The Earth in Anarchy
This is a long chapter. And I've already heard in the comments that someone's favorite line in the whole book is in this chapter, so let us know which one it is. The chapter, to me, is filled with great lines.
I like this: There was a certain allegory of their whole position in the contrast between the modern automobile and its strange, ecclesiastical lamp.
Great humor: ...Syme had heard a shot shriek past this car. "My God!" said the Colonel, "some one has shot at us." "It need not interrupt conversation," said the gloomy Ratcliffe. "Pray resume your remarks, Colonel. You were talking, I think, about the plain people of a peaceable French town."
"I may be mad, but humanity isn't."
"In what or whom is your hope?" asked Syme.
"In a man I never saw," said the other, looking at the leaden sea.
The whole speech about the lantern is wonderful.
And the surprise about the Secretary now completes the Anarchist's Council of Six: all police!
Saturday, March 24, 2007
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The speech of the lantern is my favorite in the whole book.
ReplyDeleteAnd I also love how Ratcliffe is reminded of his words to Syme, about his hope "in a man I never saw," later in the book.
Here's one of my many favorite parts - sort of a "reality check" part...
ReplyDelete"The world is insane!" said the Professor, and buried his face in his hands.
"No," said Dr. Bull in adamantine humility, "it is I."
"What are we going to do?" asked the Professor.
"At this moment," said Syme, with a scientific detachment, "I think we are going to smash into a lamp-post."
The next instant the automobile had come with a catastrophic jar against an iron object. The instant after that four men had crawled out from under a chaos of metal, and a tall, lean lamp-post that had stood up straight on the edge of the marine parade stood out, bent and twisted, like the branch of a broken tree.
"Well, we smashed something," said the Professor, with a faint smile. "That's some comfort."...
L2L: Yes, that was another favorite line of mine, "We smashed something, that's some comfort..." I love that!
ReplyDelete