“But now look up the river,” said Mordecai, “See the sky, how it is slowly fading. I have always loved this bridge: I stood on it when I was a little boy. It s a meeting-place for the spiritual messengers. It is true—what the Masters said—that each order of things has its angel…Here I have …
Author: Laurie
The Loved and Envied, Enid Bagnold (1951)
He had come late to the study of himself and now that he was old he was struck that he had thought so little through his life about his reason for living. He had been like a thrown ball, which while it rolls is satisfied, but when at the end of its movement it lay …
At the Mountains of Madness, HP Lovecraft (1936)
There was an odour…. William Dyer is a university professor at Miskatonic University and this is his report of the expedition he lead to the Antarctic and the unexpected discoveries his team uncovered. His first communications to the outside world are full of exciting finds and praise for his men and their dedication. As the …
Continue reading At the Mountains of Madness, HP Lovecraft (1936)
Desperate Remedies, Thomas Hardy (1871)
“You speak truly. That we never meet again is the wisest and only proper course. That I regret the past as much as you do yourself, it is hardly necessary for me to say.” After reading Jude the Obscure with a group on Instagram I decided to join their year-long Thomas Hardy Readalong—one book each …
Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy (1895)
He sounded the clacker till his arm ached, and at length his heart grew sympathetic with the birds’ thwarted desires. They seemed, like himself, to be living in a world which did not want them…They took upon them more and more the aspect of gentle friends and pensioners—the only friends he could claim as being …
Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie (1934)
Neatly folded on the top of the case was a thin scarlet silk kimono embroidered with dragons.“So,” he murmured. “It is like that. A defiance. Very well. I take it up.” This is my first Agatha Christie and my introduction to the famous Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. As a novice Christie reader and one who …
Continue reading Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie (1934)
Emma, Jane Austen (1815)
The real evils indeed of Emma’s situation were the power of having rather too much of her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself: these were the disadvantages which threatened alloy to her many enjoyments. The danger, however, was at present so unperceived, that they did not by any …
Madamoiselle Misfortune, Carol Ryrie Brink (1935)
“What’s the child looking at,” asked Miss Weatherwax?“Oh, everything!,” said Alice. “It’s all so beautiful!…If you’ve never seen it before, you ought to take a long, long look. You’ll never see it just this way again.”…said the little old American woman, “That’s right, I’ll never see it again for the first time, will I? Well, …
Continue reading Madamoiselle Misfortune, Carol Ryrie Brink (1935)
The Bunner Sisters, Edith Wharton, (1916)
The Bunner sisters were proud of the neatness of their shop and content with its humble prosperity. It was not what they had once imagined it would be…and it was long since their hopes had soared higher. Edith Wharton is known for her sharp observations about the excesses of the upper classes and expats of …
What Maisie Knew, Henry James (1897)
The mother had wished to prevent the father,…from ‘so much as looking at the child;’ the father’s plea was that the mother’s lightest touch was ‘simply contamination.’ These were the opposed principles in which Maisie was to be educated….Nothing could have been more touching at first than her failure to suspect the ordeal that awaited …
Classic Laurie 