975 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2015
    1. “Oh, my dearest dear sir, I want to take back what I said. You have got a situation open that I want.” “Name it.” “Son-in-law.”

      The tables have turned!

    2. raised my salary to twelve hundred the first year on the spot.

      How can he raise his own salary?? He knows nothing about it!

    3. So I loved her all the more, seeing she could be so cheerful when there wasn’t anything to be cheerful about

      Yeah, but does she see the story as tragic or just silly?

    4. The English never play any game for amusement

      Twain has lots to say about the English!

    5. whom I fell in love with in two minutes

      Wow he moves fast!

    6. My month ended, my employer back from his journey, I should be all right once more, for I should at once divide the two years’ salary among my creditors by assignment, and get right down to my work.

      At least he's got a plan, but it's not based off of any concrete knowledge

    7. so as to have the old pleasure of buying trifles, and being insulted, and then shooting the scoffer dead with the million-pound bill.

      He's really enjoying himself!

    8. and so, pauper as I was, I had money to spend, and was living like the rich and the great.

      I wish this could happen in real life. Get all kinds of things without actually having to spend any money...oh wait, that's called stealing.

    9. My opinion of those people changed, I can tell you!

      Of course it did! Money changes everything!

    10. a clean reputation

      Seems to be a recurring theme here...

    1. What could his conduct mean?  It might mean—it might—mean—oh, a dozen dreadful things.

      They're getting so paranoid

    2. the sermon seemed to bristle with accusations; it seemed aimed straight and specially at people who were concealing deadly sins.

      The worst part about sin is that it eats away at you

    3. “I—I wish I were dead, Mary, I wish I were out of it all!”

      Ugh I feel so bad for them!

    4. It seems written with fire—it burns so.  Mary—I am miserable again.

      They are really struggling with this...they seem to actually be good people

    5. “Dr.”

      Why the quotes? Is he not a real doctor?

    6. “Friends, they are only gilded disks of lead!”

      HA!

    7. Incorruptible

      Now they're sarcastically labeled as "incorruptibles"

    8. Any other man would have been content to kill one or two of you and call it square, but to me that would have been a trivial revenge, and inadequate; for the dead do not suffer.

      Wow, what did they do to this guy??

    9. your community’s noble reputation for incorruptible honesty

      Not anymore!

    10. “Oh, saw my leg off!”

      lol what?

    11. There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus and upset the convictions and debauch the emotions of an audience not practised in the tricks and delusions of oratory. 

      Yeah, this Wilson guy is good at talking his way out of things

    12. That kind don’t count their chickens until they are hatched.

      Smart...

    13. During that one night the nineteen wives spent an average of seven thousand dollars each out of the forty thousand in the sack—a hundred and thirty-three thousand altogether.

      Those crazy broads! Don't spend money unless you have it!

    14. They were exact copies of the letter received by Richards—handwriting and all—and were all signed by Stephenson, but in place of Richards’s name each receiver’s own name appeared.

      Oh this is going to be fun

    15. that she carried a spoonful of negro blood in her veins.

      GASP!

    16. but in some way or other the match had been broken off; the girl died, Goodson remained a bachelor, and by-and-by became a soured one and a frank despiser of the human species. 

      Wow, poor guy!

    17. In fact it went on looking better and better, straight along—until by-and-by it grew into positive proof. 

      Of course it did...there's forty thousand dollars to be awarded for this "proof"!

    18. oh dear, he had put Richards on his honour! 

      No not in his honor! The horror!

    19. Mary was planning what she would do with the money. 

      She's getting a little ahead of herself

    20. In all your life you have never uttered a lie.

      Never too late to start!

    21. Everybody believes there was only one good generous soul in this village

      And yet they pretended that the entire town was good...

    22. Halliday’s comments grew daily more and more sparklingly disagreeable and disparaging.

      This guys sounds annoying

    23. “Ah, what could have been the remark that Goodson made?”

      Why are they all so sure it was Goodson? Was he really the only person good enough to give a stranger money?

    24. Hadleyburg, synonym for incorruptible

      I feel like that's just not true...it can't be put in the dictionary...sorry guys!

    25. so it’s artificial honesty,

      Exactly, nothing in this town seems to be genuine so far

    26. guessed that the late Goodson was the only man in the town who could have helped a suffering stranger with so noble a sum as twenty dollars.

      This Goodson guy sounds like the only truly "good" person in the town if people keep thinking he'd be the only one to give stranger money

    27. he may be too late—too late

      Too late to pull the announcement from the paper?

    28. Lead us not into t . . . but—but—we are so poor, so poor! . . . Lead us not into . . . Ah, who would be hurt by it?—and no one would ever know . . . Lead us . . .

      Struggling with keeping her faith and honesty here

    29. Very well, then, tell them to go to hell—I reckon that’s general enough.  And I’ll give you some advice, Sawlsberry; when you come back for the particulars, fetch a basket to carry what is left of yourself home in.’

      I like this guy

    30. And of course he didn’t care. 

      Maybe because Goodson is a genuinely good person that doesn't care that other people think?

    31. If the town had found it out—

      He was trying to do something nice and actually be a good person, but his wife is only concerned with what the town would've thought of them

    32. What troubles me now is, what he thinks of us, Edward

      So far, this town seems very focused on what others think of them. They don't care about actually being incorruptible people...they just want to seem that way

    33. “I—I don’t think it would have done for you to—to—One mustn’t—er—public opinion—one has to be so careful—so—”

      At a loss for words, Mary?

    34. I could have saved him, and—and—well, you know how the town was wrought up—I hadn’t the pluck to do it. 

      That doesn't sound like he's such a good guy then

    35. The whole of his unpopularity had its foundation in that one thing—the thing that made so much noise.

      Oooh what thing?! Sounds like a good story!

    36. And it will make all the other towns jealous

      Trying to inspire jealousy doesn't sound like something an "upstanding" town would do

    37. and it is fast getting along toward burglar-time.

      Exactly what time is burglar time? I'd like to know

    38. all we’ve got to do is to bury the money and burn the papers.  If the gambler ever comes to inquire, we’ll merely look coldly upon him and say: ‘What is this nonsense you are talking?  We have never heard of you and your sack of gold before;’

      Wow....greedy man!

    39. Why, it’s a romance; it’s like the impossible things one reads about in books, and never sees in life.

      This sounds like the most excitement these people have had in awhile (or ever)

    40. we have our livelihood; we have our good name

      Which is almost as good as money...right?

    41. the wages of sin

      Money is money, lady!

    42. who set his bread afloat upon the waters

      Completely unrelated, but this sentence reminds me of feeding ducks in a pond

    43. This sack contains gold coin weighing a hundred and sixty pounds four ounces—”

      That's a big coin!

    44. but what he wanted was a plan which would comprehend the entire town, and not let so much as one person escape unhurt. 

      Harsh...

    45. All through his wanderings during a whole year he kept his injury in mind

      This town really must've bothered him!

    46. and cared not a rap for strangers or their opinions.

      Well then!

    47. Hadleyburg had the ill luck to offend a passing stranger

      Being such an upstanding community could offend people by coming off as snooty

    48. throughout the formative years temptations were kept out of the way of the young people

      Overly sheltering kids doesn't usually turn out well...

    49. It had kept that reputation unsmirched during three generations, and was prouder of it than of any other of its possessions.

      Sounds kind of boring

  2. Nov 2015
    1. Only the lull I like

      The sound of someone's voice can be the most comforting regardless of what they're saying

    2. Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself.

      oookay...

    3. yet who can stray from me?

      Sounds a little egotistical

    4. I am the teacher of athletes,

      A coach?

    5. But each man and each woman of you I lead upon a knoll,

      He's a man of nature

    6. I acknowledge the duplicates of myself

      Other poets?

    7. Kanadian

      Interesting spelling

    8. make me sick discussing their duty to God,

      Wow, really not a fan of religion

    9. Logic and sermons never convince, The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul.

      He values nature over religion

    10. The scent of these arm-pits aroma finer than prayer,

      Ew...

    11. I make holy whatever I touch

      So he's god?

    12. the father-stuff

      What exactly is "the father-stuff"? The opposite of wombs?

    13. Whoever degrades another degrades me, And whatever is done or said returns at last to me.

      The more I read, the more it seems like Walt thinks quite highly of himself...

    14. Walt Whitman, a kosmos,

      Talking about himself in the third person...okay

    15. I accept Reality and dare not question it,

      That's a pretty good way to live

    16. The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me,

      I can't tell of the speaker thinks very highly of himself or just believes that all things are connected, but saying that all things exist in him is a reoccurring theme

    17. Fourth-month showers

      April showers

    18. There shall be no difference between them and the rest

      Seems to believe heavily in equality of all people/things

    19. fancy-man

      I'd really like to know if a fancy-man is exactly what it sounds like. I picture a snotty man in a tux drinking tea with his pinky out.

    20. I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise, Regardless of others, ever regardful of others, Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man, Stuff’d with the stuff that is coarse and stuff’d with the stuff that is fine,

      He is all things

    21. it is the fourth of Seventh-month,

      Fourth of July!

    22. ;)

      I can't help but see a winky face here

    23. I love him

      The speaker loves a lot of people

    24. I had him sit next me at table

      Sounds like he treated him as an equal

    25. a red girl

      aka a Native American

    26. The suicide sprawls on the bloody floor of the bedroom,

      Taking a hell of a turn here! Babies to suicide

    27. the beautiful uncut hair of graves

      Never would've thought of grass like that

    28. my sisters and lovers

      Hopefully they're not both at the same time...

    29. some man or woman I love,

      In a romantic sense? Or friendly?

    30. Trippers

      Who/what?

    31. and admire myself.

      Some strong self-confidence here!

    32. I am in love with it,

      Fresh air is pretty refreshing

    33. observing a spear of summer grass.

      Just one spear? He's really studying that grass

    1. they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone; for his dying hour was gloom.

      Depressing

    2. But Goodman Brown looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without a greeting.

      He's ignoring faith?!

    3. What God doth the wizard pray to?”

      He's lost it

    4. Whether Faith obeyed, he knew not. Hardly had he spoken, when he found himself amid calm night and solitude, listening to a roar of the wind, which died heavily away through the forest. He staggered against the rock, and felt it chill and damp, while a hanging twig, that had been all on fire, besprinkled his cheek with the coldest dew.

      That was quick

    5. who had received the devil’s promise to be queen of hell

      I guess that's a pretty good promise

    6. But, where is Faith

      Not here, in hell

    7. or he recognized a score of the church-members of Salem village, famous for their especial sanctity

      The whole town of Salem has gone to the devil! (makes sense)

    8. Each pendent twig and leafy festoon was in a blaze.

      In a blaze with the fires of hell!

    9. He paused, in a lull of the tempest that had driven him onward, and heard the swell of what seemed a hymn, rolling solemnly from a distance, with the weight of many voices. He knew the tune; it was a familiar one in the choir of the village meeting-house.

      His faith making a last attempt to call him back?

    10. and the yell of Indians

      Can't forget the evil Indians in the heathen forest!

    11. My Faith is gone!

      His faith has gone to the devil!

    12. and beheld a pink ribbon.

      Oh no!

    13. With Heaven above, and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil!

      Stay strong!

    14. It vexed him the more, because he could have sworn, were such a thing possible, that he recognized the voices of the minister and Deacon Gookin

      Visions created by the devil to confuse Goodman?

    15. Friend

      Odd way to refer to the devil...

    16. said the young man

      Goodman is continually referred to as different things, like "the young man"...maybe to make this story seem like it could be about anyone?

    17. he fat of a new-born babe

      Yikes...

    18. The devil!

      GASP!

    19. and abide no such wickedness.

      Wickedness like making deals with the DEVIL?!

    20. We have been a race of honest men and good Christians,

      There's something devilish and sinful about these woods

    21. the goodman,

      Goodman is a goodman

    22. Take my staff, if you are so soon weary.”

      Don't take it!

    23. which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought, that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent.

      EVIL!

    24. and bearing a considerable resemblance to him

      Odd that they are so alike...maybe it's Goodman's other half/evil twin/dark side kind of thing?

    25. “What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow!”

      Come on man, you're basically asking for it psyching yourself up like this

    26. devilish Indian

      Andddd we're back to the Native Americans being devils

    27. dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind.

      Menacing!

    28. she’s a blessed angel on earth; and after this one night, I’ll cling to her skirts and follow her to Heaven.”

      He really does worship her like a faith/religion

    29. said Faith, with the pink ribbons,

      It's like she's defined by these pink, feminine ribbons

    30. My love and my Faith

      Interesting symbolism with her name! She is both his love and his what he worships, his "faith"

    1. When the friend shows his inmost heart to his friend; the lover to his best beloved; when man does not vainly shrink from the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die! I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!”

      He's making a powerful point

    2. he became a man of awful power over souls that were in agony for sin. His converts always regarded him with a dread peculiar to themselves, affirming, though but figuratively, that, before he brought them to celestial light, they had been with him behind the black veil.

      At least it's good for something!

    3. he should be affrighted by himself.

      It bothers him too, but he has to keep wearing it. Be nice to him people!

    4. bugbear.

      A what?

    5. only a material emblem had separated him from happiness

      :(

    6. “And do you feel it then, at last?” said he mournfully.

      Does the veil have some kind of weird mystical powers?

    7. Beloved and respected as you are, there may be whispers that you hide your face under the consciousness of secret sin.

      Gossip!

    8. No mortal eye will see it withdrawn.

      Is he saving his true face for God's eyes only?

    9. pronouncing the matter too weighty to be handled, except by a council of the churches, if, indeed, it might not require a general synod.

      It is not that serious guys. It's a veil. Man up!

    10. It was remarkable that of all the busybodies and impertinent people in the parish, not one ventured to put the plain question to Mr. Hooper, wherefore he did this thing.

      That's what I'm saying! Just ask him for god's sake!

    11. Such was its immediate effect on the guests that a cloud seemed to have rolled duskily from beneath the black crape, and dimmed the light of the candles.

      People are really taking this veil thing to heart, but no one will dare to just ask him about it!

    12. A superstitious old woman was the only witness of this prodigy

      She sounds like a reliable source

    13. It was now an appropriate emblem.

      So maybe he just felt like being in mourning by wearing the veil all day?

    14. Strange and bewildered looks repaid him for his courtesy.

      I really feel like everyone is overreacting. He's acting the way he always does, he just has a veil on. Get over it. Or ask him about it!

    15. Each member of the congregation, the most innocent girl, and the man of hardened breast, felt as if the preacher had crept upon them, behind his awful veil, and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought.

      Maybe that's his point in wearing the veil...to make his sermon more effective

    16. that more than one woman of delicate nerves was forced to leave the meeting-house.

      Come on...

    17. Did he seek to hide it from the dread Being whom he was addressing?

      That's a little bit of a drastic conclusion

    18. But Mr. Hooper appeared not to notice the perturbation of his people.

      Maybe the veil is something he likes to wear when he's alone and he forgot to take it off?

    19. “He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face.” “Our parson has gone mad!” cried Goodman Gray, following him across the threshold.

      Oh, please. Relax people, it's just a veil!

    20. “Are you sure it is our parson?”

      There's gotta be something ridiculous on this man's face if the people don't even recognize him

    21. fancied that the Sabbath sunshine made them prettier than on week days.

      Ah yes, ladies always look better on Sundays

    1. this is no human hair.”

      GASP!

    2. something altogether irreconcilable with our common notions of human action,

      Something un-human may have done this

    3. if we are to suppose gold the motive of this outrage, we must also imagine the perpetrator so vacillating an idiot as to have abandoned his gold and his motive together.

      So maybe the gold was not the motive...maybe there was no motive. There isn't always a reason for tragedies.

    4. men, at times, find themselves upon the brink of remembrance without being able, in the end, to remember.

      Like when you walk into a room to get something and completely forget what you went in there to got...even thigh you were thinking of it the minute before

    5. Madame and Mademoiselle L’Espanaye were not destroyed by spirits.

      No magic here

    6. in whose tones, even, denizens of the five great divisions of Europe could recognise nothing familiar!

      So the voice heard was clearly not of a language that Europeans are familiar with

    7. and where both the deceased still lay

      That seems odd...shouldn't those bodies be taken care of by now?

    8. He impaired his vision by holding the object too close.

      You gotta get some distance to gain perspective sometimes

    9. if indeed a murder has been committed at all.

      Uh it definitely sounds like a murder...

    10. No woman could have inflicted the blows with any weapon.

      You don't know that...it could've been done by a very strong woman

    11. The face was fearfully discolored, and the eye-balls protruded. The tongue had been partially bitten through. A large bruise was discovered upon the pit of the stomach, produced, apparently, by the pressure of a knee.

      Ouch!

    12. Thinks it the voice of a Russian.

      Lets just throw another language in there

    13. Appeared to be that of a German.

      Okay no one has any idea what they're talking about. All these languages mentioned sound very different.

    14. Had checked for nothing until the third day before her death, when she took out in person the sum of 4000 francs.

      Hmm...strange

    15. of a Frenchman.

      Now French too??

    16. Was not acquainted with the Italian language.

      So how could you possibly think the voice belonged to an Italian?

    17. was that of an Italian.

      Italian & Spanish are two very different languages

    18. Was positive that it was not a woman’s voice.

      How? You can't see the person talking. Voices can be deceiving

    19. The shrieks were continued until the gate was forced—and then suddenly ceased.

      Coincidence?

    20. No one was spoken of as frequenting the house.

      Strange that they are so secluded

    21. The old lady was childish.

      How so?

    22. Madame L. told fortunes for a living

      Interesting occupation

    23. with her throat so entirely cut that, upon an attempt to raise her, the head fell off.

      Wow...that's aggressive

    24. the corpse of the daughter, head downward, was dragged therefrom; it having been thus forced up the narrow aperture for a considerable distance.

      Yikes...

    25. the door of which, being found locked, with the key inside, was forced open,

      So whoever caused the disturbance did not come in through the the door

    26. I was then sure that you reflected upon the diminutive figure of Chantilly.

      This guy is brilliant if he can follow another person's thoughts like that

    27. or penning any romance.

      I was honestly starting to wonder...

    28. the fancy of a double Dupin—the creative and the resolvent.

      Dual personality?

    29. To observe attentively is to remember distinctly

      Makes sense...basically make sure you pay attention

    1. whose informing voice had consigned me to the hangman.

      Karma in the form of a cat?

    2. and here, through the mere phrenzy of bravado, I rapped heavily, with a cane which I held in my hand, upon that very portion of the brick-work behind which stood the corpse of the wife of my bosom.

      Idiot

    3. I burned to say if but one word, by way of triumph, and to render doubly sure their assurance of my guiltlessness.

      He's getting too cocky...

    4. Having procured mortar, sand, and hair, with every possible precaution, I prepared a plaster which could not be distinguished from the old, and with this I very carefully went over the new brickwork.

      It seems like this would've taken a lot of thought/work/planning...maybe premeditated?

    5. I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot, without a groan.

      She was uncomplaining til the end...

    6. my uncomplaining wife, alas! was the most usual and the most patient of sufferers.

      I would start complaining if I were her...

    7. I started, hourly, from dreams of unutterable fear, to find the hot breath of the thing upon my face

      This is why cats are creepy

    8. of the GALLOWS!

      Ahhhhhhh! Not the gallows!

    9. yes, even in this felon’s cell,

      Soo he's in prison

    10. was the discovery, on the morning after I brought it home, that, like Pluto, it also had been deprived of one of its eyes.

      It took hime til the next morning to realize that one of the cat's eyes were missing?! How drunk is this guy?

    11. I soon found a dislike to it arising within me.

      Of course...

    12. for another pet of the same species, and of somewhat similar appearance, with which to supply its place.

      Why would you want to get another cat that looks just like the one you killed??

    13. I approached and saw, as if graven in bas relief upon the white surface, the figure of a gigantic cat. The impression was given with an accuracy truly marvellous. There was a rope about the animal’s neck.

      Creepy

    14. Most Merciful and Most Terrible God.

      Sounds like an enlightenment period view of God

    15. PERVERSENESS.

      EMPHASIS

    16. fled in extreme terror at my approach.

      Makes sense...

    17. The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer.

      Well that's one way to say it wasn't your fault

    18. from one of my haunts about town,

      Interesting way to put it

    19. for what disease is like Alcohol!

      Ah, okay so he was a drunk...

    20. I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others.

      And what caused this change?

    21. Not that she was ever serious upon this point

      So she was just joking about the possibility of their cat being a witch

    22. We had birds, gold-fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat.

      That's a lot of pets for two people

    23. Man.

      Why italics?

    24. With these I spent most of my time,

      Lack of human friends could have an effect later in life...

    25. mad am I not

      Are you sure?

    1. He fell, and expired almost instantly.

      Good!

    2. “Alas!” said Mr. Temple, “if thou wert the seducer of my child, thy own reflexions be thy punishment.

      It is more painful for Montraville to live with this guilt. Death would be the easy way out.

    3. “beware if you have dared to behave either unjust or dishonourably to that poor girl, your life shall pay the forfeit:—I will revenge her cause.”

      Well get ready to revenge it then, Montraville because that's exactly what he did