Tag: classics

Hot brain

November 11th, 2024

Aside, aside! Here is more matter for a hot brain. Every lane’s end, every shop, church, session, hanging, yields a careful man work.

AUTOLYCUS

First Shakespeare quote. Did not expect it to come from Autolycus.

He may be one of Shakespeare’s most overlooked characters. He’s not a name that stood out on the roster of characters in The Winter’s Tale, but drives so much of the story in later acts of the play.

William Shakespeare. The Winter’s Tale. Edited by Frances E. Dolan. Series edited by Stephen Orgel. New York: Penguin Classics, 2017. pg 90
Mr. Toad at his best. On the road.

June 17th, 2024

As if in a dream, he found himself, somehow, seated in the driver’s seat; as if in a dream, he pulled the lever and swung the car round the yard and out through the archway; and, as in if in a dream, all sense of right and wrong, all fear of obvious consequences, seemed temporarily suspended. He increased his pace, and as the car devoured the street and leapt forth on the high road through the open country, he was only conscious that he was Toad once more, Toad at his best and highest, Toad the terror, the traffic queller, the Lord of the lone trail, before whom all must give way or be smitten into nothingness and everlasting night.

Kenneth Grahame’s repetition of the phrase “As if in a dream” has a poetic quality to it. Later it’s enhanced with the phrase Toad the terror, the traffic queller.

Poetry slipping into the prose is brilliant.

Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows. United Kingdom, Welbeck Editions, 2021. p111
Alan Stewart at the ready

April 20th, 2024

Either give me an answer in civility, and that out of hand; or by the top of Glencoe, I will ram three feet of iron through your vitals.

– Alan Breck Stewart

Alan Stewart losing his patience with David Balfour’s treacherous uncle Ebenezer.

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Kidnapped. New York: Running Press, 1989. pp280
River sentences pt.1

April 2nd, 2024

Never in his life had he seen a river before – this sleek, sinuous, full bodied animal, chasing and chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself on fresh playmates that shook themselves free, and were caught and held again.

An original description of a river is rare, but Kenneth Grahame unlocks one here. Since it’s a long one, I’ll break it up into three parts.

Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows. United Kingdom, Welbeck Editions, 2021. pp11
David Balfour’s two things men should never tire of

March 7th, 2024

There are two things that men should never weary of, goodness and humility; we get none too much of them in this rough world among cold, proud people;
– David Balfour

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Kidnapped. New York: Running Press, 1989. pp147
John Tenniel’s influence on Chris Riddell

February 28th, 2024

My favourite illustration in the whole book is the very first. It shows the White Rabbit looking at his pocket-watch, worrying that it’s late. I copied that White Rabbit hundreds of times in my sketchbooks, trying to capture the worried expression in his eye, the folds of his coat and the wonderful shading at his feet.
– Chris Riddell

You can still see the influence of John Tenniel‘s Alice in Wonderland’s drawings in Chris Riddell’s work today.

What’s the illustration or picture you’ve copied hundreds of times in your sketchbooks?

Carroll, Lewis., Riddell, Chris. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Puffin Classics) London: Puffin Books, 2015. (from the introduction,pp vi)
David Balfour appreciates the small things

February 10th, 2024

It was a blessed thing indeed to open my eyes again upon the daylight, and to find myself in the society of men. The forecastle was a roomy place enough, set all about with berths, in which the men of the watch below were seated smoking, or lying down asleep. The day being calm and the wind fair, the scuttle was open, and not only the good daylight, but from time to time (as the ship rolled) a dusty beam of sunlight shone in, and dazzled and delighted me.
David Balfour

This scene is where Mr. Riach frees David Balfour from captivity aboard the Covenant. He’s finally free to go above deck after days in darkness.

David’s absorbing the daylight like Superman does the sun, and appreciating being among the “society” of men again.

What small things do we take for granted?

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Kidnapped. New York: Running Press, 1989. pp57
Glimmers of honesty

February 8th, 2024

Yet I had not been many days shut up with them before I began to be ashamed of my first judgement, when I had drawn away from them at the Ferry pier, as though they had been unclean beasts. No class of man is altogether bad, but each has its own faults and virtues; and these shipmates of mine were no exception to the rule. Rough they were, sure enough; and bad, I suppose; but they had many virtues. They were kind when it occurred to them, simple even beyond the simplicity of a country lad like me, and had some glimmerings of honesty.
– David Balfour

First judgements can cloud truth.

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Kidnapped. New York: Running Press, 1989. pp58
Henry Thoreau’s subterranean fire

January 19th, 2024

This subterranean fire has its altar in each man’s breast, for in the coldest day, and on the bleakest hill, the traveller cherishes a warmer fire within the folds of his cloak than is kindled on any hearth. A healthy man, indeed, is the complement of the seasons.
Henry D. Thoreau

Thoreau, Henry D.. Essays: A Fully Annotated Edition. Italy, Yale University Press, 2013.
Adam Smith on judging others

November 29th, 2023

Every faculty in one man is the measure by which he judges of the the like faculty in another. I judge of your sight by my sight, of your ear by my ear, of your reason by my reason, of your resentment by my resentment, of your love by my love. I neither have, nor can have, any other way of judging about them.
– Adam Smith

Smith, Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. United Kingdom, Penguin Publishing Group, 2010.