“There’s a most doleful and most mocking funeral! The sea vultures all in pious mourning, the air-sharks all punctiliously in black or speckled. In life but few of them would have helped the whale, I ween, if peradventure he had needed it; but upon the banquet of his funeral, they most piously do bounce. OhContinue reading “RKS Literature: Seagulls as Air Sharks (Herman Melville)”
Tag Archives: RKS literature
RKS Literature: The 500 Wives and Concubines of the King of Maabar (Marco Polo)
“I give you my word that the king has at least 500 wives or concubines. For I assure you the moment he lays eyes on a beautiful woman or girl he wants her for himself. On one occasion this led him into the shameful behaviour I will describe to you. Let me tell you thatContinue reading “RKS Literature: The 500 Wives and Concubines of the King of Maabar (Marco Polo)”
RKS Literature: The Naked King of Maabar (Marco Polo)
“I can also tell you that in this whole province of Maabar there is no need of tailors or needleworkers to cut or stitch clothes, because all the people go naked all year round. For I assure you that their weather is temperate at all seasons-which is to say it is never cold or hot-Continue reading “RKS Literature: The Naked King of Maabar (Marco Polo)”
RKS Literature: The Cannibal and the Gourmand (Herman Melville)
“Go to the meat-market of a Saturday night and see the crowds of live bipeds staring up at the long rows of dead quadrupeds. Does not that sight take a tooth out of the cannibal’s jaw? Cannibals? Who is not a cannibal? I tell you it will be more tolerable for the Fejee that saltedContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Cannibal and the Gourmand (Herman Melville)”
RKS Literature: Gay and Jovial Spirited Sharks (Herman Melville)
“…yet there is no conceivable time or occasion when you will find them in such countless numbers and in gayer or more jovial spirits, than around a dead sperm whale; moored by night to a whaleship at sea. If you have never seen that sight then suspend your decision about the propriety of devil-worship, andContinue reading “RKS Literature: Gay and Jovial Spirited Sharks (Herman Melville)”
RKS Literature: The Graveyard Beat for a Prostitute? (Guy de Maupassant)
“I went off flabbergasted by what I had seen and trying to imagine what tribe of creatures she belonged to, hunting as obviously she did on this sepulchral terrain. Was she a single prostitute who had struck on the brilliant idea of frequenting graveyards and picking up unhappy men still haunted by the loss ofContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Graveyard Beat for a Prostitute? (Guy de Maupassant)”
RKS Literature: The Better Days Once Had by Little Mrs Sommers (Kate Chopin)
“The neighbours sometimes talked of ‘certain better days’ that little Mrs Sommers had known before she had ever thought of being Mrs Sommers. She herself indulged in no such morbid retrospection. She had no time-no second of time to devote to the past. The needs of the present absorbed her every faculty. A vision ofContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Better Days Once Had by Little Mrs Sommers (Kate Chopin)”
RKS Literature: Death of Her Husband in a Tragic Railroad Accident (Kate Chopin)
“She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked savedContinue reading “RKS Literature: Death of Her Husband in a Tragic Railroad Accident (Kate Chopin)”
RKS Literature: Paul Falls Deeply for a Little Cricket of a Creature (Guy de Maupassant)
“The fact was that despite himself, without knowing why how it had happened and very much against his better judgement, he had fallen hopelessly in love. He had fallen as if into some deep and muddy hole. By nature he was a delicate and sensitive soul. He had had ideals and dreamed of an exquisiteContinue reading “RKS Literature: Paul Falls Deeply for a Little Cricket of a Creature (Guy de Maupassant)”
RKS Literature: The Smell of Flesh and Cheap Perfume (Guy de Maupassant)
“Despite the proximity of the river and the huge trees shadowing it, the place was suffocatingly hot. Mingling with the fumes of spilt drinks came the smell of flesh and the cheap perfume with which the skin of those trading in sex was drenched. Underlying all these smells was the slight but persistent aroma ofContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Smell of Flesh and Cheap Perfume (Guy de Maupassant)”
