“It was one thing to be despised by the country families of Angoulême, quite another by the aristocracy of Paris; by going out of their way on insult Lucien, the booby-squires had admitted his importance and treated him as a man: but for Mme d’Espard he simply did not exist. This was not a sentence,Continue reading “RKS Literature: Snubbed by the Parisian Aristocracy (Balzac)”
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RKS Literature: The Warm Glow of Paris (Balzac)
“I will pick you up in my carriage, and we shall soon be in Paris. There, my dear, is the only life for superior people. We are only at ease among our peers; in any other society one suffers. Besides, Paris is the intellectual capital of the world, the stage of your success: cover quicklyContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Warm Glow of Paris (Balzac)”
RKS Literature: The Peculiarities of Society (Balzac)
“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)”
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)”
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)”
RKS Literature: The Supreme Mr. Dombey (Charles Dickens)
“Mr. Dombey was resolved to show her that he was supreme. There must be no will but his. Proud he desired that she should be, but she must be proud for him, not against him. As he sat alone hardening he would often hear her go out and come home, treading the round of LondonContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Supreme Mr. Dombey (Charles Dickens)”
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