Chapter 5 "This is rather indiscreet, but its so good its an awful temptation to tell the story," said Vronsky, looking at her with his laughing eyes. "Im not going to mention any names." "But I shall guess, so much the better." "Well, listen: two festive young men were driving" "Officers of your regiment, of course?" "I didnt say they were officers,two young men who had been lunching." "In other words, drinking." "Possibly. They were driving on their way to dinner with a friend in the most festive state of mind. And they beheld a pretty woman in a hired sledge; she overtakes them, looks round at them, and, so they fancy anyway, nods to them and laughs. They, of course, follow her. They gallop at full speed. To their amazement, the fair one alights at the entrance of the very house to which they...
A Tale of 1852
Produced by Steve Harris, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. THE COSSACKS A Tale of 1852 By Leo Tolstoy Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude Chapter I All is quiet in Moscow. The squeak of wheels is seldom heard in the snow-covered street. There are no lights left in the windows and the street lamps have been extinguished. Only the sound of bells, borne over the city from the church towers, suggests the approach of morning. The streets are deserted. At rare intervals a night-cabman's sledge kneads up the snow and sand in the street as the driver makes his way to another corner where he falls asleep while waiting for a fare. An old woman passes by on her way to church, where a few wax candles burn with a red light ... (From : Gutenberg.org.)
I In Petersburg in the eighteen-forties a surprising event occurred. An officer of the Cuirassier Life Guards, a handsome prince who everyone predicted would become aide-de-camp to the Emperor Nicholas I. and have a brilliant career, left the service, broke off his engagement to a beautiful maid of honor, a favorite of the Empress’s, gave his small estate to his sister, and retired to a monastery to become a monk. This event appeared extraordinary and inexplicable to those who did not know his inner motives, but for Prince Stepan Kasatsky himself it all occurred so naturally that he could not imagine how he could have acted otherwise. His father, a retired colonel of the Guards, had died when Stepan was twelve, and sorry as his mother... (From : Gutenberg.org.)
From: William Godwin . Imogen: A Pastoral Romance From the Ancient British. PREFACE If we could allow ourselves in that license of conjecture, which is become almost inseparable from the character of an editor, we should say: That Milton having written it upon the borders of Wales, might have had easy recourse to the manuscript whose contents are now first given to the public: And that the singularity of preserving the name of the place where it was first performed in the title of his poem, was intended for an ingenuous and well-bred acknowledgement of the source from whence he drew his choicest materials. But notwithstanding the plausibility of these conjectures, we are now inclined to give up our original opinion, and to ascribe the performance to a gentleman of Wales, who lived so late as the reign of king William the third. The name of this amiable person was Rice ap Thomas. The romance was certainly at one time in his...
Youth, by Leo Tolstoy
Translated by C. J. Hogarth CONTENTS I. WHAT I CONSIDER TO HAVE BEEN THE BEGINNING OF MY YOUTH II. SPRINGTIME III. DREAMS IV. OUR FAMILY CIRCLE V. MY RULES VI. CONFESSION VII. THE EXPEDITION TO THE MONASTERY VIII. THE SECOND CONFESSION IX. HOW I PREPARED MYSELF FOR THE EXAMINATIONS X. THE EXAMINATION IN HISTORY XI. MY EXAMINATION IN MATHEMATICS... (From : Gutenberg.org.)