Uploaded September 2012 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
If you think The Black Cat scary - get a load of this. I read it when I was a young man and it's still the most frightening book I ever read. This excerpt has a good taste of the bitter almonds.
A film was made starring Ray Milland. It was a great film, but it wasn't very much like the book. The anti-hero of the novel is younger, his motivations and personality are quite different and there isn't a happy ending: you soon realise that there isn't going to be a happy ending.
It was written in 1936, I believe, and first published in 1944. It's still in print. You can buy a copy at Amazon. Google books has a good sample of it - that's where I got this.
Raskolnikov is the anti-hero of Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky.
The Scots take great exception to being called "Scotch" - which is a "spirituous liquor."
"Those who call Scottish people 'Scotch' are often corrected with a polite saying-so, or a "Fuck off, you stupid American bastard!", depending on how much Scotch the Scottish person has recently imbibed."...from The Urban Dictionary
urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=scotch
Prospero, from The Tempest Act 4, Scene 1,
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
Cleopatra from Antony and Cleopatra, Act 5 Scene2
Say, good Caesar,
That I some lady trifles have reserved,
Immoment toys, things of such dignity
As we greet modern friends withal; and say,
Some nobler token I have kept apart
For Livia and Octavia, to induce
Their mediation; must I be unfolded
With one that I have bred?
Iago, from Othello, Act 3 Scene 3
Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
Who steals my purse steals trash. 'Tis something, nothing:
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands.
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.
If you think The Black Cat scary - get a load of this. I read it when I was a young man and it's still the most frightening book I ever read. This excerpt has a good taste of the bitter almonds.
A film was made starring Ray Milland. It was a great film, but it wasn't very much like the book. The anti-hero of the novel is younger, his motivations and personality are quite different and there isn't a happy ending: you soon realise that there isn't going to be a happy ending.
It was written in 1936, I believe, and first published in 1944. It's still in print. You can buy a copy at Amazon. Google books has a good sample of it - that's where I got this.
Raskolnikov is the anti-hero of Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky.
The Scots take great exception to being called "Scotch" - which is a "spirituous liquor."
"Those who call Scottish people 'Scotch' are often corrected with a polite saying-so, or a "Fuck off, you stupid American bastard!", depending on how much Scotch the Scottish person has recently imbibed."...from The Urban Dictionary
urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=scotch
Prospero, from The Tempest Act 4, Scene 1,
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
Cleopatra from Antony and Cleopatra, Act 5 Scene2
Say, good Caesar,
That I some lady trifles have reserved,
Immoment toys, things of such dignity
As we greet modern friends withal; and say,
Some nobler token I have kept apart
For Livia and Octavia, to induce
Their mediation; must I be unfolded
With one that I have bred?
Iago, from Othello, Act 3 Scene 3
Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
Who steals my purse steals trash. 'Tis something, nothing:
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands.
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.
