery lest I die.

[GeorgeStGeorge]

Thomas Aquinas?

George

[wrdsandwrks]

Thomas Aquinas?

George

No, not Aquinas. Here's another one:

"Is he safe?" "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver... "Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

[wrdsandwrks]

One more:

There is a way into my country from all the worlds," said the Lamb; but as he spoke his snowy white flushed into tawny gold and his size changed and he was Aslan himself, towering above them and scattering light from his mane.

"Oh, Aslan," said Lucy, "Will you tell us how to get into your country from our world?"

"I shall be telling you all the time," said Aslan. "But I will not tell you how long or short the way will be; only that it lies across a river. But do not fear that, for I am the great Bridge Builder. And now come; I will open the door in the sky and send you to your own land."

[bfh]

I believe this is an Irish author, and a good friend of Tolkien,

by the name of C.S. Lewis

[GeorgeStGeorge]

I do believe you're right. "Chronicles of Narnia," no doubt.

George

[wrdsandwrks]

I believe this is an Irish author, and a good friend of Tolkien,

by the name of C.S. Lewis

you got it!

[bfh]

New quote:

"... and there it was, black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids, —a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole,

and, with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow white line of the teeth, was smiling too, smiling continuously..."

[hiway29]

sounds like 'Lord of the Flies"

[bfh]

No, not Lord of the Flies.

Here's two more quotes:

"They were dying slowly--it was very clear. They were not enemies, they

were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now--nothing but black

shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish

gloom. Brought from all the recesses of the coast in all the legality

of time contracts, lost in uncongenial surroundings, fed on unfamiliar

food, they sickened, became inefficient, and were then allowed to crawl

away and rest".

"Near the same tree two more bundles of acute angles sat with their legs

drawn up. One, with his chin propped on his knees, stared at nothing,

in an intolerable and appalling manner: his brother phantom rested its

forehead, as if overcome with a great weariness; and all about others

were scattered in every pose of contorted collapse, as in some picture

of a massacre or a pestilence. While I stood horror-struck, one of these

creatures rose to his hands and knees, and went off on all-fours towards

the river to drink. He lapped out of his hand, then sat up in the

sunlight, crossing his shins in front of him, and after a time let his

woolly head fall on his breastbone."

[bfh]

A few more:

"It's queer how out of touch with truth women are.

They live in a world of their own, and there has never been anything

like it, and never can be. It is too beautiful altogether, and if they

were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first sunset. Some

confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the

day of creation would start up and knock the whole thing over".

"Facing it, always facing it, that's the way to get through. Face it".

"Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men".

“. . . No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of

one’s existence—that which makes its truth, its meaning—its subtle and penetrating essence.

It is impossible. We live, as we dream—alone. . . .”

[anotherDan]

have no idea.... but interesting watching the Google ads on the page change to things like:

"Stomach pain self-exam"

"Causes of Abdominal Pain"

[bfh]

A few more:

"The horror! The horror!"

"Marlow ceased, and sat apart, indistinct and silent, in the pose of a

meditating Buddha. Nobody moved for a time. "We have lost the first of

the ebb," said the Director suddenly. I raised my head. The offing was

barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to

the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast

sky--seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness."

[wrdsandwrks]

A few more:

"The horror! The horror!"

"Marlow ceased, and sat apart, indistinct and silent, in the pose of a

meditating Buddha. Nobody moved for a time. "We have lost the first of

the ebb," said the Director suddenly. I raised my head. The offing was

barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to

the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast

sky--seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness."

Joseph Conrad????

[bfh]

Yes, Joseph Conrad is the author.

Most of the quotes are taken from Heart of Darkness.

The meaning of Kurtz's "The horror! The horror!" has been hotly debated

in English departments since the book was first published. Papers and articles abound!

For those of you who don't know, the movie Apocalypse Now is based on Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

Wrds, your turn.

[wrdsandwrks]

Here goes:

"'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe."

[GeorgeStGeorge]

I believe that that's Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky."

George

[wrdsandwrks]

I believe that that's Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky."

George

Yep! Take it away George...

[GeorgeStGeorge]

I'll get to it tonight.

George

[GeorgeStGeorge]

Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest

Now is the time that face should form another;

Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,

Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.

George

[wrdsandwrks]

Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest

Now is the time that face should form another;

Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,

Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.

George

Shakespeare???

Edited April 13, 2008 by wrdsandwrks

[anotherDan]

certainly around Shakespeare's time!

[waysider]

William Wicherly----The Country Wife?????

[GeorgeStGeorge]

It's from Shakespeare's third sonnet.

You're up, W&W!

George