Annan

Definition and stakes

Portrait of Robert W. Chambers Robert W. Chambers,  Eris (1922)

“ CHAPTER XIII ANNAN, leaving the Province Club—one of the remaining threads attaching him to the conventional world—espied Coltfoot.
They had not met in weeks, and they shook hands affectionately.
“What are you doing these days, Mike?” inquired Annan.
“Hunting geniuses as a dog hunts fleas. What’s your latest effort, Barry?”
“No effort. I am awaiting with composure the birth of my great novel.”
“Any good?” demanded the other with professional curiosity.
“It’s good enough to sell in Heaven,” replied Annan modestly.
”
Source: Gutenberg

Allan Cunningham,  Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry (1887)

“ The Annan is a fair water in summer time, but I would not trust such a bonnie lass as the bride on its fickle bosom on a winter night.' 'An' I were you, bridegroom,' said another counsellor, 'I would lippen to the old proverb, "The nearest road to the bride's bed's the best." The bosom of the Annanwater is bound in ice as hard and as firm as iron—ye might drive Burnswark Hill over its deepest pools, providing it had four feet. ”
Source: Wikisource

Portrait of Robert W. Chambers Robert W. Chambers,  Eris (1922)

“ A thousand times Annan had told himself that no success could ever unbalance him a fraction of one degree. But success is an insidious fever. One walks with it without suspecting the infection. Without knowing that three-quarters of the people who shake one’s hand are carriers of this same and subtle fever.
However, Barry Annan appeared to thrive.
”
Source: Gutenberg

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