The Author of Beltraffio

Henry James

The story had held us, round the fire, sufficiently breathless, but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome, as, on Christmas Eve in an old house, a strange tale should essentially be, I rem...

Henry James

IN TWO PARTS The text is that of the first American appearance in book form, 1879.

Henry James

PREFACE "_The Portrait of a Lady_" was, like "_Roderick Hudson_," begun in Florence, during three months spent there in the spring of 1879.

Henry James

CHAPTER I What determined the speech that startled him in the course of their encounter scarcely matters, being probably but some words spoken by himself quite without intention--spoken as they l...

Washington Irving

A pleasing land of drowsy head it was, Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye; And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, Forever flushing round a summer sky.

Ayn Rand

PART ONE It is a sin to write this.

Aristophanes

statement is made that it may be rejected.

William Strunk

This book aims to give in brief space the principal requirements of plain English style.