Vulgar words in Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson — Volume 2 (Page 1)
This book at a glance
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~ ~ ~ Sentence 468 ~ ~ ~
In this case, perhaps - but no, if the peculiarity is shared by two such pleasant persons as you and I (as you and me - the grammatical nut is hard), it must be a very good thing indeed, and Sir John must be an ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 859 ~ ~ ~
'Baker's' is the name of our house, but we don't address there; we prefer the tender care of the Post-Office, as more aristocratic (it is no use to telegraph even to the care of the Post-Office who does not give a single damn).
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,119 ~ ~ ~
Besides these, many instant figures, most of them dumb or nearly so: Jessie Brown the whore, Captain Crail, Captain MacCombie, our old friend Alan Breck, our old friend Riach (both only for an instant), Teach the pirate (vulgarly Blackbeard), John Paul and Macconochie, servants at Durrisdeer.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,668 ~ ~ ~
I wonder if I have managed to give you any news this time, or whether the usual damn hangs over my letter?
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,510 ~ ~ ~
I joke wi' deeficulty, I believe; I am not funny; and when I am, Mrs. Oliphant says I'm vulgar, and somebody else says (in Latin) that I'm a whore, which seems harsh and even uncalled for: I shall stick to weepers; a 5s.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,674 ~ ~ ~
Bad dress clothes only prove you are a grisly ass; no dress clothes, even when explained, indicate a want of respect.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,036 ~ ~ ~
The spirit - I don't mean the measure, I don't mean you fall into bastard cadences; what I mean is that they seem vacant and smoothed out, ironed, if you like.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 4,003 ~ ~ ~
In biography you have your little handful of facts, little bits of a puzzle, and you sit and think, and fit 'em together this way and that, and get up and throw 'em down, and say damn, and go out for a walk.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 4,333 ~ ~ ~
True: you are right, I was wrong; the author is not the whore, but the libertine; and yet I shall let the passage stand.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 4,700 ~ ~ ~
I have got to a crossing place, I suppose; the present book, SAINT IVES, is nothing; it is in no style in particular, a tissue of adventures, the central character not very well done, no philosophic pith under the yarn; and, in short, if people will read it, that's all I ask; and if they won't, damn them!
~ ~ ~ Sentence 4,732 ~ ~ ~
I am in one of the humours when a man wonders how any one can be such an ass as to embrace the profession of letters, and not get apprenticed to a barber or keep a baked-potato stall.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 4,763 ~ ~ ~
And I have no idea what I have said, and I have no idea what I ought to have said, and I am a total ass, but my heart is in the right place, and I am, my dear Henry James, yours, R. L. S. Letter: TO MR. MARCEL SCHWOB VAILIMA, UPOLU, SAMOA, JULY 7, 1894.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 5,026 ~ ~ ~
- Yours very truly, ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (in a German cap, damn 'em!)
~ ~ ~ Sentence 5,243 ~ ~ ~
It is beautifully said, beautifully and kindly felt; and I should be a churl indeed if I were not grateful, and an ass if I were not proud.