Zuleika Dobson: Or, an Oxford Love Story
Max Beerbohm
A beautiful magician unsuspectingly casts her charms on quiet Oxford.Note to the 1922 EditionI was in Italy when this book was first published. A year later
(1912) I visited London, and I found that most of my friends
and acquaintances spoke to me of Zu-like-a—a name which I
hardly recognised and thoroughly disapproved. I had always
thought of the lady as Zu-leek-a. Surely it was thus that
Joseph thought of his Wife, and Selim of his Bride? And I do
hope that it is thus that any reader of these pages will think of
Miss Dobson.
M. B.
Rapallo, 1922That old bell, presage of a train, had just sounded through
Oxford station; and the undergraduates who were waiting there,
gay figures in tweed or flannel, moved to the margin of the
platform and gazed idly up the line. Young and careless, in the
glow of the afternoon sunshine, they struck a sharp note of
incongruity with the worn boards they stood on, with the fading
signals and grey eternal walls of that antique station, which,
familiar to them and insignificant, does yet whisper to the tourist
the last enchantments of the Middle Age.At the door of the first-class waiting-room, aloof and venerable,
stood the Warden of Judas. An ebon pillar of tradition seemed
he, in his garb of old-fashioned cleric. Aloft, between the wide
brim of his silk hat and the white extent of his shirtfront,
appeared those eyes which hawks, that nose which eagles, had
often envied. He supported his years on an ebon stick. He
alone was worthy of the background.Came a whistle from the distance. The breast of an engine was
descried, and a long train curving after it, under a flight of
smoke. It grew and grew. Louder and louder, its noise foreran
it. It became a furious, enormous monster, and, with an instinct
for safety, all men receded from the platform’s margin.
…
(1912) I visited London, and I found that most of my friends
and acquaintances spoke to me of Zu-like-a—a name which I
hardly recognised and thoroughly disapproved. I had always
thought of the lady as Zu-leek-a. Surely it was thus that
Joseph thought of his Wife, and Selim of his Bride? And I do
hope that it is thus that any reader of these pages will think of
Miss Dobson.
M. B.
Rapallo, 1922That old bell, presage of a train, had just sounded through
Oxford station; and the undergraduates who were waiting there,
gay figures in tweed or flannel, moved to the margin of the
platform and gazed idly up the line. Young and careless, in the
glow of the afternoon sunshine, they struck a sharp note of
incongruity with the worn boards they stood on, with the fading
signals and grey eternal walls of that antique station, which,
familiar to them and insignificant, does yet whisper to the tourist
the last enchantments of the Middle Age.At the door of the first-class waiting-room, aloof and venerable,
stood the Warden of Judas. An ebon pillar of tradition seemed
he, in his garb of old-fashioned cleric. Aloft, between the wide
brim of his silk hat and the white extent of his shirtfront,
appeared those eyes which hawks, that nose which eagles, had
often envied. He supported his years on an ebon stick. He
alone was worthy of the background.Came a whistle from the distance. The breast of an engine was
descried, and a long train curving after it, under a flight of
smoke. It grew and grew. Louder and louder, its noise foreran
it. It became a furious, enormous monster, and, with an instinct
for safety, all men receded from the platform’s margin.
…
Categories:
Year:
1911
Publisher:
Standard Ebooks
Language:
english
Pages:
209
ISBN:
9F9F164AF66944ACE82CD1E4CC2BC807F6D507CE
File:
AZW3 , 794 KB
IPFS:
,
english, 1911