A very friendly shake of the hand, a very earnest “Good-bye,” closed the speech, and the door had soon shut out Frank Churchill.
— from Emma by Jane Austen

"That's called a milk sea," I told him, "a vast expanse of white waves often seen along the coasts of Amboina and in these waterways."
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne

May not these fathers and mothers, think you, be sorrowful and heavy-hearted when they see an unknown fellow, a vagabond stranger, a barbarous lout, a rude cur, rotten, fleshless, putrified, scraggy, boily, botchy, poor, a forlorn caitiff and miserable sneak, by an open rapt snatch away before their own eyes their so fair, delicate, neat, well-behavioured, richly-provided-for and healthful daughters, on whose breeding and education they had spared no cost nor charges, by bringing them up in an honest discipline to all the honourable and virtuous employments becoming one of their sex descended of a noble parentage, hoping by those commendable and industrious means in an opportune and convenient time to bestow them on the worthy sons of their well-deserving neighbours and ancient friends, who had nourished, entertained, taught, instructed, and schooled their children with the same care and solicitude, to make them matches fit to attain to the felicity of a so happy marriage, that from them might issue an offspring and progeny no less heirs to the laudable endowments and exquisite qualifications of their parents, whom they every way resemble, than to their personal and real estates, movables, and inheritances?
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

This old lady, who was Yulia Mihailovna’s godmother, mentioned in her letter that Count K. knew Pyotr Stepanovitch very well through Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch, made much of him, and thought him “a very excellent young man in spite of his former errors.”
— from The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The hotel (a very excellent one) is called the Tremont House.
— from American Notes by Charles Dickens

Very truly and gratefully yours, FREDERICK DOUGLASS Cedar Hill, Anacostia, D.C. CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 The Case Stated CHAPTER 2 Lynch-Law Statistics CHAPTER 3 Lynching Imbeciles CHAPTER 4 Lynching of Innocent Men CHAPTER 5 Lynched for Anything or Nothing CHAPTER 6 History of Some Cases of Rape CHAPTER 7 The Crusade Justified CHAPTER 8 Miss Willard's Attitude CHAPTER 9 Lynching Record for 1894 CHAPTER 10 The Remedy 1 THE CASE STATED The student of American sociology will find the year 1894 marked by a pronounced awakening of the public conscience to a system of anarchy and outlawry which had grown during a series of ten years to be so common, that scenes of unusual brutality failed to have any visible effect upon the humane sentiments of the people of our land.
— from The Red Record Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States by Ida B. Wells-Barnett

And each time he answered vociferously, encouragingly, "Si, si— San Salvatore."
— from The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim

Gilbert’s mother, who was a gay, frank, light-hearted lady, but not overburdened with tact, had a very embarrassing habit of asking Anne, always in a painfully distinct voice and always in the presence of a crowd, if she had heard from Gilbert lately.
— from Anne of the Island by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

“Peradventure,” answered Balin, “thou hadst best have staid at home, for many a man who thinketh himself already victor, endeth by his own downfall.
— from The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights by Knowles, James, Sir

He went down to the harbour, and visited every ship there, in order to offer himself as a cabin boy.
— from Life of a Scotch Naturalist: Thomas Edward, Associate of the Linnean Society. Fourth Edition by Samuel Smiles

The memory of this monarch is transmitted to us with little advantage by the churchmen, whom he had offended; and though we may suspect, in general, that their account of his vices is somewhat exaggerated, his conduct affords little reason for contradicting the character which they have assigned him, or for attributing to him any very estimable qualities.
— from The History of England, Volume I From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688 by David Hume

I trust in the Lord to live to see the day her Grace to marry such an one as knoweth what adversity meaneth; so shall we have both a merciful queen and king to their subjects; and would to God I might live to have another virtuous Edward."—Epistle of Poor Pratt to Gilbert Potter, written July 13: Queen Jane and Queen Mary , Appendix, p.
— from The Reign of Mary Tudor by James Anthony Froude

Torches of cedar, burning like rockets, were thrown into the air, the tom-toms pealed out their muffled notes, and from a thousand throats rolled the great wedding song, until the tepees shook, and the hills and valleys echoed with the sounds of rejoicing.
— from The Sheep Eaters by William Alonzo Allen

I deny not, but that it is of greatest concernment in the Church and Commonwealth, to have a vigilant eye how books demean themselves as well as men; and thereafter to confine, imprison, and do sharpest justice on them as malefactors.
— from Areopagitica A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England by John Milton

The writer is aware of the great responsibility which devolves upon him, in being thus admitted into many thousands of families with monthly messages of counsel and instruction to the children, which he has the opportunity, through the artistic and mechanical resources placed at his disposal, to clothe in a form that will be calculated to open to him a very easy access to their attention, their confidence, and their hearts.
— from Bruno; or, lessons of fidelity, patience, and self-denial taught by a dog by Jacob Abbott

In his advertisement in the Caledonian Mercury , announcing the prospective opening, he states, he had built the house 'at vast expense,' in order that, during the winter nights, the citizens might enjoy themselves in hearing, performed by competent actors, dramas that would amuse, instruct, and elevate.
— from Allan Ramsay by William Henry Oliphant Smeaton

In the plan there is a large table in the centre of this compartment; but this was not put in, the owner adopting the suggestion of setting his large plants on the floor of the house; a very excellent plan in itself, but which was subsequently very much marred by filling in the whole floor of the house to the depth of six inches with coarse pebbles, to the injury, we think, of the subsequent well-being of the house.
— from Woodward's Graperies and Horticultural Buildings by F. W. (Francis W.) Woodward