French fiction -- 19th century; Prometheus (Greek deity) -- Fiction
His sensitiveness is the sensitiveness of the brain, which is so acute
that it vibrates through his whole personality. From there comes the
clear, logical form of his tales.
The book, “Prometheus Illbound,” which we present to the English public
to-day is one of the most characteristic books of Gide: a work of pure
intellectual fantasy, where the subtle brain of the author has full
play. It is the expression of the humorous side of a mind which must be
ranked among the greatest of the world’s literature.
LILIAN ROTHERMERE.
PROMETHEUS
ILLBOUND
Eagle, vulture or dove.
VICTOR HUGO.
In the month of May 189..., at two o’clock in the afternoon, this
occurred which might appear strange:
On the boulevard leading from the Madeleine to the Opéra, a stout
gentleman of middle age, with nothing remarkable about him but uncommon
corpulence, was approached by a thin gentleman, who smilingly, thinking
no harm, we believe, gave him back a handkerchief that he had just
dropped. The corpulent gentleman thanked him briefly and was going his
way when he suddenly leant towards the thin man and must have asked
for information, which must have been given, for he produced from his
pocket a portable inkpot and pens, which without more ado he handed to
the thin gentleman, and also an envelope which up to this minute he had
been holding in his hand. And those who passed could see the thin man
writing an address upon it.--But here begins the strange part of the
story, which no newspaper, however, reported: the thin gentleman, after
having given back the pen and the envelope, had not even the time to
smile adieu when the fat gentleman, in form of thanks, abruptly struck
him on the face, then jumped in a cab and disappeared, before any of
the spectators, stupefied with surprise (I was there), thought of
stopping him.
I have been told since that it was Zeus, the banker.
The thin gentleman, visibly upset by the attentions of the crowd,
insisted that he had hardly felt the blow, notwithstanding that the
blood poured out of his nose and his cut-open lip. He begged them to
be kind enough to leave him alone, and the crowd, on his insistence,
slowly dispersed. Thus the reader will allow us to leave at present
some one he will hear of sufficiently later on.
A CHRONICLE OF PRIVATE MORALITY
I
I will not speak of public morals, for there are none, but this reminds
me of an anecdote:
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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