Vivian GreyThe career of an ambitious young man of rank; and in this story the brilliant author has preserved to us the exact tone of the English drawing-room, as he so well knew it, sketching with sure and rapid strokes a whole portrait gallery of notables, disguised in name may be, but living ... |
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acquainted admiration agitated amusing appearance Baron von Konigstein Baroness beautiful Beckendorff Boeffleurs bottle castle certainly character Château Desir Chevalier Cleveland companion conversation Count of Eberstein countenance course Court Courtown dear delightful dinner entered Essper George everything exertions eyes father fear feel Felix Lorraine fellow fête champêtre Fitzloom fortune Frankfort gazed Geisenheim gentleman going Grafenberg Grand Duke hand head honour horse hour imagine immediately interest Little Lilliput look Lord Lordship Madame Carolina Marchioness Margrave Marquess of Carabas Master Rodolph mediatised mind Minister Miss Fane Miss Graves morning nature never night noble party passed person Philipson political present Prince of Little Reisenburg round Royal Highness Rudesheimer Sievers silence singular smile Sohnspeer soon speak spirit sure tell thou thought to-day to-night Toad Violet Fane Vivian Grey voice walk whole wish woman young
Popular passages
Page 21 - The Bar, pooh ! law and bad jokes till we are forty, and then, with the most brilliant success, the prospect of gout and a coronet. Besides, to succeed as an advocate I must be a great lawyer, and to be a great lawyer I must give up my chance of being a great man.
Page 108 - But am I entitled — I, who can lose nothing — am I entitled to play with other men's fortunes? Am I, all this time, deceiving myself with some wretched sophistry ? Am I then an intellectual Don Juan, reckless of human minds as he was of human bodies — a spiritual libertine...
Page 115 - Shrined in this secret chamber of your soul there is an image before which you bow down in adoration, and that image is YOURSELF. And truly, when I do gaze upon your radiant eyes," and here the lady's tone became more terrestrial; "and truly, when I do look upon your luxuriant curls...
Page 98 - We talked with open heart, and tongue Affectionate and true, A pair of friends, though I was young, And Matthew seventy-two. We lay beneath a spreading oak, Beside a mossy seat ; And from the turf a fountain broke, And gurgled at our feet. 'Now, Matthew...
Page 477 - ... side, and hope gave way before the scene of desolation. Immense branches were shivered from the largest trees; small ones were entirely stripped of their leaves; the long grass was bowed to the earth; the waters were whirled in eddies out of the little rivulets; birds...
Page 397 - He had so great an esteem for him that he intrusted him with the care to provide his favourite ladies with all the things they stood in need of: he chose for them their clothes, furniture, and jewels, with admirable taste. His good qualities, and the favour of the caliph, made the sons of emirs, and other officers of the first rank, be always about him : his house was the rendezvous of all the nobility of the court.
Page 21 - The want, the indefinable want, which he had so constantly exfierienced, was at last supplied; the grand object on which to bring the powers of his mind to bear and work was at last provided. He paced his chamber in an agitated spirit, and panted for the Senate.
Page 22 - Supposing I am in contact with this magnifico, am I prepared? Now, let me probe my very soul. Does my cheek blanch ? I have the mind for the conception; and I can perform right skilfully upon the most splendid of musical...
Page 145 - In life, surely man is not always as monstrously busy as he appears to be in novels and romances. We are not always in action, not always making speeches, or making money, or making war, or making love.
Page 134 - M?" is neither the vile nor the excellent being which he sometimes imagines himself to be. He does not so much act by system as by sympathy. If this creature cannot always feel for others, he is doomed to feel for himself; and the vicious are, at least, blessed with the curse of remorse. "You are now inspecting one of the worst portions of society in what is called the great world (St. Giles...