| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Albert Savarus by Honore de Balzac: out for France with a power of attorney, and Rodolphe could thus
remain at Gersau, the only place in the world where his grief could
grow calmer. The young Frenchman's position, his despair, the
circumstances which made such a loss worse for him than for any other
man, were known, and secured him the pity and interest of every one in
Gersau. Every morning the pretended dumb girl came to see him and
bring him news of her mistress.
As soon as Rodolphe could go out he went to the Bergmanns' house, to
thank Miss Fanny Lovelace and her father for the interest they had
taken in his sorrow and his illness. For the first time since he had
lodged with the Bergmanns the old Italian admitted a stranger to his
Albert Savarus |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Domestic Peace by Honore de Balzac: ballroom in brilliant order, as she had entered it. Women whispered to
each other with a feeling of envy that she planned and wore as many
different dresses as the parties she went to in one evening.
On the present occasion Madame de Vaudremont was not destined to be
free to leave when she would the ballroom she had entered in triumph.
Pausing for a moment on the threshold, she shot swift but observant
glances on the women present, hastily scrutinizing their dresses to
assure herself that her own eclipsed them all.
The illustrious beauty presented herself to the admiration of the
crowd at the same moment with one of the bravest colonels of the
Guards' Artillery and the Emperor's favorite, the Comte de Soulanges.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: on the bit of lawn before Swaffer's house, and
these reminded him of his country. He had been
detected once, after dusk, with his forehead against
the trunk of one of them, sobbing, and talking to
himself. They had been like brothers to him at that
time, he affirmed. Everything else was strange.
Conceive you the kind of an existence overshad-
owed, oppressed, by the everyday material appear-
ances, as if by the visions of a nightmare. At
night, when he could not sleep, he kept on thinking
of the girl who gave him the first piece of bread he
Amy Foster |
