the whole of Victorian literature done up in grey paper & neatly tied with string

I held a brief debate with myself as to whether I should change my ordinary attire for something smarter. At last I concluded it would be a waste of labour. “Doubtless,” though I, “she is...

Beauty was a weapon as well, one Viola enjoyed wielding.

He was moderately truthful towards men, but to women lied like a Cretan-a system of ethics above all others calculated to win popularity at the first flush of admission into lively society.

Odiava quel luogo – il luogo maledetto come lo aveva battezzato nella sua mente – eppure non poteva negare il forte richiamo che esercitava sulla propria persona. Sarebbe stato capace di individuarlo anche attraverso una...

Archer tries not to think of his own state of purity, physically unsullied, yet now spiritually beyond redemption, his thoughts plagued by lithe limbs and brilliant blue eyes. Doctor Archer has never really understood women,...

It appears that ordinary men take wives because possession is not possible without marriage, and that ordinary women accept husbands because marriage is not possible without possession; with totally differing aims the method is the...

An unhappy woman with access to weed killer had to be watched carefully.

You know this is wrong.”It isn’t a question. When he turns, White is still wrapped snug in the counterpane, motionless, just his gaze pursuing the doctor about the room. “I am wrong to do this.”...

Love was something he had banished from his life years ago out of necessity, but she made him yearn to be loved.

The great city seemed to weigh upon me, as though it were crushing me under its heap of brick and stone. Gray, drizzly skies, congested streets, the soot-belching boats and barges chugging up and down...

Hello.” The doctor speaks softly, nervously. Mr White doesn’t respond, not even the slightest change of expression. Dr Archer has been thinking. Mulling it over in his head, endlessly, driving himself more insane he thinks...

Resting my head on the high-backed chair, I silently marvel at emotion so strong itcan quite literally chase away all reason and good sense. It is something I have neverexperienced. I pity Frances for being...

In crime books it’s possible to chart forensic technology by how well it has to be explained to a reader. In mid-Victorian crime novels fingerprinting has to be explained because it’s new. Nowadays it’s part...

Enlarged sympathy with children was one of the chief contributions made by the Victorian English to real civilization.

It’s elementary, my dear Winifred.

My very core clenches and spasms, my hips with a mind of their own, lurch. It is as if I no longer have control of any part of my body. ‘Ugh,’ I continue to groan...

I’m accustomed to reading Georgian and Victorian letters and sometimes you simply know in your gut that a blithe sentence is covering up a deeper emotion.

There is enough conformity in the world Lord MacCaulay. I doubt that mine, or lack of it, will send the planet from its axis. Meanwhile, my heart does not soar for the riches you set...

Humans are curious creatures. What we cannot see, our logical minds will try to deny.

She gritted her teeth. The man dances like a clod. I’d rather dance with Mr Jenkins, who can barely move.

He had an overwhelming urge to take possession of her lips, silencing any mention of another man’s name.

I should never make anything of a fisherman. I had not got sufficient imagination

Tea no more! Down with bustles!

Some ghosts are so quiet you would hardly know they were there.

You are an exceedingly beautiful mystery, one that intrigues me and one that I plan to solve.

That August, Elodie Selkirk became the latest lady in Paris to order a coin-operated boy.

One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing.

And here you see me working out, as cheerfully and thankfully as I may, my doom of sharing in the glass a constant change of customers, and of lying down and rising up with the...

Sometimes people do misguided things for the most honorable of reasons.

You have a spine of steel and fire in your eyes, Rosalie. To have such a quality, one must be shaken to the foundation of one’s soul and put back together. I want to know...

Give me the Black Death over a Victorian prude any day. At least the dying screw like it’s their last day on earth.”Paradise Lot: GoneGodsWorld – Episode 1

What if all those strange and unexplainable bends in history were the result of supernatural interference? At which point I asked myself, what’s the weirdest most eccentric historical phenomenon of them all? Answer:the Great British...

In the world of The Age of Innocence, a financial disaster or moral scandal would permanently exile a guest from the finest dinner tables. In contemporary New York, a mere change of fashion can eliminate...

I would feel much better about this whole affair if you would slap me and get it over with. I know you want to.

Matt is a tortured soul,’ Amanda insisted. ‘He’s Heathcliff and you’re Cathy. He’s Rochester and you’re Jane Eyre. He’s-”Darcy and I’m Elizabeth. I get it. And you’re wrong.

The world of shadows and superstition that was Victorian England, so well depicted in this 1871 tale, was unique. While the foundations of so much of our present knowledge of subjects like medicine, public health,...

Dickens must have first heard his famous The law is an ass quote from a woman. And she was damned right, for all the good it did her.