A princess of Mars

| 13 abr 2011 | 1 comentarios


"Chieftains," continued Lorquas Ptomel, "shall the jeddak, Tal Hajus, prove his fitness to rule over Tars Tarkas?"



There were twenty chieftains about the rostrum, and twenty swords flashed high in assent.



There was no alternative. That decree was final, and so Tal Hajus drew his long-sword and advanced to meet Tars Tarkas.

Moby Dick

| 12 abr 2011 | 0 comentarios
At the first faintest glimmering of the dawn, his iron voice was heard from aft,—"Man the mast-heads!"—and all through the day, till after sunset and after twilight, the same voice every hour, at the striking of the helmsman's bell, was heard—"What d'ye see?—sharp! sharp!"

But when three or four days had slided by, after meeting the children-seeking Rachel; and no spout had yet been seen; the monomaniac old man seemed distrustful of his crew's fidelity; at least, of nearly all except the Pagan harpooneers; he seemed to doubt, even, whether Stubb and Flask might not willingly overlook the sight he sought. But if these suspicions were really his, he sagaciously refrained from verbally expressing them, however his actions might seem to hint them.

"I will have the first sight of the whale myself,"—he said. "Aye! Ahab must have the doubloon! and with his own hands he rigged a nest of basketed bowlines; and sending a hand aloft, with a single sheaved block, to secure to the main-mast head, he received the two ends of the downward-reeved rope; and attaching one to his basket prepared a pin for the other end, in order to fasten it at the rail. This done, with that end yet in his hand and standing beside the pin, he looked round upon his crew, sweeping from one to the other; pausing his glance long upon Daggoo, Queequeg, Tashtego; but shunning Fedallah; and then settling his firm relying eye upon the chief mate, said,—"Take the rope, sir—I give it into thy hands, Starbuck." Then arranging his person in the basket, he gave the word for them to hoist him to his perch, Starbuck being the one who secured the rope at last; and afterwards stood near it. And thus, with one hand clinging round the royal mast, Ahab gazed abroad upon the sea for miles and miles,—ahead, astern, this side, and that,—within the wide expanded circle commanded at so great a height.

Around the world in 80 days

| 11 abr 2011 | 0 comentarios
The pilot went on board at six, and took his place on the bridge, to guide the Rangoon through the channels to the port of Hong Kong. Passepartout longed to ask him if the steamer had left for Yokohama; but he dared not, for he wished to preserve the spark of hope, which still remained till the last moment. He had confided his anxiety to Fix who—the sly rascal!—tried to console him by saying that Mr. Fogg would be in time if he took the next boat; but this only put Passepartout in a passion.

Mr. Fogg, bolder than his servant, did not hesitate to approach the pilot, and tranquilly ask him if he knew when a steamer would leave Hong Kong for Yokohama.

"At high tide to-morrow morning," answered the pilot.

"Ah!" said Mr. Fogg, without betraying any astonishment.

Passepartout, who heard what passed, would willingly have embraced the pilot, while Fix would have been glad to twist his neck.

"What is the steamer's name?" asked Mr. Fogg.

The war of the worlds

| 10 abr 2011 | 0 comentarios
Everything had suddenly become very still. Far away to the southeast, marking the quiet, we heard the Martians hooting to one another, and then the air quivered again with the distant thud of their guns. But the earthly artillery made no reply.


Now at the time we could not understand these things, but later I was to learn the meaning of these ominous kopjes that gathered in the twilight. Each of the Martians, standing in the great crescent I have described, had discharged, by means of the gunlike tube he carried, a huge canister over whatever hill, copse, cluster of houses, or other possible cover for guns, chanced to be in front of him. Some fired only one of these, some two--as in the case of the one we had seen; the one at Ripley is said to have discharged no fewer than five at that time. These canisters smashed on striking the ground--they did not explode--and incontinently disengaged an enormous volume of heavy, inky vapour, coiling and pouring upward in a huge and ebony cumulus cloud, a gaseous hill that sank and spread itself slowly over the surrounding country. And the touch of that vapour, the inhaling of its pungent wisps, was death to all that breathes.

Moby Dick (Deutsch)

| 16 nov 2010 | 0 comentarios
Hätten Sie trat an Bord der Pequod an einer bestimmten Stelle dieses post-mortemizing des Wals, und hatten Sie schlenderte nach vorn nahe der Winde, ziemlich sicher bin ich, dass Sie gescannt haben, mit nicht geringer Neugier eine sehr merkwürdige, rätselhafte Objekt, das Sie hätte es gesehen haben, liegen entlang der Länge nach im Windschatten Speigatte. Nicht die wundersame Zisterne in den Wal riesige Kopf, nicht das Wunderkind seiner ausgehängt Unterkiefer, nicht das Wunder seiner symmetrischen Schwanz; keines dieser würde so überraschen, da die Hälfte einen Einblick in das unerklärliche Kegel-länger als ein Mann aus Kentucky ist groß, fast einen Fuß im Durchmesser an der Basis, und tiefschwarz wie Jojo, der Ebenholz Idol Queequeg. Und ein Idol, ja, es ist, oder vielmehr, in alten Zeiten war seine Ähnlichkeit. Ein solches Idol als dass in der geheimen gefunden Haine von Queen Maacha in Judäa, und für die Anbetung, die König Asa, ihr Sohn, ihr absetzen wollte, und zerstörte das Idol, und verbrannte es für ein Greuel am Bach Kidron, da dunkel eingestellt weiter im 15. Kapitel des Ersten Buches der Könige.


Schauen Sie sich die Segler, die so genannte Fleischwolf, der jetzt kommt, und unterstützt durch zwei Verbündeten, stark unterstützt die grandissimus, wie die Seeleute es nennen, und mit gesenktem Schultern, taumelt weg mit ihm, als ob er ein Grenadier Durchführung eines toten Kameraden aus dem Feld. Erweitern sie auf die Backdeck, er geht nun zylindrisch, seine dunkle Haut zu entfernen, da eine afrikanische Jäger das Fell eines Boa. Nachdem dies geschehen wendet er sich das Fell von innen nach außen, wie ein Pantalon Bein, gibt es eine gute Dehnung, so wie fast auf das doppelte der Durchmesser, und am Ende hängt es, gut zu verbreiten, in der Takelage, um zu trocknen. Bald ist es nach unten getragen wird; beim Entfernen einige Meter davon, in Richtung der spitzen Ende, und dann schneiden zwei Schlitze für Arm-Löcher am anderen Ende, er schlüpft in Längsrichtung sich körperlich in sie. Der Fleischwolf jetzt vor Ihnen steht im vollem Ornat seiner Berufung investiert. Immemorial alle seine Ordnung, diese Investitur allein ausreichend schützen ihn, während in der eigentümlichen Funktionen seines Amtes eingesetzt.

Das Büro besteht in Wolfen das Pferd-Stück Speck für die Töpfe, eine Operation, die bei einer neugierig Holzpferd durchgeführt wird, gepflanzt endwise gegen die Bastionen, und mit einem geräumigen Wanne unter ihr, in die die Stücke gehackt Drop schnell wie die Bogen von einem verzückten Redners Schreibtisch. Angeordnete in anständiger schwarz; Besatzungsmacht eine auffällige Kanzel; Vorsatz Bibel Blätter; welch ein Kandidat für ein Erzbistum, was für ein Bursche für ein Papst dieses Fleischwolf waren *

At the Earth's Core

| | 0 comentarios
"I was again running away from Jubal the Ugly One," she said. "After I escaped from the Sagoths I made my way alone back to my own land; but on account of Jubal I did not dare enter the villages or let any of my friends know that I had returned for fear that Jubal might find out. By watching for a long time I found that my brother had not yet returned, and so I continued to live in a cave beside a valley which my race seldom frequents, awaiting the time that he should come back and free me from Jubal.

"But at last one of Jubal's hunters saw me as I was creeping toward my father's cave to see if my brother had yet returned and he gave the alarm and Jubal set out after me. He has been pursuing me across many lands. He cannot be far behind me now. When he comes he will kill you and carry me back to his cave. He is a terrible man. I have gone as far as I can go, and there is no escape," and she looked hopelessly up at the continuation of the ledge twenty feet above us.

  • "Dian," I said, "won't you tell me that you are not sorry that I have found you?" "I hate you," was her only reply; but I imagined that there was less vehemence in it than before—yet it might have been but my imagination
  • "Why do you hate me, Dian?" I asked, but she did not answer me
  • "What are you doing here?" I asked, "and what has happened to you since Hooja freed you from the Sagoths?" At first I thought that she was going to ignore me entirely, but finally she thought better of it
  • "I was again running away from Jubal the Ugly One," she said
  • "After I escaped from the Sagoths I made my way alone back to my own land; but on account of Jubal I did not dare enter the villages or let any of my friends know that I had returned for fear that Jubal might find out

Around the world in 80 days

| 13 oct 2010 | 0 comentarios
The pilot went on board at six, and took his place on the bridge, to guide the Rangoon through the channels to the port of Hong Kong. Passepartout longed to ask him if the steamer had left for Yokohama; but he dared not, for he wished to preserve the spark of hope, which still remained till the last moment. He had confided his anxiety to Fix who—the sly rascal!—tried to console him by saying that Mr. Fogg would be in time if he took the next boat; but this only put Passepartout in a passion.

Mr. Fogg, bolder than his servant, did not hesitate to approach the pilot, and tranquilly ask him if he knew when a steamer would leave Hong Kong for Yokohama.

"At high tide to-morrow morning," answered the pilot.

"Ah!" said Mr. Fogg, without betraying any astonishment.

Passepartout, who heard what passed, would willingly have embraced the pilot, while Fix would have been glad to twist his neck.

"What is the steamer's name?" asked Mr. Fogg.