Vulgar words in Confessions of a Young Man (Page 1)
This book at a glance
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~ ~ ~ Sentence 91 ~ ~ ~
Nor am I exaggerating when I say I think that I might equally have been a Pharaoh, an ostler, a pimp, an archbishop, and that in the fulfilment of the duties of each a certain measure of success would have been mine.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 501 ~ ~ ~
And we succeeded very well, as indeed all young men do who waltz perfectly and avoid making love to the wrong woman.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,237 ~ ~ ~
For example, there is a proverb in German: "_Quand le cheval est sellé il faut le monter_;" in French there is a proverb: "_Quand le vin est tiré il faut le boire._" Well, a translator who would translate _quand le cheval_, etc., by _quand le vin_, etc., is an ass, and does not know his business.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,616 ~ ~ ~
You can't have a club room without mahogany tables, you can't have mahogany tables without magazines--_Longmans_, with a serial by Rider Haggard, the _Nineteenth Century_, with an article, "The Rehabilitation of the Pimp in Modern Society," by W.E.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,730 ~ ~ ~
Simple, you will say; yes, but better than a _fricassée_ of _Faust_, garnished with hags, imps, and blue flame; better, far better than a drawing-room set at the St. James's, with an exhibition of passion by Mrs. and Mr. Kendal; better, a million times better than the cheap popularity of Wilson Barrett--an elderly man posturing in a low-necked dress to some poor slut in the gallery; nor is there in the hall any affectation of language, nor that worn-out rhetoric which reminds you of a broken-winded barrel-organ playing _a, che la morte_, bad enough in prose, but when set up in blank verse awful and shocking in its more than natural deformity--but bright quips and cracks fresh from the back-yard of the slum where the linen is drying, or the "pub" where the unfortunate wife has just received a black eye that will last her a week.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,139 ~ ~ ~
To represent in a novel a girl proposing marriage to a man would be deemed unnatural, but nothing is more common; there are few young men who have not received at least a dozen offers, nay, more; it is characteristic, it has become instinctive for girls to choose, and they prefer men not to make love to them; and every young man who knows his business avoids making advances, knowing well that it will only put the girl off.