Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
A Whisper to the Reader |
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Definition
| A person who is ignorant of legal matters is always liable to make mistakes when he tries to photograph a court scene with his pen; and so, I was not willing to let the law-chapters in this book go to press without first subjecting them to rigid and exhausting revision and correction by a trained barrister - if that is what they are called. These chapters are right, now, in every detail, for they were re-written under the immediate eye of William Hicks, who studied law part of a while in southwest Missouri thirty-five years ago... |
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Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar
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Definition
| There is no character, however good and fine, but it ican be destroyed by ridicule, howsoever poor and witless. Observe teh ass, for instance: his character is about perfect, he is the choicest spirit among all the humbler animals, yet see what ridicule has brought him to. Instead of feeling complimented when we are called an ass, we are left in doubt. |
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Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
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Definition
| In 1830 it was a snug little collection of modest one- and two-story frame dwellings whose whitewashed exteriors were almost concealed from sight by climbing tangles of rose vines, honeysuckles and morning-glories. Each of these pretty homes had a garden in front fenced with white palings and opulently stocked with hollyhocks, marigolds, touch-me-notes, prince's feathers, and other old fashioned flowers.... |
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Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
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Definition
| for my remotest ancestors are but spring chickens compared with these robed and stately antiques, and it will be a great and satisfying lift for me, that six hundred years will. |
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Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
speaking of Judge Driscoll
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Definition
| He was very proud of his old Virginian ancestry, and in his hospitalities and his rather formal and stately manners he kept up its traditions. He was fine, and just, and generous. To be a gentleman - a gentleman without stain or blemish - was his only religion, and to it he was always faithful. He was respected, esteemed, and beloved by all the community. |
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Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
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Definition
| The women were good and commonplace people, and did their dutyu and had their reward in clear consciences and the community's approbation. |
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Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
Pudd'nhead Wilson's remark
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Definition
| I wish I owned half of that dog. |
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Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
speaking of Roxy
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Definition
| Her face was shapely, intelligent, and comely - even beautiful. She had an easy, independent carriage - when she was among her own caste - and a high and sassy way, withal; but of course she was meek and humble enough where white people were. |
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Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
speaking of Roxy's child, Chambers later to be "Tom"
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Definition
| He had blue eyes and flaxen curls, like his white comrade, but even the father of the white child was able to tell the children apart - little as he had commerce with them - by their clothes. |
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Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
Roxy speaking to baby Tom, later to become "Chambers"
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Definition
| He hain't done nuth'n. God was good to you; why warn't He good to him? Dey can't sell you down de river. I hates to' pappy; he ain't got no heart - for niggers he haint, anyways. |
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Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
speaking of Roxy and her son "Tom"
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Definition
| by the fiction created by herself, he was become her master; the necessity of recognizing this relation outwardly and of perfecting herself in the forms required to express the recognition, had moved her to such diligence and faithfulness in practicing these forms that this exercise soon concentrated itself into habit |
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Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
Roxy telling the truth to her son "Tom"
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Definition
I mean dis - en it's de Lord's truth. You ain't no more kin to ole Marse Driscoll den I is! - dat's what I mean!
Yassir, en dat ain't all! You is a nigger! - bawn a nigger en a slave! |
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Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
speaking of "Tom" and his thoughts
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Definition
| he laid himself down again, with a groan and the muttered words, "A nigger! - I am a nigger! - oh, I wish I was dead!" |
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Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
"Tom"'s thoughts
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Definition
| Why were niggers and whites made? What crime did the uncreated first nigger commit that the curse of birth was decreed for him? And why is this awful difference made between white and black?....How hard the nigger's fate seems, this morning! |
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Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
speaking of "Tom"
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Definition
| Some of his low places he found lifted to ideals, some of his ideals had sunk to the valleys, and lay there with the sackcloth and ashes of pumice stone and sulphur on their ruined heads. |
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Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
speaking of "Tom"
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Definition
| Under the influence of a great mental and moral upheaval his character and habits had taken on the appearance of complete change, but after a while with the subsidence of the storm both began to settle toward their former places. He dropped gradually back into his old frivolous and easy-going ways, and conditions of feeling, and manner of speech... |
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Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
Judge Driscoll speaking to "Tom"
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Definition
| You cur! you scum! you vermin! Do you mean to tell me that blood of my race has suffered a blow and crawled to a court of law about it? Answer me! |
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Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
speaking of "Tom"
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Definition
| He went rambling on with a detailed account of his talk with the Judge, and how shocked and ashamed the Judge was to find that he had a coward in his family. |
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Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
Roxy speaking to "Tom", her son Chambers
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Definition
| En you refuse' to fight a man dat kicked you, 'stid o' jumpin' at de chance! En you ain't got no mo' fellin' den to come en tell me, dat fetched sich a po' low-down ornery rabbit into de worl'! Pah! it make me sick! It's de nigger in you, dat's what it is. Thirty-one parts o' you is white, en on'y one part nigger, en dat po' little one part is yo' soul. |
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Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
speaking of "Chambers", or Tom
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Definition
| The real heir suddenly found himself rich and free, but in a most embarassing situation. He could neither read nor write, and his speech was the basest dialect of the negro quarter. His gait, his attitudes, his gestuers, his bearing, his laugh - all were vulgar and uncouth; his manners were the manners of a slave. |
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Term
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
speaking of "Chambers", or Tom
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Definition
| The poor fellow could not endure the terrors of the white man's parlor, and felt at home and at peace nowhere but in the kitchen. |
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