Maurice Leblanc

Name: The Three Eyes — Chapter XII. The "Shapes"
Author: Maurice Leblanc

The Three Eyes — Chapter XII. The "Shapes" (1921)

Summary

“The Three Eyes — Chapter XII. The "Shapes"”, published in 1921, is a work by Maurice Leblanc. It explores elements such as Theodore Massignac, Berangere and screen.

Quotes from The Three Eyes — Chapter XII. The "Shapes" (Maurice Leblanc)

Maurice Leblanc, The Three Eyes — Chapter XII. The "Shapes" (1921)

“ He no longer laughed; and, without his cheery laugh, Theodore Massignac disconcerted me more than ever.
“Yes,” he continued, drawing himself up, “it's a victory, a victory accepted by everybody. Not one of all these articles strikes a false note. Bewilderment and enthusiasm, stupefaction and high-flown praises, all running riot together. They're everyone of them alike; and, on the other hand, there is no attempt at a plausible explanation. Those fellows are all astounded. They're like blind men walking without a stick. Well, well, it's a thick headed world!” ”

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Source: Wikisource

Maurice Leblanc, The Three Eyes — Chapter XII. The "Shapes" (1921)

“ I repeat, the vision transcends the limits of absurdity, while provoking a shudder of horror of which you are conscious without understanding it. For, after all what does it mean? Two powerful Shapes protrude their three tentacles, which wind themselves round the lifeless Shape that has been brought up, crush it, rend it, compress it and, rising in the air, wave to and fro a small mass which they have separated, like a severed head, from the original Shape and which contains the geometrical Three Eyes, staring, void of eyelids, void of expression. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Maurice Leblanc, The Three Eyes — Chapter XII. The "Shapes" (1921)

“ Living shapes. Every visible thing has a shape. A rock, a pyramid, a scaffolding round a house has a shape; but you cannot say that they are alive. Now this thing was alive. This thing bore perhaps no closer relation to the shape of a live being than to the shape of a rock, a pyramid or a scaffolding. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Maurice Leblanc, The Three Eyes — Chapter XII. The "Shapes" (1921)

“ There seems no doubt that the whole crowd obeyed its impulse to give full expression to its dissatisfaction and that the more turbulent of its members seized the opportunity of belabouring Theodore Massignac and even of trying to take the fabulous screen by storm. This last attempt, at any rate, failed before the impenetrable rampart formed by the attendants, who, armed with knuckle-dusters or truncheons, repelled the flood of the invaders. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Maurice Leblanc, The Three Eyes — Chapter XII. The "Shapes" (1921)

“ There's only one thing that would ruffle me, which is to think that all these beautiful pictures can no longer appear upon the screen when I am gone. It seems impossible, what? No more miraculous sights? No more fairy-tales to make people talk till Doomsday? That would never do, would it? Noel Dorgeroux's secret must not be lost. So I thought of you. Hang it, you're his nephew! Besides, you love my dear Berangere. Some day or other you'll be married to her. And then, as I'm working for her, it doesn't matter whether the money comes to her through you or through me, does it? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Maurice Leblanc, The Three Eyes — Chapter XII. The "Shapes" (1921)

“ Lastly, imagine the picture of a town, a town which is not horizontal but perpendicular, with streets standing up like ladders and, along these arteries, the Shapes rising like balloons. This is the first vision; and, right at the top of the town, the Shapes come crowding from every side, gathering upon a vast horizontal space, where they swarm like ants. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Maurice Leblanc, The Three Eyes — Chapter XII. The "Shapes" (1921)

“ I will not attempt to describe these shapes. How indeed could I do so, considering that they all differed from one another and that they even differed from themselves within the space of a second! Imagine a sack of coal (the comparison is forced upon one by the black and lumpy appearance of the Shapes) , imagine a sack of coal swelling into the body of an ox, only to shrink at once to the proportions of the body of a dog, and next to grow thicker or to draw itself out lengthwise. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Maurice Leblanc, The Three Eyes — Chapter XII. The "Shapes" (1921)

“ While the ignorant and superficial journalists go wildly to work, heaping up the most preposterous suppositions, the really cultivated writers maintain a great reserve and appear to be mainly concerned in resisting any idea of a miracle to which a section of the public might be inclined to give ear:
“There is no miracle about it!” they exclaim. “We are in the presence of a scientific riddle which will be solved by purely scientific means. ”

Maurice Leblanc

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Quotes from The Three Eyes — Chapter XII. The "Shapes" (Maurice Leblanc)

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