Ah, what a husband!...” Dolly was glad when Anna came in, and by her entrance put a stop to Annushka’s gossip.
— from Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

His eye perced, and so depe it wente, Til on Criseyde it smoot, and ther it stente.
— from Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer

On the occasion of my next morning call she told me she would send me an invitation to a musical evening which she was going to have at her house in honour of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, her elderly patron, and she also gave me back the manuscript of Lohengrin, with the assurance that it had appealed to her very much, and that while she was reading it she had often seen the little fairies and elves dancing about in front of her.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

She has eight puppies, and she thinks there never were such fine puppies as hers.
— from The Story of My Life With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy by Helen Keller

It is only justice that, since the abuse and ridicule of early years are fully depicted, esteem and praise should have equal prominence; and surely every one will read with pleasure the proof that the world's scorn and repudiation have been changed to respect and approval.
— from The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years by Ida Husted Harper

Even when we finally retired for the night, the inevitable Miss Gryce was still my companion: we had only a short end of candle in our candlestick, and I dreaded lest she should talk till it was all burnt out; fortunately, however, the heavy supper she had eaten produced a soporific effect: she was already snoring before I had finished undressing.
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë

England is in a state of transition, and her economic problems are serious.
— from The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes

Knowing, therefore, that she needs must have evil plots against Sir Tristram, Sir Gawain demanded of him courteously whither he went.
— from The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights by Knowles, James, Sir

Conscious of his elfin power and submitting to his dread experience, Mr. Guppy consults him in the choice of that day's banquet, turning an appealing look towards him as the waitress repeats the catalogue of viands and saying "What do YOU take, Chick?"
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

If, in 1654, the war with England had shown a state of unreadiness wonderful in a navy that had so long humbled the pride of Spain on the seas, on the other hand the Provinces, in 1657, had effectually put a stop to the insults of France directed against her commerce; and a year later, "by their interference in the Baltic between Denmark and Sweden, they had hindered Sweden from establishing in the North a preponderance disastrous to them.
— from The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

Hampden exclaimed, pained and surprised.
— from Aces Up by Covington Clarke

At 5:30 P.M. she turned toward the flagship with a heavy list to starboard, and appeared stopped, with steam pouring from her escape pipes and smoke from shell and fires rising everywhere.
— from New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 2, May, 1915 April-September, 1915 by Various

About five or six times a month, when the soup was rich and good he would deposit his spoon in his empty plate and say, as if the proposition were entirely novel:— “That’s better than a kick on the shin-bone!”
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

fought I merchant-like, 125 Or barter'd I for victory, when death Strode o'er the reeking streets with giant stride, And shook his ebon plumes, and sternly smil'd Amid the bloody banquet?
— from The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Vol 1 and 2 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

But Mrs. Lyndsay, my dear,”—hastily pushing from him his empty plate, and speaking with his mouth full—“I have one word to say to you in private, before you go.”
— from Flora Lyndsay; or, Passages in an Eventful Life, Vol. I. by Susanna Moodie

They loved him for his bad language long before he had ever preached a sermon or written a leading article in verse.
— from Old and New Masters by Robert Lynd

Or barter'd I for victory, when death Strode o'er the reeking streets with giant stride, And shook his ebon plumes, and sternly smil'd Amid the bloody banquet?
— from The Literary Remains of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Volume 1 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge