“Her cheerful spirits,” she added, “her artless simplicity, her natural wit, are like her beauty, they must be dressed in the Venetian fashion.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

The appearance of a fiacre in the square had caused some surprise, and the inhabitants began to come out of their houses.
— from The History of a Crime The Testimony of an Eye-Witness by Victor Hugo

She was not satisfied with simply doing as well as he had commanded; she seemed anxious to do better.
— from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass

The way her crooked skirt swings at each whack.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

The sympathies of the author, as his closing sentence shows, are with the new, but his conscience as artist has none the less compelled him to give to the old its right of full and fair utterance.
— from Doña Perfecta by Benito Pérez Galdós

When they brought her coffee, she started as though it were a cup of poison which Mr. Hicks, the butler, wished to propose to her.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

That fellow Soames, for instance, would have a fit if you tried to borrow a tenner from him, or, if he didn't have a fit, he looked at you with his cursed supercilious smile, as if you were a lost soul because you were in want of money.
— from The Forsyte Saga, Volume I. The Man Of Property by John Galsworthy

324 King Guha heard his speech, agreed, And called his minister with speed: “A boat,” he cried, “swift, strong, and fair, With rudder, oars, and men, prepare, And place it ready by the shore To bear the pilgrims quickly o'er.”
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

He was called “the Singer” because, even when he was a member of the town-council, he could sing sweetly and worthily to the lute.
— from Margery (Gred): A Tale Of Old Nuremberg — Complete by Georg Ebers

Their announcement of impending departure had come so suddenly and unexpectedly that there was no time to prepare anything elaborate, such as a german with favors, etc.; but good music and an extemporized supper could be had without trouble.
— from The Deserter by Charles King

"My darling," he murmured, in a voice so broken by emotion that he could scarcely speak at all.
— from The Bride of the Tomb, and Queenie's Terrible Secret by Miller, Alex. McVeigh, Mrs.

Hudibras carried some such a cupboard.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine—Volume 62, No. 386, December, 1847 by Various

Ships having chiefly square sails; a term used in contradistinction to all vessels which do not use them.
— from The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by W. H. (William Henry) Smyth

Her haughty carcass spread Still awes in ruin, and commands when dead.
— from Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 2 of 2) With General and Particular Accounts of Their Rise, Fall, and Present Condition by Charles Bucke