William Wilkie Collins

Name: After Dark — Prologue to the Sixth Story.
Author: William Wilkie Collins

After Dark — Prologue to the Sixth Story… (1856)

Summary

“After Dark — Prologue to the Sixth Story.”, published in 1856, is a work by William Wilkie Collins. It explores elements such as Tizzi, The Vital Principle and Kerby.

Quotes from After Dark — Prologue to the Sixth Story… (William Wilkie Collins)

William Wilkie Collins, After Dark — Prologue to the Sixth Story… (1856)

“ Before leaving the room, I looked again at the stuffed poodle. On the board to which he was fixed, I saw painted in faded letters the word "Scarammuccia," evidently the comic Italian name to which he had answered in his lifetime. There was no other inscription; but I made up my mind that the dog must have been the Professor's pet, and that he kept the animal stuffed in his bedroom as a remembrance of past times. "Who would have suspected so great a philosopher of having so much heart!" thought I, leaving the bedroom to go downstairs again. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Wilkie Collins, After Dark — Prologue to the Sixth Story… (1856)

“ Not a cannibal meal of chicken-life in embryo (vulgarly called an egg) ; not a dog's gorge of a dead animal's flesh, blood and bones, warmed with fire (popularly known as a chop) ; not a breakfast, sir, that lions, tigers, Caribbees, and costermongers could all partake of alike; but an innocent, nutritive, simple, vegetable meal; a philosopher's refection, a breakfast that a prize-fighter would turn from in disgust, and that a Plato would share with relish. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Wilkie Collins, After Dark — Prologue to the Sixth Story… (1856)

“ Your portrait will be engraved, Mr. Kerby, and your name shall be inscribed under the print. You shall be associated, sir, in that way, with a work which will form an epoch in the history of human science. The Vital Principle—or, in other words, the essence of that mysterious Something which we call Life, and which extends down from Man to the feeblest insect and the smallest plant—has been an unguessed riddle from the beginning of the world to the present time. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Wilkie Collins, After Dark — Prologue to the Sixth Story… (1856)

“ No, no; a young woman's favorite, sir, before I was born; and a very remarkable dog, too. The vital principle in that poodle, Mr. Kerby, must have been singularly intensified. He lived to a fabulous old age, and he was clever enough to play an important part of his own in what you English call a Romance of Real Life! If I could only have dissected that poodle, I would have put him into my book; he should have headed my chapter on the Vital Principle of Beasts. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Wilkie Collins, After Dark — Prologue to the Sixth Story… (1856)

“ Kerby, that I really could not get to the surface at once when you came into the room. So you are willing to draw my likeness for such a small sum as five pounds?" he continued, rising, and showing me that he wore a long black velvet gown, instead of the paltry and senseless costume of modern times.
I informed him that five pounds was as much as I generally got for a drawing.
"It seems little," said the professor; "but if you want fame, I can make it up to you in that way. There is my great work" (he pointed to the piles of manuscript) , "the portrait of my mind and the mirror of my learning ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Wilkie Collins, After Dark — Prologue to the Sixth Story… (1856)

“ Perhaps you think the work looks rather long in its manuscript state? It will occupy twelve volumes, sir, and it is not half long enough, even then, for the subject. I take two volumes (and no man could do it in less) to examine the theories of all the philosophers in the world, ancient and modern, on the Vital Principle. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Wilkie Collins, After Dark — Prologue to the Sixth Story… (1856)

“ He returned to his seat, and I resumed the subject of the stuffed poodle, asking him boldly to tell me the story with which the dog was connected. The demand seemed to impress him with no very favorable opinion of my intellectual tastes ”

William Wilkie Collins

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Quotes from After Dark — Prologue to the Sixth Story… (William Wilkie Collins)

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