Some Roundabout Papers

Downloads: Under 100
Pages: 21

Download

About this book

A piece headed "ON SOME CARP AT SANS SOUCI" tells of an old lady of ninety who "has passed the last twenty-five years of her old life in a great metropolitan establishment, the workhouse". The piece adds that she "thought to earn a little money by hop-picking" and "got a palsy which has incapacitated her from all further labour".

A passage says "Christmas falls on a Thursday. Friday is the workhouse day for coming out." An old woman asked about her age says "Yes, ninety, sir, and my mother was a hundred, and my grandmother was a hundred and two." One passage speaks of "Walter Scott , the kindly, the generous, the pure" as "the friend whom we recall as the constant benefactor of our youth". A scene with decorated stalls says "The refreshment-tables are piled with good things". A character named Bob says "How cold it is!" and "It's only three o'clock."

About the author

William Makepeace Thackeray

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) was an English novelist celebrated for his satirical portraits of society. Vanity Fair, his masterpiece, is one of the great novels of the nineteenth century.