Victor Hugo 

"We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, 'O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?' Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?" 

~ Robin Williams in "Dead Poets Society" (1989).

"This is the point.
The duke is very strangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,
In hand and hope of action: but we do learn
By those that know the very nerves of state,
His givings-out were of an infinite distance
From his true-meant design. Upon his place,
And with full line of his authority,
Governs Lord Angelo; a man whose blood
Is very snow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton stings and motions of the sense,
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, study and fast.
He--to give fear to use and liberty,
Which have for long run by the hideous law,
As mice by lions--hath pick'd out an act,
Under whose heavy sense your brother's life
Falls into forfeit: he arrests him on it;
And follows close the rigour of the statute,
To make him an example. All hope is gone,
Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer
To soften Angelo: and that's my pith of business
'Twixt you and your poor brother."

--Lucio from "Measure for Measure" (1.4) by William Shakespeare

Richard Peck

One of George Eliot's best-loved works, The Mill on the Floss is a brilliant portrait of the bonds of provincial life as seen through the eyes of the free-spirited Maggie Tulliver, who is torn between a code of moral responsibility and her hunger for self-fulfillment. Rebellious by nature, she causes friction both among the townspeople of St. Ogg's and in her own family, particularly with her brother, Tom. Maggie's passionate nature makes her a beloved heroine, but it is also her undoing.
The Mill on the Floss is a luminous exploration of human relationships and of a heroine who critics say closely resembles Eliot herself.

"I am a ridiculous person. Now they call me a madman. That would be a promotion if it were not that I remain as ridiculous in their eyes as before. But now I do not resent it, they are all dear to me now, even when they laugh at me — and, indeed, it is just then that they are particularly dear to me. I could join in their laughter — not exactly at myself, but through affection for them, if I did not feel so sad as I look at them. Sad because they do not know the truth and I do know it. Oh, how hard it is to be the only one who knows the truth! But they won't understand that. No, they won't understand it."

--from "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" (1877) by Fyodor Dostoevsky 

"The sun was almost down on the mountain tops, and the shadows of the whole group fell upon the snow. I saw the Count lying within the box upon the earth, some of which the rude falling from the cart had scattered over him. He was deathly pale, just like a waxen image, and the red eyes glared with the horrible vindictive look which I knew so well. As I looked, the eyes saw the sinking sun, and the look of hate in them turned to triumph. But, on the instant, came the sweep and flash of Jonathan's great knife. I shrieked as I saw it shear through the throat. Whilst at the same moment Mr. Morris's bowie knife plunged into the heart. It was like a miracle, but before our very eyes, and almost in the drawing of a breath, the whole body crumbled into dust and passed from our sight. I shall be glad as long as I live that even in that moment of final dissolution, there was in the face a look of peace, such as I never could have imagined might have rested there."

--Mina Harker from "DRACULA" by Bram Stoker

Mark Twain 

"Bcause I could not stop for Death" (712) by Emily Dickinson

Because I could not stop for Death – 
He kindly stopped for me – 
The Carriage held but just Ourselves – 
And Immortality.
We slowly drove – He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility –
We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –
Or rather – He passed us –
The Dews drew quivering and chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle –
We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground –
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground –
Since then – ‘tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses’ Heads
Were toward Eternity –

J.K. Rowling

“I am satisfied that if a book is a good one, it is so whatever the sex of the author may be. All novels are or should be written for both men and women to read, and I am at a loss to conceive how a man should permit himself to write anything that would be really disgraceful to a woman, or why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man.”

― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Paulo Coelho 

The Chimney Sweeper (Innocence) by William Blake

When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue,
Could scarcely cry weep weep weep weep,
So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.
Theres little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head
That curled like a lambs back was shav'd, so I said.
Hush Tom never mind it, for when your head's bare,
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair
And so he was quiet. & that very night.
As Tom was a sleeping he had such a sight
That thousands of sweepers Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack
Were all of them lock'd up in coffins of black,
And by came an Angel who had a bright key
And he open'd the coffins & set them all free.
Then down a green plain leaping laughing they run
And wash in a river and shine in the Sun.
Then naked & white, all their bags left behind.
They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind.
And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
He'd have God for his father & never want joy.
And so Tom awoke and we rose in the dark
And got with our bags & our brushes to work.
Tho' the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm
So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.

Martin Luther King

"In spite of the opinions of certain narrow-minded people, who would shut up the human race upon this globe, as within some magic circle which it must never outstep, we shall one day travel to the moon, the planets, and the stars, with the same facility, rapidity, and certainty as we now make the voyage from Liverpool to New York! "

-- from "From the Earth to the Moon" (1865), by Jules Verne

Gandhi

An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde

An Ideal Husband is an 1895 comedic stage play by Oscar Wilde which revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honour. 

Summary:

An Ideal Husband opens during a dinner party at the home of Sir Robert Chiltern in London's fashionable Grosvenor Square. Sir Robert, a prestigious member of the House of Commons, and his wife, Lady Gertrude Chiltern, are hosting a gathering that includes his friend Lord Goring, a dandified bachelor and close friend to the Chilterns, his sister Mabel Chiltern, and other genteel guests.

During the party, Mrs. Cheveley, an enemy of Lady Chiltern's from their school days, attempts to blackmail Sir Robert into supporting a fraudulent scheme to build a canal in Argentina. Apparently, Mrs. Cheveley's dead mentor, Baron Arnheim, convinced the young Sir Robert many years ago to sell him a Cabinet secret, a secret that suggested he buy stocks in the Suez Canal three days before the British government announced its purchase. Sir Robert made his fortune with that illicit money, and Mrs. Cheveley has the letter to prove his crime. Fearing both the ruin of career and marriage, Sir Robert submits to her demands.

When Mrs. Cheveley pointedly informs Lady Chiltern of Sir Robert's change of heart regarding the canal scheme, the morally inflexible Lady, unaware of both her husband's past and the blackmail plot, insists that Sir Robert renege on his promise. For Lady Chiltern, their marriage is predicated on her having an "ideal husband"—that is, a model spouse in both private and public life that she can worship: thus Sir Robert must remain unimpeachable in all his decisions. Sir Robert complies with the lady's wishes and apparently seals his doom. Also toward the end of Act I, Mabel and Lord Goring come upon a diamond brooch that Lord Goring gave someone many years ago. Goring takes the brooch and asks that Mabel inform him if anyone comes to retrieve it.

In the second act, which also takes place at Sir Robert's house, Lord Goring urges Sir Robert to fight Mrs. Cheveley and admit his guilt to his wife. He also reveals that he and Mrs. Cheveley were formerly engaged. After finishing his conversation with Sir Robert, Goring engages in flirtatious banter with Mabel. He also takes Lady Chiltern aside and obliquely urges her to be less morally inflexible and more forgiving. Once Goring leaves, Mrs. Cheveley appears, unexpected, in search of a brooch she lost the previous evening. Incensed at Sir Robert's reneging on his promise, she ultimately exposes Sir Robert to his wife once they are both in the room. Unable to accept a Sir Robert now unmasked, Lady Chiltern then denounces her husband and refuses to forgive him.

In the third act, set in Lord Goring's home, Goring receives a pink letter from Lady Chiltern asking for his help, a letter that might be read as a compromising love note. Just as Goring receives this note, however, his father, Lord Caversham, drops in and demands to know when his son will marry. A visit from Sir Robert, who seeks further counsel from Goring, follows. Meanwhile, Mrs. Cheveley arrives unexpectedly and, misrecognized by the butler as the woman Goring awaits, is ushered into Lord Goring's drawing room. While she waits, she finds Lady Chiltern's letter. Ultimately, Sir Robert discovers Mrs. Cheveley in the drawing room and, convinced of an affair between these two former loves, angrily storms out of the house.

When she and Lord Goring confront each other, Mrs. Cheveley makes a proposal: claiming to still love Goring from their early days of courtship, she offers to exchange Sir Robert's letter for her old beau's hand in marriage. Lord Goring declines, accusing her of defiling love by reducing courtship to a vulgar transaction and ruining the Chilterns' marriage. He then springs his trap. Removing the diamond brooch from his desk drawer, he binds it to Cheveley's wrist with a hidden device. Goring then reveals how the item came into her possession: apparently Mrs. Cheveley stole it from his cousin years ago. To avoid arrest, Cheveley must trade the incriminating letter for her release from the bejeweled handcuff. After Goring obtains and burns the letter, however, Mrs. Cheveley steals Lady Chiltern's note from his desk. Vengefully she plans to send it to Sir Robert misconstrued as a love letter addressed to the dandified lord. Mrs. Cheveley exits the house in triumph.

The final act, which returns to Grosvenor Square, resolves the many plot complications sketched above with a decidedly happy ending. Lord Goring proposes to and is accepted by Mabel. Lord Caversham informs his son that Sir Robert has denounced the Argentine canal scheme before the House. Lady Chiltern then appears, and Lord Goring informs her that Sir Robert's letter has been destroyed but that Mrs. Cheveley has stolen her letter and plans to use it to destroy her marriage. At that moment, Sir Robert enters while reading Lady Chiltern's letter, but he has mistaken it for a letter of forgiveness written for him. The two reconcile. The ever-upright Lady Chiltern then attempts to drive Sir Robert to renounce his career in politics, but Lord Goring dissuades her from doing so. When Sir Robert refuses Lord Goring his sister's hand in marriage, still believing he has taken up with Mrs. Cheveley, Lady Chiltern is forced to explain last night's events and the true nature of the letter. Sir Robert relents, and Lord Goring and Mabel are permitted to wed.

Charles Bukowski

"Tears Idle Tears" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.
Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the underworld,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.
Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.
Dear as remembered kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;
O Death in Life, the days that are no more!

George Bernard Shaw

"So, Lizzy,'' said he [Mr. Bennet] one day, ``your sister is crossed in love I find. I congratulate her. Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and then. It is something to think of, and gives her a sort of distinction among her companions. When is your turn to come? You will hardly bear to be long outdone by Jane. Now is your time. Here are officers enough at Meryton to disappoint all the young ladies in the country. Let Wickham be your man. He is a pleasant fellow, and would jilt you creditably.''

-- Jane Austen, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, Chapter 1, Vol. II.

Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

"I will revenge my injuries; if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear, and chiefly towards you my arch-enemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred. Have a care; I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your birth."

― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Virginia Woolf

"When I Have Fears" by John Keats

When I have fears that I may cease to be 
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

"I Wake And Feel The Fell Of Dark" by Gerard Manley Hopkins

I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day,
What hours, O what black hours we have spent
This night! what sights you, heart, saw; ways you went!
And more must, in yet longer light's delay.
With witness I speak this. But where I say
Hours I mean years, mean life. And my lament
Is cries countless, cries like dead letters sent
To dearest him that lives alas! away.

I am gall, I am heartburn. God's most deep decree
Bitter would have me taste: my taste was me;
Bones built in me, flesh filled, blood brimmed the curse.
Selfyeast of spirit a dull dough sours. I see
The lost are like this, and their scourge to be
As I am mine, their sweating selves; but worse.

Charles Dickens

"Rashness is one of the properties of illness—outlaws that we are—and it is rashness that we need in reading Shakespeare. It is not that we should doze in reading him, but that, fully conscious and aware, his fame intimidates and bores, and all the views of all the critics dull in us that thunder clap of conviction which, if an illusion, is still so helpful an illusion, so prodigious a pleasure, so keen a stimulus in reading the great. Shakespeare is getting flyblown; a paternal government might well forbid writing about him, as they put his monument at Stratford beyond the reach of scribbling fingers. With all this buzz of criticism about, one may hazard one’s conjectures privately, making one’s notes in the margin; but, knowing that someone has said it before, or said it better, the zest is gone. Illness, in its kingly sublimity, sweeps all that aside and leaves nothing but Shakespeare and oneself. What with his overweening power and our overweening arrogance, the barriers go down, the knots run smooth, the brain rings and resounds with Lear or Macbeth, and even Coleridge himself squeaks like a distant mouse."

--from "On Being Ill" by Virginia Woolf

Oscar Wilde 

"Either thou wilt die by God’s just ordinance
Ere from this war thou turn a conqueror,
Or I with grief and extreme age shall perish
And nevermore behold thy face again.
Therefore take with thee my most grievous curse,
Which in the day of battle tire thee more
Than all the complete armor that thou wear’st.
My prayers on the adverse party fight,
And there the little souls of Edward’s children
Whisper the spirits of thine enemies
And promise them success and victory.
Bloody thou art; bloody will be thy end.
Shame serves thy life and doth thy death attend."

--Duchess of York from "Richard III" (4.4) William Shakespeare

200 Years of 'Pride and Prejudice' Book Design

By : Jen Doll : 

Monday marks the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice — fun fact: the book's original title was the questionably Skinemax-sounding First Impressions — and the publishing world is awash in versions of the Jane Austen classic with which you might celebrate the monumental event. After all, Austen's work has been in the public domain for nearly a century. How do you prefer your Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet star-crossed romance? Here's a selection of covers from years past up through the present; the good, the bad, the jaw-droppingly gorgeous, and a few that pale in comparison to the book's contents. First impressions are important! Jane Austen memory lane, let's take a walk down you ...

Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813 by Thomas Egerton. This is a title page from the first edition. 

A first edition of the novel was auctioned by Christie's in December, 2012. It looked like this. 

A few notable details about the work, which was estimated at between $30,000 and $50,000 and sold for $68,500, from the Christie's lot description:"Originally titled First Impressions, Pride and Prejudice was written between October 1796 and August 1797 when Jane Austen was not yet twenty-one, the same age, in fact, as her fictional heroine Elizabeth Bennet. After an early rejection by the publisher Cadell who had not even read it, Austen's novel was finally bought by Egerton in 1812 for £110. It was published in late January 1813 in a small edition of approximately 1500 copies and sold for 18 shillings in boards. In a letter to her sister Cassandra on 29 January 1813, Austen writes of receiving her copy of the newly publishing novel (her "own darling child"), and while acknowledging its few errors, she expresses her feelings toward its heroine as such: "I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print, & how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like her at least, I do not know."

Early on, designs were fairly simple, Victorian-era for the Regency book. I like this one, a "circa 1900" edition being sold by Abe Books for nearly $500, because of what look like floating balloons made of olives on the cover. (What are those things? Anyone?)

Here's another, circa 1883, which is going for nearly $1000 and apparently includes the inscription "To My Husband from his wifre 1885."

Peacocks have been featured on many a cover, some of them gilded, some of them not. Pride, peacock, get it? (There's an iPhone case, too, for any modernists). Abe Books has a first peacock edition, which they say dates to 1894: "A stunning Sangorski and Sutcliffe full dark green leather binding with 5 raised bands and six compartments to the spine. Triple gilt lined upper and lower boards with a gilt, black, brown and red stamped image of a peacock and butterflies to the upper board." It's only $8,303. 

Another amazing peacock cover is this one, from 1895, illustrated by Hugh Thomson for Macmillan's edition of Illustrated Standard Novels. Various other editions with the peacock have come out in the years following.

And here's another version:

Fast-forwarding to 2013, incorporating the peacocks again, is Celebrating Pride and Prejudice, a book about the novel by Jane Austen Society of Australia president Susannah Fullerton, published by Voyageur Press. The two covers below were designed by Connie Gabbert; the one on the left features the peacocks. 

Here's a 1938 edition from Penguin Illustrated Classics, posted on Etsy. It features wood engravings by Helen Binyon. 

A 1946 school book from Laidlaw Brothers is also posted on Etsy. "Throughout this book are pictures from the 1940 movie of Pride and Prejudice starring Laurence Olivier as Mr. Darcy and Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennet," per the listing. Neato.

A 1944 cover (being sold on Abe Books) that more prominently features the film:

Here's an awesome 1950s cover, as posted by Nikki at Penelope Cat Vintage, who owns the Thames Publishing Company Regent Classics volume. She writes on her post, "I love how you can tell it's from the 1950s just from the style of the illustrations. Seriously, look at Elizabeth - if you took away the ringlets in her hair and lowered the waistline on her dress a little she'd be straight out of a 1950s fashion illustration. Darcy looks quite like Rock Hudson and almost has a quiff!" (A quiff is a hybrid '50s hairstyle for men.)

Like the 1950s cover above, the 1970s one below is perfectly representative of its era. Laurel Ann of AustenProse, who included it in her list of top 10 covers in 2010, writes that it's "Purnell Maidenhead 1976 ... It is vintage fare from the 1970s and reminds me of the Georgette Heyer covers from the same era. The artist did actually capture the 'one turned white and one turned red scene' when Elizabeth is introduced to Mr. Wickham in Meyerton and Darcy arrives on horseback. Lizzy does not quite have the correct expression she should at that moment though. Still fun."

More recently, this Vintage Austen version, noted by The Bennet Sistersblogger who pulled her own list of covers together in 2010 (other great ones there, too), is lovely and modern while remaining evocative of the period. It's the hair, I think. (There's a series of these.)

Here's another great example of an homage to the period that's fresh again, a Vintage Classic designed in late 2000 by Megan Wilson for Vintage Books.

The Marvel Comic version of Pride and Prejudice, published in 2010 and adapted by Nancy Butler and  Hugo Petrus, cover inked and colored by Sonny Liew, is fabulous.

I'll pause to mention another spin-off, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Imitation, flattery, and zombies ... the cover of the 2008 Quirk Classics book, designed by by Doogie Horner, riffs on the more classic image you'd expect for a book from the period. 

Some of the less gruesome redesigns include the White's Fine Edition, which produces gorgeous, soothing designs of other Austen books as well. This one, published in 2010, has a binding illustration by Kazuko Nomoto (series design by David Pearson). Here's the book jacket, which is cloth and features a wrap-around cover design:

And inside: 

Scrolling through the options of P&P covers, many — likely similar to the ones we all read in middle and high school — feature ladies in empire-waisted dresses, swooning, sitting, being wooed, and/or smiling demurely, like this Puffin Classics version published in 1995 with a cover illustration by Jean-Paul Tibbles.

Or this, from a 2002 Penguin Classics edition. Cover detail from Double Portrait of the Fullerton Sisters by Sir Thomas Lawrence.

Some, like this white-dress version from Tribeca Books, design by SoHo Books, try to offer up an update and end up veering toward the '80s Lifetime Movie/Afterschool Special side, even though it came out in 2010. (Cover photo from dreamstime.) I'd still probably read it, though. It looks kind of Y.A.!

Even more like Y.A. is this Twilight-esque version from Harper Teen, published in 2009 (cover photo by Magda Indigo/Indigo2 Photography).

Here's another sexed-up update, for a sexed-up version of the book (maybe this is the Lifetime one): Pride/Prejudice: A Novel of Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth Bennet, and Their Forbidden Lovers, by Ann Herendeen, from Harper in 2010. Cover design by Gregg Kulick, photo by Richard Jenkins. 

This Heritage Classics version located by Laurel Ann at Austen Prose (who's picked out other favorites, too, including one featuring Colin Firth) is sosteamy Nancy Drew. Surprise, it's from 2009.

I am a fan of this annotated version, not just because it's annotated, but because the cover is adorable. It's from Anchor Books, designed by Megan Wilson (revised edition from 2012). The painting is by Jane Austen's sister, Cassandra. 

Also adorable (it's for kids!) is this Cozy Classics version, also from 2012, designed by the talented Sarah Gillingham. That is not how I remember Elizabeth Bennet looking, but the classic is told in 12 words, which is pretty amazing. And did I say cute?

The Norton Critical Edition, published in 2000, is nice if one enjoys perusing sleepy watercolors of the British countryside. Is that Darcy's house?

For those more comfortable in the Twitterverse, here's a word cloud classic, from Canterbury Classics in 2012. (The word cloud part of the book is — thankfully, we think — confined to the book jacket.) 

Type expert Jessica Hische designed this pretty 2011 cover as part of the Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classics Series.

Another from Jessica Hische, part of Penguin's Drop Caps series in 2012. (Again, peacock feathers). A is for Austen. I covet this one.

Coralie Bickford-Smith's designs for the 2009 Penguin Classics seriesexclusive to Waterstone's are subtle and elegant, too. 

This one, from Harvard University Press in 2010, designed by Graciela Galup, is a stunning work of art.

It's simple, but the color of this 200th anniversary edition Signet Classic really pops, and is subtle enough to tote around on the subway fearlessly. Bonus points: pink and green were my chosen bedroom colors in middle school, when I first read the novel. And the bird motif continues...

The 200th anniversary Kindle edition from HarperPerennial, more pink than green, is cute, too. I like it's sort of detective-fiction/comic book quality.

And fashion illustrator Sara Singh's cover for Splinter's Classic Lines editionof the book, released last year, is both fashionable and classic.

Funny that a book originally titled First Impressions would end up having a design for nearly every reader. Or is it? Here's another I love, and there arestill more here. If you've got favorites of your own that we missed, please send them our way.