...barren of sentiment, I suppose — or poetry, in other words. My father was a blacksmith, my uncle was a horse doctor, and I was both, along at first. ... ...d in stunning colors, in the other. The floor was of big stone flags laid in black and white squares, rather battered by age and use, and needing rep... ...frightful way; and their hair, their faces, their clothing, were caked with black and stiffened drenchings of blood. They were suffering sharp physic... ...his eye, and saw that a very old and white—bearded man, clothed in a flowing black gown, had risen and was standing at the table upon unsteady legs, ... ... tell the king that at that hour I will smother the whole world in the dead blackness of midnight; I will blot out the sun, and he shall never shine... ...w can I bear it? I would I might see him die — a sweet, swift death; oh, my Hugo, I cannot bear this one!” And she fell to sobbing and grovelling abo... ... what? The man’s death? I could not quite get the bearings of the thing. But Hugo inter rupted her and said: “Peace! Ye wit not what ye ask. Shall I... ...ing Arthur’s Court Mark Twain 96 she found she was going to have neither Hugo’s life nor his property. But I told her she must bear this cross; th...

...ast and weep, utter ing no word. Did my mind stop to mourn with that nude black sister of mine? No—it was far away from that scene in an instant, and... ... call the children back and hear them romp again with George—that peerless black ex slave and children’s idol who came one day—a flitting stranger—to ... ...sonally is that I would not be here now, but somewhere else; and probably black—there is no telling. What Is Man and Other Essays 88 Very well, I am... ...rone and dispossessed the Lancastrian dynasty. Edward V .; one third of a black square. ( Image not avail able—ed.) His uncle Richard had him murder... ...g over his head, which is a last—shoemaker’s last. Mary; five squares of black paper. ( Image not available— ed.) The picture represents a burning m... ...ns to see. It is somehow not the same gaze that people rivet upon a Victor Hugo, or Niagara, or the bones of the mastodon, or the guillotine of the Re... ...appease and satisfy the thirst of a lifetime. Satisfy it—that is the word. Hugo and the mastodon will still have a de gree of intense interest therea...

........................................................ 4 CHAPTER I – VICTOR HUGO’S ROMANCES .............................................................. ...the second is its most essentially national production. T o treat fitly of Hugo and Villon would involve yet wider knowledge, not only of a country fo... ...cising myself, seek to disarm the wrath of other and less partial critics. HUGO’S ROMANCES. – This is an instance of the “point of view.” The five rom... ...olly just. R. L. S. 15 Familiar Studies of Men & Books CHAPTER I – VICTOR HUGO’S ROMANCES Apres le roman pittoresque mais prosaique de Walter Scott i... ... ideal, vrai mais grand, qui enchassera Walter Scott dans Homere. – Victor Hugo on Quentin Durward. VCITOR HUGO’S ROMANCES occupy an important positio... ... like a fine lady from sleepless- ness and vapours; he would fall into the blackest melanchol- 42 Robert Louis Stevenson ies, and be filled with remo... ...by his dog; and the dog, “scouring in long excursion,” scampered with four black paws across the linen. This brought the two into conversation; when J... ...e than the merest smattering of knowledge; whereas his ac- quaintance with blackguard haunts and industries could only have been acquired by early and... ...nd an enduring and most unmanly resent- ment; Regnier de Montigny, a young blackguard of good 122 Robert Louis Stevenson birth; and Colin de Cayeux, ...

...ontents PREFACE BY WAY OF CRITICISM. ........................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER I ? VICTOR HUGO?S ROMANCES ........................................................................ 15 CHAPTER II ? SOME ASPECTS OF ROBERT BURNS.......................................................... 34 CHAPTER III ? WALT WHITMAN.......