“You have been a long time coming,” said the Marquis, with a smile.
— from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

The sixteenth century saw the evolution of so-called novela picaresca , or rogue novel, one of the most important and influential of modern literary forms.
— from Doña Perfecta by Benito Pérez Galdós

O wealth and majesty, O conquering skill That carved life's rebel pathways to my will, What is your heart but bitterness, if now For this poor crown Thebes bound upon my brow, A gift, a thing I sought not—for this crown Creon the stern and true, Creon mine own Comrade, comes creeping in the dark to ban And slay me; sending first this magic-man And schemer, this false beggar-priest, whose eye Is bright for gold and blind for prophecy?
— from Oedipus King of Thebes Translated into English Rhyming Verse with Explanatory Notes by Sophocles

When frogs are seized by snakes, which are their chief enemies, they enlarge themselves wonderfully; so that if the snake be of small size, as Dr. Gunther informs me, it cannot swallow the frog, which thus escapes being devoured.
— from The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin

Down into the sea, deeper and deeper, sank Pinocchio, and finally, after fifty minutes of waiting, the man on the cliff said to himself: “By this time my poor little lame Donkey must be drowned.
— from The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

Clark, May 31, 1804] May 31st Thursday 1804 rained the greater part of last night, the wind from the West raised and blew with great force untile 5 oClock p.m.which obliged us to lay by a Cajaux of Bear Skins and pelteries came down from the Grand Osarge, one french man one Indian, and a Squar, they had letters from the man Mr. Choteau Sent to that part of the Osarge Nation Settled on Arkansa River mentioning that his letter was Commited to the flaims, the Inds.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

He treated the doubt whether the young people might like one another with great contempt, saying, “That parents were the best judges of proper matches for their children: that for his part he should insist on the most resigned obedience from his daughter: and if any young fellow could refuse such a bed-fellow, he was his humble servant, and hoped there was no harm done.”
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

In about a fortnight, during which time we continued steering to the southeast, with gentle breezes and fine weather, both Peters and myself recovered entirely from the effects of our late privation and dreadful sufferings, and we began to remember what had passed rather as a frightful dream from which we had been happily awakened, than as events which had taken place in sober and naked reality.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

“And Cornu said, too, 'We are good fellows.'
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

Mrs. Cavendish, startled, drops her candle, scattering the grease on the carpet.
— from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

I have my speech prepared.” “Move! move!” cried several, together.
— from The Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly by Charles James Lever

Quarries of considerable size, where Cailliaud imagined he could distinguish an overturned colossus, show the importance which the establishment had attained in ancient times; the ruins of the town cover a fairly large area near the modern village of Kerman.
— from History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4 (of 12) by G. (Gaston) Maspero

While the West has set up the ideal of individualism and is suffering now because it no longer has any ethical system to which individuals voluntarily submit; while for the Indians the social problem consisted in the solving of the question how every man could be enabled to live his life with as little disturbance as possible from his fellow-men, Confucianism solved the problem of how families with groups of hundreds of members could live together in peace and co-operation in a densely populated country.
— from A History of China by Wolfram Eberhard

Helen caused the same to be ouerthrowne, the earth to be remooued, and the place cleansed, so that at length the sepulchre appéered, and fast by were found there buried in the earth thrée crosses and the nailes.
— from Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland. Volume 1, Complete by William Harrison

As Calhoun said this, he was not looking at Louise Poindexter or he might have detected in her eye a glance to gratify him.
— from The Headless Horseman: A Strange Tale of Texas by Mayne Reid

I cherish her memory with a holy veneration, whose maxims I have treasured, whose virtues live in my remembrance—happy if I could say they have been transplanted into my life."
— from Homes of American Statesmen; With Anecdotical, Personal, and Descriptive Sketches by Various

"What a comfort," she thought, "if I could only shake them all, and tell them to behave themselves!"
— from Hildegarde's Harvest by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards

In the personal judgment of the writer all undergraduate courses should combine aspects of morphology, physiology, ecology, etc., rather than be confined strictly to one particular phase; even histology and embryology can be better taught when their physiological aspects are emphasized.
— from College Teaching Studies in Methods of Teaching in the College by Paul Klapper

When daylight came S. Theresa was aghast to see how ruinous the house was: the hall, which she had hastily converted into a chapel, was so full of cracks that the Blessed Sacrament was exposed to the sight of those who passed in the streets, and she saw that the repairs of the dilapidated mansion would cost money and take time.
— from Virgin Saints and Martyrs by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould