“Buried beneath the blanket, all that could be seen of her was her long face with its broad features, which had a certain heavy beauty, but which at the age of thirty-nine, had already been disfigured by her life of poverty and the seven children she had borne. She told him how there was noContinue reading “RKS French Literature: Extreme Poverty and Quasi Starvation (Émile Zola)”
Tag Archives: RKS literature
RKS French Literature: The Reek of the Human Herd in the Coal Miner’s Tenement (Émile Zola)
“At the Maheus’ house, Number Sixteen in the second block, nothing stirred. Thick darkness filled the one and only first-floor room: it bore down like a crushing weight on the people sleeping there, whose presence could be felt rather than seen as they lay crowded together, their mouths open, stunned by exhaustion. Despite the bitterContinue reading “RKS French Literature: The Reek of the Human Herd in the Coal Miner’s Tenement (Émile Zola)”
RKS Russian Literature: A Dreadful Absence of Both Good and Evil (Nikolay Gogol)
“No one had seen him, even once, being any different from what he always was, whether on the street or at home. Had he but once showed any concern for anything, had he got roaring drink and burst out laughing in his drunken state, had he even abandoned himself to wild grotesque revelry of theContinue reading “RKS Russian Literature: A Dreadful Absence of Both Good and Evil (Nikolay Gogol)”
RKS Russian Literature: A Russian Philanthropic Swindle (Nikolay Gogol)
“For instance, having set up some philanthropic society for the poor and having contributed considerable sums to it, we lose no time in commemorating such a praiseworthy event by throwing a dinner for all the leading dignitaries of the town, thereby expending, of course, half the sums that have been contributed. With what remains, aContinue reading “RKS Russian Literature: A Russian Philanthropic Swindle (Nikolay Gogol)”
RKS Literature: Death by Consumption (Thomas Nasche)
“Oh, a consumption is worse than a Capius ad Ligatum: to nothing can I compare it better than to a reprieve after a man is condemned, or to a boy with his hose about his heels ready to be whipped, to whom his master stands preaching a long time all law and no gospel ereContinue reading “RKS Literature: Death by Consumption (Thomas Nasche)”
RKS Russian Literature: The Cacophony of Hounds in a Russian Village (Nikolay Gogol)
“Meanwhile the hounds were giving vent to voices of every conceivable kind. One, his head tossed back, was, drawling so protractedly and zealously that God knows what fee he was getting for it; another was snapping it out as briskly as a sexton; among them rang a tireless treble, probably a young puppy’s, like theContinue reading “RKS Russian Literature: The Cacophony of Hounds in a Russian Village (Nikolay Gogol)”
RKS Russian Literature: Fat and Thin Officials in Russia/Part Two (Nikolay Gogol)
“In three years’ time the thin man will not have a single serf left to him that has not been mortgaged; the fat man goes on his quiet way, and ,lo and behold, suddenly at the end of town there appears a house that’s been purchased in his wife’s name, then at the other endContinue reading “RKS Russian Literature: Fat and Thin Officials in Russia/Part Two (Nikolay Gogol)”
RKS Russian Literature: Fat and Thin Officials in Russia/Part One (Nikolay Gogol)
“These were the highly respected officials of the town. Alas! The fat ones of this world know how to manage their affairs better than the thin ones. The thin ones are mostly employed on special assignments or are merely carried on the civil service list, and flit hither and yon. Their existence is weightless, insubstantialContinue reading “RKS Russian Literature: Fat and Thin Officials in Russia/Part One (Nikolay Gogol)”
RKS Japanese Literature: Painting the Flesh Without Spirit (Sōseki Natsume)
“I keep using the word expression” Haraguchi went on, “but an artist doesn’t paint what’s inside, he doesn’t paint the heart. He paints what the heart puts on display. As long as he observes everything in the display case, he can tell what’s locked up in the safe. Or we can assume that much, IContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Painting the Flesh Without Spirit (Sōseki Natsume)”
RKS Literature: Two Types of Melancholy (Thomas Nasche)
“Of this melancholy there be two sorts: one that, digested by our liver, swimmeth like oil above water and that is rightly termed women’s melancholy; which lasteth but for an hour and is, as it were, but a copy of their countenance; the other sinketh down to the bottom of the lees of the wine,Continue reading “RKS Literature: Two Types of Melancholy (Thomas Nasche)”
