“Among the peculiarities of society, have you not noted the capriciousness of its judgements and the inconsistency of its demands? There are people to whom everything is permitted. They can be guilty of the most outrageous things, and nothing they do is wrong; people hasten to find excuses for their conduct. But there are othersContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Peculiarities of Society (Balzac)”
Category Archives: literature
RKS Literature: Poets and the Mocking Laughter of Hell (Balzac)
“If poetry is to be spoken aloud in such a way as to be understood, absolute concentration is necessary. There must be complete sympathy between the reader and the audience, in the absence of which no electrical communication of emotion can take place. If this sympathetic atmosphere is lacking, the poet finds himself in theContinue reading “RKS Literature: Poets and the Mocking Laughter of Hell (Balzac)”
RKS Literature: Squashing Your Rival: Balzac’s “Lost Illusions”
“Baron Sixte du Châtelet was of the opinion that the little rhymer would succumb, sooner or later, in the hot house atmosphere of applause, or perhaps that, intoxicated with the prospect of future glory, he would commit some impertinence that would consign him again to his original obscurity. While awaiting the decease of the youngContinue reading “RKS Literature: Squashing Your Rival: Balzac’s “Lost Illusions””
RKS Literature: Infatuation: Balzac’s “Lost Illusions”
“He did not notice her faded cheeks, or the brick red blotches on her cheek-bones, the result of boredom and a certain amount of ill-health. His imagination seized, first of all, on those ardent eyes, those elegant curls that caught the candlelight, that dazzling whiteness – so many points of light that drew him likeContinue reading “RKS Literature: Infatuation: Balzac’s “Lost Illusions””
RKS Literature: The Misfortune of a Great Intelligence (Balzac)
“One of the misfortunes to which great intelligence is subject is that of understanding everything too well. The standards by which these two men judged society were all the higher, because they themselves were low on the social scale, for unknown men are apt to revenge themselves by their lofty outlook. But their despair wasContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Misfortune of a Great Intelligence (Balzac)”
RKS Literature: A Swindler of a Man on the Run (Dickens)
“Shame, disappointment, and discomfiture gnawed at his heart: a constant apprehension of being overtaken or met – for he was groundlessly afraid even of travellers, who came towards him by the way he was going – oppressed him heavily. The same intolerable awe and dread that had come upon him in the night, returned unweakenedContinue reading “RKS Literature: A Swindler of a Man on the Run (Dickens)”
RKS Literature: A Hollow Woman in a Hollow World (Charles Dickens)
‘I am a woman.’ she said confronting him steadfastly, ‘who from her very childhood has been shamed and steeled. I have been offered and rejected, put up and appraised, until my very soul has sickened. I have not had an accomplishment or grace that might have been a resource to me, but it has beenContinue reading “RKS Literature: A Hollow Woman in a Hollow World (Charles Dickens)”
Pet Ownership: That Nasty Contractual Clause You Don’t Want to Read
Yes, as a lawyer I am familiar with contractual provisions. There are many clauses one encounters in a commercial contract: limitation of liability, indemnification, no liability for special and consequential damages and literally hundreds more. In fact, when we picked our West Highland Terrier Dylan from the breeder some 15 years ago there was aContinue reading “Pet Ownership: That Nasty Contractual Clause You Don’t Want to Read”
RKS Literature: Hatred of the Boss (Charles Dickens)
‘I tell you all’, said the manager, ‘that your hypocrisy and meekness – that all the hypocrisy and meekness of this place – is not worth that to me,’ snapping his thumb and finger, ‘and that I see through it as if it were air! There is not a man employed here, standing between myselfContinue reading “RKS Literature: Hatred of the Boss (Charles Dickens)”
Memories of Dylan Stephen: A Westie Now in The Land Beyond: Time to Leave Earth and Back to The Land Beyond
OK I have had my forty days on earth after I died and at midnight I am off to The Land Beyond. I was on earth to try and help those who mourn me by the little mind control I was given for my short stay on earth. It has been most difficult. I seeContinue reading “Memories of Dylan Stephen: A Westie Now in The Land Beyond: Time to Leave Earth and Back to The Land Beyond”
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