| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: person the majesty of a court whose decrees are recorded in her
father's pothooks. She takes snuff, holds herself as stiff as a
ramrod, poses for a person of consideration, and resembles nothing so
much as a mummy brought momentarily to life by galvanism. She tries to
give high-bred tones to her sharp voice, and succeeds no better in
doing that than in hiding her general lack of breeding. Her social
usefulness seems, however, incontestable when we glance at the flower-
bedecked cap she wears, at the false front frizzling around her
forehead, at the gowns of her choice; for how could shopkeepers
dispose of those products if there were no Madame Latournelle? All
these absurdities of the worthy woman, who is truly pious and
Modeste Mignon |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: fatal power to blast her and drag her down into his own mire.
Montefiore waited for a later and more somnolent hour of the night;
then, in spite of his reflections, he descended the stairs without
boots, armed with his pistols, moving step by step, stopping to
question the silence, putting forth his hands, measuring the stairs,
peering into the darkness, and ready at the slightest incident to fly
back into his room. The Italian had put on his handsomest uniform; he
had perfumed his black hair, and now shone with the particular
brilliancy which dress and toilet bestow upon natural beauty. Under
such circumstances most men are as feminine as a woman.
The marquis arrived without hindrance before the secret door of the
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: afterwards had been the companion of a famous
traveller, in the days when there were continents
with unexplored interiors. His papers on the
fauna and flora made him known to scientific socie-
ties. And now he had come to a country practice
--from choice. The penetrating power of his
mind, acting like a corrosive fluid, had destroyed
his ambition, I fancy. His intelligence is of a
scientific order, of an investigating habit, and of
that unappeasable curiosity which believes that
there is a particle of a general truth in every mys-
Amy Foster |
