She threw at me a very naughty look, so naughty that I would not kiss her good-night at first: I covered her up, and shut her door, in great displeasure; but, repenting half-way, I returned softly, and lo!
— from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Strange as it may seem, within plain sight of this same house, looking down from its commanding height upon it, was the Capitol.
— from Twelve Years a Slave Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana by Solomon Northup

He used to continue long at it, making me spend two or three times before he did, and then when he felt it coming he used to withdraw, and his prick being all moist, he would slip it into my bottom, and spend there as soon as ever he got the head of it inside.”
— from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous

The count is in fashion; I congratulate him upon it.”
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

If it had been in the power of medicine, or any foresight I could have used, to prevent what has occurred, I should certainly have done so.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

And it was now that she understood the full value of the education she had received from St. Aubert, for in cultivating her understanding he had secured her an asylum from indolence, without recourse to dissipation, and rich and varied amusement and information, independent of the society, from which her situation secluded her.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

Tupia informed Captain Cook that four islands, called Huaheine, Ulietea, Otaha, and Bolabola, lay at the distance of between one and two days’ sail of Otaheite, and that refreshments in abundance might be procured at them.
— from Captain Cook: His Life, Voyages, and Discoveries by William Henry Giles Kingston

If from the first I could have understood my feelings and danger, I might have steeled my heart against the influences that have brought me to this.
— from Barriers Burned Away by Edward Payson Roe

But, as it fell, it crashed heavily upon a dead branch in a neighboring tree.
— from Hoof and Claw by Roberts, Charles G. D., Sir

His name was Dr. Hönicke, and he was the first to try to impress on me that I ought to show myself worthy of my father, an idea which had never entered my mind before, nay, which at first I could hardly understand, but which, nevertheless, slumbered on in my mind till years afterwards it was called out and became a strong influence for the whole of my life.
— from My Autobiography: A Fragment by F. Max (Friedrich Max) Müller

"I still couldn't make out your game; if it was funk I could have understood it; so I tried to get you to own up in the night.
— from Stingaree by E. W. (Ernest William) Hornung

We commend this book to your critical inspection and test, believing you will find it convenient, helpful, unique and pointing the way to better and more economical living.
— from Fifty-Two Sunday Dinners: A Book of Recipes by Elizabeth O. Hiller

At first I could hardly understand what they were saying, for although I speak German as perfectly as six other languages, I could not immediately make out their peculiar Viennese accent.
— from My Austrian Love The History of the Adventures of an English Composer in Vienna. Written in the Trenches by Himself by Maxime Provost

We camped at noon on a small brooklet which came rollicking down from its canyon home until it reached the valley, and then, embosomed in willows and tall rye grass, flowed silently on to the more noisy and pretentious river.
— from Memoirs of Orange Jacobs by Orange Jacobs

"Don Francesco, I came here upon your word, and because I know that Lent does not come in July, so do not kill me with a sermon——" "Sit down; I did not summon you on my account, but on your own, and for the sake of your reputation and prosperity."
— from Isabella Orsini: A Historical Novel of the Fifteenth Century by Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi

I have not space to present such an examination as extensively as it deserves, and must limit my remarks to that nation which, of all others, is most interesting to the English or American reader—that England which we picture to ourselves as foremost in civilization, her universities dating back for many centuries; her charters and laws, on which individual, and therefore social, liberty rests, spoken of as the ancient privileges of the realm; her people a clear-headed race, lovers and stout defenders of freedom.
— from History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Volume II (of 2) Revised Edition by John William Draper