With a quick gesture she fumbled in a little silk bag that lay on the seat.
Then she held out her hand. On the palm of it was a small pearl-handled pistol
a dainty toy it looked.
Agatha Christie
Category: Livres
Little Tuk
There he lay, still thinking of the geography lesson, of Seeland, and of all that the master had said. He could not read the book again, as he should by rights have done, for want of a light. So he put the geography-book under his pillow. Somebody had once told him that would help him wonderfully to remember his lesson, but he had never yet found that one could depend upon it.
There he lay and thought and thought, till all at once he felt as though some one were gently sealing his mouth and eyes with a kiss. He slept and yet did not sleep, for he seemed to see the old washerwoman’s mild, kind eyes fixed upon him, and to hear her say: “It would be a shame, indeed, for you not to know your lesson to-morrow, little Tuk.”
Hans Christian Andersen
La vieille maison
Il y demeurait un vieillard qui portait des culottes de peau et un habit à grands boutons de métal, tout à fait à l’ancienne mode; il avait aussi une perruque, mais une perruque qui paraissait bien être une perruque, et qui ne servait pas à simuler habilement de vrais cheveux. Tous les matins, un vieux domestique venait, nettoyait, faisait le ménage et les commissions, puis s’en allait. Le vieillard à culottes de peau habitait tout seul la vieille maison.
Hans Christian Andersen
La sposa
10 Marzo.
“Fra un mese prenderò il velo.
Si fanno già i preparativi per la festa. Tutti mi colmano di carezze.
Non passa giorno che il babbo e la mamma non vengano a trovarmi. Hanno voluto solennizzare quest’avvenimento. Ci sarà della musica, dei fuochi d’artificio, degli invitati.”
Storia di una capinera
Giovanni Verga
Les filles de l’Ogre
L’Ogre avait sept filles qui n’étaient encore que des enfants.(…).
Le petit Poucet qui avait remarqué que les filles de l’Ogre avoient des Couronnes d’or sur la teste, (…) se leva vers le milieu de la nuit, & prenant les bonnets de ses frères & le sien, il alla tout doucement les mettre sur la teste des sept filles de l’Ogre après leur avoir oté leurs Couronnes d’or qu’il mit sur la teste de ses frères & sur la sienne.
Le petit poucet
Chloé
À ses côtés, Colin, le dos un peu courbé, la regardait.
La nuit venait, se formait en couches concentriques autour
du petit noyau lumineux de la lampe allumée au chevet du lit,
prise dans le mur, enfermée par une plaque ronde de cristal dépoli.
” Mets-moi de la musique, mon Colin, dit Chloé. Mets des airs que tu aimes.”
Boris Vian
L’écume des jours
Savages
Heathcliff bore his degradation pretty well at first, because Cathy taught him what she learnt, and worked or played with him in the fields. They both promised fair to grow up as rude as savages (…)
Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë
Le livre et la lumière
Un jour, j’ai lu un livre, et toute ma vie en a été changée. Dès
les premières pages, j’éprouvai si fortement la puissance du livre
que je sentis mon corps écarté de ma chaise et de la table devant
laquelle j’étais assis. Pourtant, tout en ayant l’impression que mon
corps s’éloignait de moi, tout mon être demeurait plus que jamais
assis sur ma chaise, devant ma table, et le livre manifestait tout son
pouvoir non seulement sur mon âme, mais sur tout ce qui faisait mon
identité. Une influence tellement forte que je crus que la lumière qui
se dégageait des pages me sautait au visage : son éclat aveuglait toute
mon intelligence, mais en même temps, la rendait plus étincelante.
Je crus que, grâce à cette lumière, je me referais moi-même, que je
quitterais les chemins battus. Je devinai les ombres d’une vie que
j’avais encore à connaître et à adopter.
Orhan Pamuk
Brassens dans le metro
Les gens qui voient de travers
Pensent que les bancs verts
Qu’on voit sur les trottoirs
Sont faits pour les impotents ou les ventripotents.
Mais c’est une absurdité,
Car, à la vérité,
Ils sont là, c’est notoire
Pour accueillir quelque temps les amours débutants.
Les amoureux des bancs publics
Pour ceux qui prennent la ligne 6 le matin…
XV. Rudy
“I kissed you, when you were young, kissed you on your mouth! Now I kiss your feet, you are entirely mine!”
He vanished in the clear blue water.
Everything was still; the church bells stopped ringing; the last tones died away with the splendour of the red clouds.
“You are mine!” sounded in the deep. “You are mine!” sounded from on high, from the infinite.
How happy to fly from love to love, from earth to heaven!
A string broke, a cry of grief was heard, the icy kiss of death conquered; the prelude ended; so that the drama of life might commence, discord melted into harmony.
The Ice-Maiden
Hans Christian Andersen
The Old Street Lamp
The old man would read aloud about Africa, with its great forests and the wild elephants, while his wife would listen attentively, stealing a glance now and then at the clay elephants which served as flowerpots. “I can almost imagine I am seeing it all,” she said.
Ah! how the lamp wished for a wax taper to be lighted in it, for then the old woman would have seen the smallest detail as clearly as it did itself; the lofty trees, with their thickly[243] entwined branches, the naked negroes on horseback, and whole herds of elephants treading down bamboo thickets with their broad, heavy feet.
Hans Christian Andersen
OLE-LUK-OIE
Il est bien habillé, son habit est de soie, mais il est impossible d’en dire la couleur, il semble vert, rouge ou bleu selon qu’il se tourne, il tient un parapluie sous chaque bras, l’un décoré d’images et celui-là il l’ouvre au-dessus des enfants sages qui rêvent alors toute la nuit des histoires ravissantes, et sur l’autre parapluie il n’y a rien. Il l’ouvre au-dessus des enfants méchants, alors ils dorment si lourdement que le matin en s’éveillant ils n’ont rien rêvé du tout.
Les galoches du bonheur
Dans une maison à Copenhague, non loin de Kongens Nytorv, s’était réunie chez un chambellan de Sa Majesté une société fort nombreuse et distinguée ; les hôtes avaient engagé tout ce beau monde pour être en retour aussi invités quelquefois (…)
Ce qu’on fit ensuite ne mérite pas non plus d’être raconté ; passons donc dans le vestibule, où se trouvaient les manteaux, les cannes, les galoches des invités. Là se tenaient deux filles, l’une vieille, l’autre jeune ; au premier abord, on aurait supposé que c’étaient des femmes de chambre, venues pour accompagner leurs maîtresses au retour. Mais en les considérant d’un peu plus près, on s’apercevait vite que ce n’étaient pas des domestiques, ni même des personnes ordinaires (…)
Hans Christian Andersen
Ariadne
You like apples, don’t you?” said Joyce. ” I read you did, or perhaps I heard it on the telly.
You’re the one who writes murder stories, aren’t you?”
“Yes”, said Mrs Oliver.
“We ought to hove made you do something connected with murders. Have a murder at the party tonight and make people solve it.”
Hallowe’en Party, Agatha Christie
Un Gian Burrasca
.
Dopo la tempesta viene la calma! Tre giorni fa il cielo era cupo, ora invece è sereno.
La pace è conclusa, l’assedio è levato. Stamani, dal buco della serratura, mi è stato promesso di non darmi più bastonate, e io ho promesso solennemente di ritornare a scuola, di studiare e di esser buono.
Così l’onore è stato salvo … e anche la mobilia e lo specchio grande, perché ho levato la barricata e sono uscito di camera.
Viva la libertà!
.Vamba
Devant le chateau de glace
The walls of the palace were formed of drifted snow, and the windows and doors of cutting winds. There were more than a hundred rooms in it, all as if they had been formed of snow blown together. The largest of them extended for several miles. They were all lighted up by the vivid light of the aurora, and were so large and empty, so icy cold and glittering!
There were no amusements here; not even a little bear’s ball, when the storm might have been the music, and the bears could have danced on their hind legs and shown their good manners. There were no pleasant games of snapdragon, or touch, nor even a gossip over the tea table for the young-lady foxes. Empty, vast, and cold were the halls of the Snow Queen.
Hans Christian Andersen
The Rendez-vous
Veronica was waiting for him.
She spoke from the window of the pretentious half-timbered building.
“Come inside, John. (…)”.
The Hollow
Agatha Chistie
Cards on the Table
There they were well down to it, their faces serious, the bids coming quickly.
“One heart.”
“Pass.”
“Three clubs.”
“Three spades.”
“Four diamonds.”
“Double.”
“Four hearts.”
(…)
And the raised voice was his official voice, so different that all the heads at the
bridge table turned to him, and Anne Meredith’s hand remained poised over an
ace of spades in dummy.
“I’m sorry to tell you all,” he said, “that our host, Mr. Shaitana, is dead.”
Agatha Christie
Nel bosco
“Il fatto è che se tu mi tradissi”, gli dice la ragazza, “sento che ne morirei.” Si porta la mano al cuore, come per dirgli che soffre spesso di quel timore. Loys la rassicura con ardenti carezze.
Lei coglie delle margherite e le sfoglia, per assicurarsi dell’amore di Loys.
Giselle
Dal testo di Théophile Gautier
Faster!
‘I wonder if all the things move along with us?’ thought poor puzzled Alice. And the Queen seemed to guess her thoughts, for she cried, ‘Faster! Don’t try to talk!’
Not that Alice had any idea of doing that. She felt as if she would never be able to talk again, she was getting so much out of breath: and still the Queen cried ‘Faster! Faster!’ and dragged her along. ‘Are we nearly there?’ Alice managed to pant out at last.
‘Nearly there!’ the Queen repeated. ‘Why, we passed it ten minutes ago! Faster!’ And they ran on for a time in silence, with the wind whistling in Alice’s ears, and almost blowing her hair off her head, she fancied.
Through the looking-glass
Lewis Carroll
clementineTe 
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