The Novels and Romances of Edward Bulwer Lytton (Lord Lytton) ...: My novelLittle, Brown, 1898 |
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ædile amidst amphitheatre answered Apæcides Arbaces arena arms Athenian baths beautiful beheld beneath blind girl breast breath brow Burbo Calenus Campania canst chamber Clodius cried crowd dark dead death Diomed door earth Egyptian Epicurus Eumolpus eyes face fate fear felt flowers Fulvia gaze gladiator Glaucus gloom gods Greek hand hast thou hath heard heart heaven Herculaneum hour imagined Ione Isis Julia Lepidus light lips Lydon Medon mighty Nazarene never Niger night Nydia Olinthus once Pansa passed passion paused peristyle pleasure Pompeian Pompeii portico prætor priest of Isis replied retiarius returned robes Roman Rome rose round Sallust seemed sesterces sighed slave smile soft solemn Sosia soul stood Stratonice suddenly tablinum temple Tetraides thee thermæ Thessalian thine thou art thou hast thou knowest thou wilt thought trembled uttered Vesuvius voice witch words young youth
Popular passages
Page 525 - Nor was their horrible beauty confined to the usual hues of fire ; no rainbow ever rivalled their varying and prodigal dyes. Now brightly blue as the most azure depth of a southern sky ; now of a livid and snake-like green, darting restlessly to and fro as the folds of an enormous serpent ; now of a lurid and intolerable crimson, gushing forth through the columns of smoke...
Page 526 - ... gases through the chasms of the distant mountain. Sometimes the cloud appeared to break from its solid mass, and, by the lightning, to assume quaint and vast mimicries of human or of monster shapes, striding across the gloom, hurtling one upon the other, and vanishing swiftly into the turbulent abyss of shade ; so that, to the eyes and fancies of the...
Page 92 - Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm ; it is the real allegory of the tale of Orpheus : it moves stones, it charms brutes. Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity, and truth accomplishes no victories without it.
Page xii - I have so far explained our ancient manners in modern language, and so far detailed the characters and sentiments of my persons, that the modern reader will not find himself, I should hope, much trammelled by the repulsive dryness of mere antiquity. In this, I respectfully contend, I have in no respect exceeded the fair license due to the author of a fictitious composition.
Page 527 - Frequently, by the momentary light of these torches, parties of fugitives encountered each other, some hurrying towards the sea, others flying from the sea back to the land ; for the ocean had retreated rapidly from the shore ; an utter darkness lay over it, and, upon its groaning and tossing waves, the storm of cinders and rocks fell without the protection which the streets and roofs afforded to the land.
Page 533 - Suddenly, as he spoke, the place became lighted with an intense and lurid glow. Bright and gigantic through the darkness, which closed around it like the walls of hell, the mountain shone — a pile of fire ! Its summit seemed riven in two...
Page 513 - Amphitheatre itself — far and wide — with many a mighty splash in the agitated sea — fell that awful shower! No longer thought the crowd of justice or of Arbaces; safety for themselves was their sole thought. Each turned to fly — each dashing, pressing, crushing, against the other. Trampling recklessly over the fallen — amid groans and oaths and prayers and sudden shrieks, the enormous crowd vomited itself forth through the numerous passages. Whither should they fly...
Page xii - It is necessary, for exciting interest of any kind, that the subject assumed should be, as it were, translated into the manners as well as the language of the age we live in.
Page 537 - ... favor one so helpless ! The boiling torrents touched her not, save by the general rain which accompanied them ; the huge fragments of scoria shivered the pavement before and beside her, but spared that frail form : and when the lesser ashes fell over her, she shook them away with a slight tremor, and dauntlessly resumed her course.
Page 526 - ... yet more and more, with every hour, obstructed the way; and as the day advanced, the motion of the earth was more sensibly felt — the footing seemed to slide and creep — nor could chariot or litter be kept steady, even on the most level ground. Sometimes the huger stones, striking against each other as they fell, broke into countless fragments, emitting sparks of fire, which caught whatever was combustible within their reach ; and along the plains beyond the city the darkness was now terribly...