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Quote by Robert Coover

“What we got is NOW, Huck, and now is forever. Until it ain't. So, you can't worry over nothing except putting off the end a your story as long as you can, and finishing it with a bang.”

Quote by Robert Coover

Work

Huck Out West

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Author

Robert Coover
Robert Coover

Robert Coover is an American author born on February 4, 1932. Known for his unique narrative techniques and experimental writing style, his works span across novels, short stories, and plays. more

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“A Tom Sawyerish figure she imagined growing up on some widwestern farm, reading adventure books and butchering chickens, pulling the braids of milkmaids and leaving his hometown to travel the world; a more devout and sober Hemingway, in search of a deeper meaning, but never losing sight of where he came from.”

“Just at this juncture the boy felt a slow, fateful grip closing on his ear, and a steady lifting impulse. In that vise he was borne across the house and deposited in his own seat, under a peppering fire of giggles from the whole school. Then the master stood over him during a few awful moments, and finally moved away to his throne without saying a word. But although Tom's ear tingled, his heart was jubilant.”

“As the service proceeded, the clergyman drew such pictures of the graces, the winning ways, and the rare promise of the lost lads that every soul there, thinking he recognized these pictures, felt a pang in remembering that he had persistently blinded himself to them always before, and had as persistently seen only faults and flaws in the poor boys. The minister related many a touching incident in the lives of the departed, too, which illustrated their sweet, generous natures, and the people could easily see, now, how noble and beautiful those episodes were, and remembered with grief that at the time they occurred they had seemed rank rascalities, well deserving of the cowhide. The congregation became more and more moved, as the pathetic tale went on, till at last the whole company broke down and joined the weeping mourners in a chorus of anguished sobs, the preacher himself giving way to his feelings, and crying in the pulpit.”

“And now at this moment, when hope was dead, Tom Sawyer came forward with nine yellow tickets, nine red tickets, and ten blue ones, and demanded a Bible. This was a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. Walters was not expecting an application from this source for the next ten years. But there was no getting around it—here were the certified checks, and they were good for their face. Tom was therefore elevated to a place with the Judge and the other elect, and the great news was announced from headquarters. It was the most stunning surprise of the decade, and so profound was the sensation that it lifted the new hero up to the judicial one’s altitude, and the school had two marvels to gaze upon in place of one. The boys were all eaten up with envy—but those that suffered the bitterest pangs were those who perceived too late that they themselves had contributed to this hated splendor by trading tickets to Tom for the wealth he had amassed in selling whitewashing privileges. These despised themselves, as being the dupes of a wily fraud, a guileful snake in the grass.”

“During two long weeks Tom lay a prisoner, dead to the world and its happenings. He was very ill, he was interested in nothing. When he got upon his feet at last and moved feebly downtown, a melancholy change had come over everything and every creature. There had been a “revival,” and everybody had “got religion,” not only the adults, but even the boys and girls. Tom went about, hoping against hope for the sight of one blessed sinful face, but disappointment crossed him everywhere. He found Joe Harper studying a Testament, and turned sadly away from the depressing spectacle. He sought Ben Rogers, and found him visiting the poor with a basket of tracts. He hunted up Jim Hollis, who called his attention to the precious blessing of his late measles as a warning. Every boy he encountered added another ton to his depression; and when, in desperation, he flew for refuge at last to the bosom of Huckleberry Finn and was received with a Scriptural quotation, his heart broke and he crept home and to bed realizing that he alone of all the town was lost, forever and forever.”

“Nenhum outro menino em seu círculo de conhecidos tinha lido o que ele tinha lido e, como tia Mildred escolhia os livros cuidadosamente para ele, assim como havia escolhido para a irmã, em seu período de confinamento, treze anos antes, Ferguson lia os livros que ela mandava com uma avidez que parecia fome física, pois sua tia compreendia quais livros iam dos seis para os oito anos de idade, dos oito para os dez, dos dez para os doze — e daí até o fim do ensino médio. Contos de fadas, para começar os Irmãos Grimm e os livros muito coloridos compilados pelo escocês Lang, depois os fantásticos e assombrosos romances de Lewis Carroll, George MacDonald e Edithh Nesbit, seguidos pelas versões de mitos gregos e romanos escritas por Bulfinch, uma adaptação infantil de Odisseia, A teia de Charlotte, uma adaptação de As mil e uma noites, remontadas com o título de As sete viagens de Simbad, o Marujo, e mais adiante, uma seleção de seiscentas páginas de As mil e uma noites originais, e no ano seguinte O médico e o monstro, contos de horror e mistério de Poe, O príncipe e o mendigo, Raptado, Um conto de Natal, Tom Sawyer e Um estudo em vermelho, e a reação de Ferguson foi tão forte ao livro de Conan Doyle que o presente que ele ganhou da tia Mildred em seu décimo primeiro aniversário foi uma edição imensamente gorda, abundantemente ilustrada, de Histórias Completas de Sherlock Holmes.”