But he loves to sing, and often improvises his own songs. He was found in a silk-lined basket at the door of a good poor man in Bristol. He tells the officer that he does not know his birthplace or the identity of his parents. When Billy was being formally mustered into the service, the officer learns that Billy was a foundling. There is something princely about him, suggesting aristocratic lineage. Though he is a foundling, his whole look suggests that he might carry some of the grace and loveliness of a mother whom we can surmise was beautiful. His beauty is described as being deeply Saxon (blond and blue-eyed), and possessing something of the serenity of Greek sculpture. But even on the Bellipotent, his presence is welcomed by crewmen and officers. Billy is unaware of the change a lack of self-consciousness about his charisma is one of his most appealing traits. The crew is larger, and many of the military sailors have their own share of good looks, physical prowess, and fine character: "As the Handsome Sailor, Billy Budd's position aboard the seventy-four was something analogous to the rustic beauty transplanted from the provinces and brought into competition with the high-born dames of the court" (299). On the Bellipotent, Billy is not the same kind of center of attention that he was on the merchant ship.
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At night he falls asleep beneath the judge’s feet by the roaring library fire. At twilight he accompanies the judge’s lovely daughters on long rambles. Buck passes his days hunting with the judge’s sons. He lives in Judge Miller’s big house in the “sun-kissed” Santa Clara Valley, surrounded by poplar-shaded lawns and pastures, long grape arbors, orchards, a swimming tank, and berry patches-dog paradise, in other words. “Ignoble ease” is a good description of Buck’s life when The Call of the Wild begins. But it was not just the federal government that needed to man up: every American citizen should refuse to “shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil,” and strive for a life of “toil and effort, of labor and strife.” America, and Americans, should reject “the doctrine of ignoble ease” that had emasculated the nation. In the title speech of The Strenuous Life (1901), an essay collection published the year he succeeded the assassinated William McKinley, Roosevelt urged America to embrace its “manly and adventurous qualities.” The country, he argued, needed to build a larger army, compete for sovereignty of the seas, and engage in foreign nation-building, beginning with the Philippines, over which it had gained control during the Spanish-American War. The other person Buck sounds like is Theodore Roosevelt, who then was serving his first presidential term. And she always seemed to be striving to turn out her life’s light. As a helpless infant, as a child of limited understanding, as a fearful teenager, as a young woman. It seemed to me that since I was born I’d been trying to get my letter to connect to life. Perhaps they’ll have the opportunity to deepen their relationship but, with long hours at the clinic, and her own psychological flakiness, the roles are reversed (p184): This time, she takes her daughter with her. Banished to the countryside, she must adjust to a more restricted life treating, as best she can, the stream of desperate women – many with fertility issues, both too much and too little – who attend her clinic. But when she attacks a drunken neighbour who has beaten his pregnant wife, her patient, the doctor’s sojourn in the city comes to an abrupt end. It’s no particular sacrifice to leave behind her daughter the girl’s grandparents have been her primary carers since birth. So she’s delighted when given the opportunity to further her studies in Leningrad. The doctor enjoys the intellectual challenge of her profession, the science. Is this because the child was unwanted? Or in the belief that her milk is so tainted it would harm the child? An act of love or hatred? Or simply the best a sensitive woman can manage when she feels so caged and torn apart by Soviet rule? A young doctor goes missing for five days, abandoning her newborn baby to the care of her parents. Rich with emotion, brimming with laughter and tears, Whitney, My Love confirms once more why "Judith McNaught is truly one of the spellbinding storytellers of our times" (Affaire de Coeur). But even as his smoldering passion seduces her into a gathering storm of desire, Whitney cannot - will not - relinquish her dream of perfect love. Fresh from her triumphs in Paris society, she returned to England to win the heart of Paul, her childhood love.only to be bargained away by her bankrupt father to the handsome, arrogant Duke. Under the dark, languorous eyes of Clayton Westmoreland, the Duke of Claymore, Whitney Stone grew from a saucy hoyden into a ravishingly sensual woman. Now in a special edition that features a brand-new, enhanced ending and endows familiar characters with new depth, Whitney, My Love lives on as "the ultimate love story, one you can dream about forever" (Romantic Times). One of today's best-loved authors, Judith McNaught launched her stellar career with this dazzling bestseller. He is survived by his wife, Jeanne Steig, and four children. He was also the US nominee for both of the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Awards as an illustrator in 1982, and then as an author in 1988. Steig also received the Christopher Award, the Irma Simonton Black Award, the William Allen White Children’s Book Award, the America Book Award, and Society of Illustrators Lifetime Achievement Award. The Duncan family is beside itself when son Sylvester turns himself. Steig is also the creator of Shrek! which inspired the Dreamworks films. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble: Directed by Gene Deitch. Most notably Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, for which he received the Caldecott Medal The Amazing Bone, a Caldecott Honor book Amos & Boris, a National Book Award Finalist and Abel’s Island and Doctor De Soto, both Newbery Honor books. Same author as Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (widely read when I was growing up in the 80s) and lots of other great ones. William Steig (1907–2003) was a cartoonist, illustrator, and author of award-winning books for children. RT Educ8Liber8: Yes it was an awesome picture book first. The Black Cauldron (movie) is a 1985 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and originally released to theatres on July 24, 1985. First published from 1964–1968, the stories detail the adventures of a young man named Taran, who is awarded the honor of Assistant Pig-Keeper but dreams of being a grand hero, and his companions Princess Eilonwy, Fflewddur Fflam the wandering bard and king, a feral yet gentle creature called Gurgi, and a dwarf named Doli. The Chronicles of Prydain (sometimes given as The Prydain Chronicles) is a five-volume series of children's fantasy novels by author Lloyd Alexander. This will be about the books and the movie with some occasional detours about who was involved from Lloyd Alexander himself to the animators who worked in the Disney version and I may even do some Katzenberg if I'm ever feeling nice enough to talk about how much I blame him for everything that's wrong with the movie. |