The only audience who could appreciate the results of close observation, the careful reproduction of minute detail and local color, are dwellers between the heights of Montrouge and Montmartre, in a vale of crumbling stucco watered by streams of black mud, a vale of sorrows which are real and joys too often hollow; but this audience is so accustomed to terrible sensations, that only some unimaginable and well-neigh impossible woe could produce any lasting impression there.
— from Father Goriot by Honoré de Balzac

He wondered, however, if the kind of education that W.G. advocated would have scotched the production of such works as Romeo and Juliet or the love poems of Shelley.
— from The Young Physician by Francis Brett Young

Every part of her hull proved the severe and well-directed fire of the enemy; her sails were as ragged as Jeremy Didler's pocket-handkerchief; her remaining masts pitted with shot; the bulwarks torn away in several places; the boats on the booms in shivers; rigging cut away fore and aft, and the ends swinging to and fro with the motion of the vessel; her decks in confusion; and some of her guns, from necessity, deserted.
— from Newton Forster by Frederick Marryat

Berry was loping along just behind, apparently offering encouragement and advice, while the Sealyham was alternately running and jumping up and down in front of the frantic alien, barking as if he were possessed.
— from Berry and Co. by Dornford Yates

He would never have learnt such words as ‘ripping’ and ‘jolly fine’ while under the auntal tyranny.
— from The Wouldbegoods: Being the Further Adventures of the Treasure Seekers by E. (Edith) Nesbit

So we didn’t bother to unload our rowboat but just tied it on to the ship’s stern with a rope and jumped aboard.
— from The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting

Mr. B. said, he would inquire whether the present salaries were a reasonable and just compensation for the services performed?
— from Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 2 (of 16) by United States. Congress

Scotty winked at Rick and jerked his chin at Carrots' back.
— from Smugglers' Reef: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story by Harold L. (Harold Leland) Goodwin

The place of “Twelfth Night” is as clearly marked in Shakespeare's works as “Romeo and Juliet” or “The Tempest.”
— from The Man Shakespeare and His Tragic Life Story by Frank Harris