FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   >>  
The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Belated Guest, by William Dean Howells This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: A Belated Guest From "Literary Friends And Acquaintances" Author: William Dean Howells Release Date: October 22, 2004 [EBook #3391] Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BELATED GUEST *** Produced by David Widger LITERARY FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES--A Belated Guest by William Dean Howells A BELATED GUEST It is doubtful whether the survivor of any order of things finds compensation in the privilege, however undisputed by his contemporaries, of recording his memories of it. This is, in the first two or three instances, a pleasure. It is sweet to sit down, in the shade or by the fire, and recall names, looks, and tones from the past; and if the Absences thus entreated to become Presences are those of famous people, they lend to the fond historian a little of their lustre, in which he basks for the time with an agreeable sense of celebrity. But another time comes, and comes very soon, when the pensive pleasure changes to the pain of duty, and the precious privilege converts itself into a grievous obligation. You are unable to choose your company among those immortal shades; if one, why not another, where all seem to have a right to such gleams of this 'dolce lome' as your reminiscences can shed upon them? Then they gather so rapidly, as the years pass, in these pale realms, that one, if one continues to survive, is in danger of wearing out such welcome, great or small, as met ones recollections in the first two or three instances, if one does one's duty by each. People begin to say, and not without reason, in a world so hurried and wearied as this: "Ah, here he is again with his recollections!" Well, but if the recollections by some magical good-fortune chance to concern such a contemporary of his as, say, Bret Harte, shall not he be partially justified, or at least excused? I. My recollections of Bret Harte begin with the arrest, on the Atlantic shore, of that progress of his from the Pacific Slope, which, in the simple days of 1871, was like the progress of a prince, in the universal
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   >>  



Top keywords:

recollections

 

William

 

Belated

 

Howells

 

Gutenberg

 

BELATED

 

privilege

 

progress

 
pleasure
 
instances

Project

 
precious
 

rapidly

 

gather

 

choose

 
company
 

immortal

 
unable
 

obligation

 

converts


grievous

 
shades
 

reminiscences

 
gleams
 

justified

 

partially

 
excused
 

fortune

 

chance

 

concern


contemporary
 

arrest

 
prince
 

universal

 

simple

 

Atlantic

 

Pacific

 

magical

 

wearing

 

realms


continues

 

survive

 
danger
 
wearied
 

hurried

 

People

 

reason

 

famous

 

Language

 

English