登陆注册
5422300000005

第5章 ADVENTURES AMONG BOOKS(4)

Ethel was a mystery, and not an interesting mystery, though one used to copy Doyle's pictures of her, with the straight nose, the impossible eyes, the impossible waist. It was not Ethel who captivated us; it was Clive's youth and art, it was J. J., the painter, it was jolly F. B. and his address to the maid about the lobster. "A finer fish, Mary, my dear, I have never seen. Does not this solve the vexed question whether lobsters are fish, in the French sense?" Then "The Rose and the Ring" came out. It was worth while to be twelve years old, when the Christmas books were written by Dickens and Thackeray. I got hold of "The Rose and the Ring," I know, and of the "Christmas Carol," when they were damp from the press. King Valoroso, and Bulbo, and Angelica were even more delightful than Scrooge, and Tiny Tim, and Trotty Veck. One remembers the fairy monarch more vividly, and the wondrous array of egg-cups from which he sipped brandy--or was it right Nantes?--still "going on sipping, I am sorry to say," even after "Valoroso was himself again."But, of all Thackeray's books, I suppose "Pendennis" was the favourite. The delightful Marryat had entertained us with Peter Simple and O'Brien (how good their flight through France is!) with Mesty and Mr. Midshipman Easy, with Jacob Faithful (Mr. Thackeray's favourite), and with Snarleyyow; but Marryat never made us wish to run away to sea. That did not seem to be one's vocation. But the story of Pen made one wish to run away to literature, to the Temple, to streets where Brown, the famous reviewer, might be seen walking with his wife and umbrella. The writing of poems "up to"pictures, the beer with Warrington in the mornings, the suppers in the back-kitchen, these were the alluring things, not society, and Lady Rockminster, and Lord Steyne. Well, one has run away to literature since, but where is the matutinal beer? Where is the back-kitchen? Where are Warrington, and Foker, and F. B.? I have never met them in this living world, though Brown, the celebrated reviewer, is familiar to me, and also Mr. Sydney Scraper, of the Oxford and Cambridge Club. Perhaps back-kitchens exist, perhaps there are cakes and ale in the life literary, and F. B. may take his walks by the Round Pond. But one never encounters these rarities, and Bungay and Bacon are no longer the innocent and ignorant rivals whom Thackeray drew. They do not give those wonderful parties; Miss Bunnion has become quite conventional;Percy Popjoy has abandoned letters; Mr. Wenham does not toady; Mr.

Wagg does not joke any more. The literary life is very like any other, in London, or is it that we do not see it aright, not having the eyes of genius? Well, a life on the ocean wave, too, may not be so desirable as it seems in Marryat's novels: so many a lad whom he tempted into the navy has discovered. The best part of the existence of a man of letters is his looking forward to it through the spectacles of Titmarsh.

One can never say how much one owes to a school-master who was a friend of literature, who kept a houseful of books, and who was himself a graceful scholar, and an author, while he chose to write, of poetic and humorous genius. Such was the master who wrote the "Day Dreams of a Schoolmaster," Mr. D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, to whom, in this place, I am glad to confess my gratitude after all these many years. While we were deep in the history of Pendennis we were also being dragged through the Commentaries of Caius Julius Caesar, through the Latin and Greek grammars, through Xenophon, and the Eclogues of Virgil, and a depressing play of Euripides, the "Phoenissae." I can never say how much I detested these authors, who, taken in small doses, are far, indeed, from being attractive.

Horace, to a lazy boy, appears in his Odes to have nothing to say, and to say it in the most frivolous and vexatious manner. Then Cowper's "Task," or "Paradise Lost," as school-books, with notes, seems arid enough to a school-boy. I remember reading ahead, in Cowper, instead of attending to the lesson and the class-work. His observations on public schools were not uninteresting, but the whole English school-work of those days was repugnant. One's English education was all got out of school.

As to Greek, for years it seemed a mere vacuous terror; one invented for one's self all the current arguments against "compulsory Greek." What was the use of it, who ever spoke in it, who could find any sense in it, or any interest? A language with such cruel superfluities as a middle voice and a dual; a language whose verbs were so fantastically irregular, looked like a barbaric survival, a mere plague and torment. So one thought till Homer was opened before us. Elsewhere I have tried to describe the vivid delight of first reading Homer, delight, by the way, which St.

Augustine failed to appreciate. Most boys not wholly immersed in dulness felt it, I think; to myself, for one, Homer was the real beginning of study. One had tried him, when one was very young, in Pope, and had been baffled by Pope, and his artificial manner, his "fairs," and "swains." Homer seemed better reading in the absurd "crib" which Mr. Buckley wrote for Bohn's series. Hector and Ajax, in that disguise, were as great favourites as Horatius on the Bridge, or the younger Tarquin. Scott, by the way, must have made one a furious and consistent Legitimist. In reading the "Lays of Ancient Rome," my sympathies were with the expelled kings, at least with him who fought so well at Lake Regillus:-"Titus, the youngest Tarquin, Too good for such a breed."Where -

同类推荐
  • 众经目录

    众经目录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 道德真经论兵要义述

    道德真经论兵要义述

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Soul of a Bishop

    Soul of a Bishop

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day

    How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 槐叶冷淘

    槐叶冷淘

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 致有你的美好时光

    致有你的美好时光

    四年前,他病发,她被逼悄然离去,四年后,她为报家仇华丽回归……四年前,他爱她胜过自己的命,四年后,她恨他深入骨髓!“少爷,少夫人爬墙了……”“把手给我绑了!”“少爷,少夫人又爬墙了……”“把脚给我绑了!”“少爷,少夫人怀孕了……”“把人给我绑了!!!等等,你说什么?还不松绑!!!”
  • 我的美女公寓

    我的美女公寓

    陶宝阴差阳错的住进一个公寓
  • 维罗妮卡决定去死

    维罗妮卡决定去死

    年轻姑娘维罗妮卡似乎拥有一切:青春、美貌、男友、和睦的家庭、满意的工作。但她总觉得生命中缺少了什么,谈不上幸福,也谈不上不幸。她没法忍受这种生活,于是服药自尽。醒来时,她身处精神病院,并只剩下一周时光。在最后的日子里,她出乎意料地体验到人生的欢愉和真实的自我,深深爱上梦想成为画家的爱德华。生活的热望前所未有地燃烧起来……可是,已到尽头的生命要如何挽回?疯狂是正常,冒险是自由,找到自我,追寻梦想,才是值得过的人生。继《牧羊少年奇幻之旅》后,保罗·柯艾略再次引领我们探寻生命真谛,用诗意的笔触宣扬:活着就要勇敢地与众不同。
  • 恩劫

    恩劫

    我不敢信来生,姑活在当下放肆,我也信天命,姑过的苟且,承其恩,受其劫,萧郎很久之后才明白这个道理。
  • 农家满园桂花香

    农家满园桂花香

    一朝穿越变村姑,穷就罢了,为什么还必须叫桂花?“桂花!去把猪喂了!”“桂花,去把衣服都洗了!”“桂花……”一心想来混吃等死,却不想家中各个极品踩在头上,是可忍蜀黍也不想忍了!打了花枝招展的表姐,丢狗仗人势的表弟下湖。谁说农家苦哈哈?一双小手打天下!美食美园美男子,通通都被带回家。阿喵书友群:369072402,敲门砖:书中任意人物名。
  • 天然居士怀净土诗

    天然居士怀净土诗

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 妃子狠毒,第一废材狂妃

    妃子狠毒,第一废材狂妃

    当21世纪暗黑世界叱咤风云的至尊女特工,转眼成为云苍大陆的花痴废材皇后。虾米?!新婚夜被渣皇帝放鸽子?堂堂嫡女还被路边捡来的小养女逆袭成为女主?一介皇后还被冷宫虐待最后上吊致死?……当强者之魂,霸气重生时翻天覆地就要你好看。我冷玄裳可不是这任人欺负的软脚虾!渣皇帝不爱?滚粗!姐还不稀罕当皇后!白莲花养女各种阴谋诡计,懒得接招,一脚踢飞你!看清楚别搞错了,谁是你姐姐!?各种暗杀刺杀,阴谋阳谋,实话告诉你们,你们玩的都是姐剩下的!嚣张,是有资本,狂妄,是够强大,不可一世,乃是天纵奇才。冷眼睥睨,看尽人间魑魅魍魉,素手轻覆,操作凡间生离死别。她要夺回属于这个名字的一切,重塑昔日辉煌,搅翻异世,成就万皇之皇!***********章节节选**************冷玄棠诧异的抬头,只看到一只浑身血红的大鹏鸟朝着自己的方向飞了过来,而在大鹏鸟的背上,坐着一个白衣飘飘宛如神人般的男子。男子面色清冷,浑身散发着一股上位者的气势,单单是那可怕的气势,就压得人没有任何反抗的勇气。那一双狭长的凤眸,此时带着几分诧异的神色落在冷玄棠的身上。
  • 灵孽

    灵孽

    一个被封印了灵魂和记忆的男人,纠缠在这个人妖混杂的时代,好友杨伯的诡异死亡,女友菲儿的神秘失踪,家乡小镇的猫孽事件,再返学校之后接连遇到的诡异死亡事件,那个抱着洋娃娃讲鬼故事的小女孩,会哭的婴儿车,阴魂不散的尸钉,封印不了的地狱坟场……一个又一个的血脉暴涨,惊魂破心的经历,到底和这个男人有着怎样的关联?
  • 帝国的变节者

    帝国的变节者

    经历过工业革命发展到信息时代进入核子时代的帝制国家。主角某机甲驾驶员,在帝国与联邦的冲突通过战争成长。在次元潮汐,主面位链接异界面位时。征战异界,科技机甲大战魔法炼金装备。异界土鳖瞻仰来自主面位的日常等等。
  • 梨园传奇:戏曲脸谱故事

    梨园传奇:戏曲脸谱故事

    浙江文艺出版社编著的《梨园传奇——戏曲脸谱故事》为山海经故事丛书中的一册,为我社早期山海经丛书的再版本。内容均以从民间搜集整理的传说故事为主,且各册都有一个核心的人物或主题,内容丰富,风格活泼,保留了很多的民间智慧,体现了民俗风情与历史面貌。《梨园传奇——戏曲脸谱故事》内容围绕海宁潮主题,将从民间搜集整理的传说故事进行整合。