Certain Personal Matters

Certain Personal Matters

PAGE THOUGHTS ON CHEAPNESS AND MY AUNT CHARLOTTE 7 THE TROUBLE OF LIFE 12 ON THE CHOICE OF A WIFE 18 THE HOUSE OF DI SORNO 22 OF CONVERSATION 27 IN A LITERARY HOUSEHOLD 32 ON SCHOOLING AND THE PHASES OF MR. SANDSOME 36 THE POET AND THE EMPORIUM 40 THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS 45 THE LITERARY REGIMEN 49 HOUSE-HUNTING AS AN OUTDOOR AMUSEMENT 54 OF BLADES AND BLADERY 59 OF CLEVERNESS 63 THE POSE NOVEL 67 THE VETERAN CRICKETER 71 CONCERNING A CERTAIN LADY 76 THE SHOPMAN 80 THE BOOK OF CURSES 85 DUNSTONE'S DEAR LADY 90 EUPHEMIA'S NEW ENTERTAINMENT (this is illustrated) 94 FOR FREEDOM OF SPELLING 98 INCIDENTAL THOUGHTS ON A BALD HEAD 104 [Pg 6] OF A BOOK UNWRITTEN 108 THE EXTINCTION OF MAN 115 THE WRITING OF ESSAYS 120 THE PARKES MUSEUM 124 BLEAK MARCH IN EPPING FOREST 128 THE THEORY OF QUOTATION 132 ON THE ART OF STAYING AT THE SEASIDE 135 CONCERNING CHESS 140 THE COAL-SCUTTLE 145 BAGARROW 150 THE BOOK OF ESSAYS DEDICATORY 155 THROUGH A MICROSCOPE 159 THE PLEASURE OF QUARRELLING 164 THE AMATEUR NATURE-LOVER 164 FROM AN OBSERVATORY 174 THE MODE IN MONUMENTS 177 HOW I DIED 183 The world mends. In my younger days people believed in mahogany; some of my readers will remember ita heavy, shining substance, having a singularly close resemblance to raw liver, exceedingly heavy to move, and esteemed on one or other count the noblest of all woods. Such of us as were very poor and had no mahogany pretended to have mahogany; and the proper hepatite tint was got by veneering. That makes one incline to think it was the colour that pleased people. In those days there was a word "trashy," now almost lost to the world. My dear Aunt Charlotte used that epithet when, in her feminine way, she swore at people she did not like. "Trashy" and "paltry" and "Brummagem" was the very worst she could say of them. And she had, I remember, an intense aversion to plated goods and bronze halfpence. The halfpence of her youth had been vast and corpulent red-brown discs, which it was folly to speak of as small change. They were fine handsome coins, and almost as inconvenient as crown-pieces. I remember she corrected me once when I was very young. "Don't call a penny a copper, dear," she said; "copper is a metal. The pennies they have nowadays are bronze." It is odd how our childish impressions cling to us. I still regard bronze as a kind of upstart intruder, a mere trashy pretender among metals.[Pg 8] ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 17508
Author: Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Release Date: Jan 12, 2006
Format: eBook
Language: English