J. D. Beresford

Name: Nineteen Impressions — The Little Town
Author: J. D. Beresford

Nineteen Impressions — The Little Town (1918)

Summary

“Nineteen Impressions — The Little Town”, published in 1918, is a work by J. D. Beresford. It explores elements such as dolls, stage and operator.

Quotes from Nineteen Impressions — The Little Town (J. D. Beresford)

J. D. Beresford, Nineteen Impressions — The Little Town (1918)

“ Dwelling on that ineptitude, I began to lose my temper and I became conscious that other members of the audience were being similarly affected. I heard impatient sighs and half-suppressed groans of despair when some doll attempted to strut across the stage and collapsed half-way.
I looked round me again and saw that men were twitching their arms, hands and ringers; leaning this way and that as if to influence the movement of the dolls—just as a man will strain and grimace in order to influence the run of a ball over which he has no sort of control. ”

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Source: Wikisource

J. D. Beresford, Nineteen Impressions — The Little Town (1918)

“ I began to marvel at the dexterity with which the old man would sometimes raise a falling doll by the lift of his little finger. And from my new point of view I thought I could at last discern some purpose in the play. ...
For a time I stood motionless, watching, and then I looked again at the operator seated in his great chair. He was quite unconscious of my presence. He wore always the same serene, gentle smile. He was in no way perturbed when his dolls stumbled and fell. He sat serene, intent; and his hand moved ceaselessly to and fro over the great stage. ”

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Source: Wikisource

J. D. Beresford, Nineteen Impressions — The Little Town (1918)

“ Presently I turned my attention for a moment to the vague forms sitting round me, some of them silhouetted against the light of the stage. But none of them returned my stare. "Rustics!" I thought, with a touch of contempt. "Men and women of such small intelligence and narrow experience that even such an amateur show as this amuses them."
I turned back to the performance, though the foolishness of the dolls' actions was beneath criticism. ”

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Source: Wikisource

J. D. Beresford, Nineteen Impressions — The Little Town (1918)

“ I said to myself. "It is an enormous place." I received the impression that I might walk on for ever through that tedious ravel of streets. Yet I knew that I could not be walking in a circle, for I was always descending. ”

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Source: Wikisource

J. D. Beresford, Nineteen Impressions — The Little Town (1918)

“ It was plain that we wished to influence the dolls in contradictory ways.
But one feeling, I am convinced, animated us all; we were unanimously and angrily critical of the unseen operator; we were all convinced that we could work the unseen wires far more efficiently than that bungling performer. Indeed, the fact, so far as I was concerned, seemed clearly demonstrable. The actions of the dolls were so infantile, so contemptibly purposeless. ”

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Source: Wikisource

J. D. Beresford, Nineteen Impressions — The Little Town (1918)

“ I appeared to be at the bottom of some Titanic basin among the mountains; at the centre of some inconceivably vast collection of mean houses that swarmed over the whole face of visible earth.
"There is surely no other place like it in the world," I said to myself in wonder.
II There was light in the square; two lamps that flanked an open door. Above the door was a faded sign. I guessed the place to be a hall of entertainment, probably a "picture palace." ”

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Source: Wikisource

J. D. Beresford, Nineteen Impressions — The Little Town (1918)

“ He must be some ignorant countryman. I would give him a few useful hints in the conduct of his business; suggest a story for his dolls to act, some sequent, purposeful story moving towards a climax. ...
I stumbled upwards in the dark, one hand on the cold rough wall, the other stretched out before me to guard against any obstacle which might be in my path. It was a very long staircase, for the proscenium opening was a high one. When I was nearly at the top, the stairway twisted unexpectedly, and I found myself looking down on the still brilliantly lighted stage. ”

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Source: Wikisource

J. D. Beresford, Nineteen Impressions — The Little Town (1918)

“ My street was longer than I had expected. At first there were houses on one side only, but further down the roadway narrowed and there were houses on each side. I classified my lodgings as being in a sort of suburb grown up round the railway station which was detached for obvious reasons—no railway but a funicular could have been carried down that hill. ”

J. D. Beresford

Summary

Quotes from Nineteen Impressions — The Little Town (J. D. Beresford)

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