Many Marriages"There was a man named Webster. So begins this story of a man who believed the human body to be the house of life within which is a deep well full of dark and hidden things held down by a heavy iron lid that must be torn open. This Webster, a respectable manufacturer of washing machines in a Middle Western industrial town, on the threshold of middle-age, suddenly makes an about-face upon his entire life, makes love to his secretary and goes away with her, leaving behind him his business, his wife and his young daughter."--Jacket |
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Results 1-5 of 27
Page 5
... shoulders , large hands , and a full , somewhat sad and perhaps sensual face , and he was much given to the habit of smoking cigarettes . At the time of which I am speaking he found it very hard to sit still in one spot and to do his ...
... shoulders , large hands , and a full , somewhat sad and perhaps sensual face , and he was much given to the habit of smoking cigarettes . At the time of which I am speaking he found it very hard to sit still in one spot and to do his ...
Page 11
... shoulders were bare . One of the men on the raft called to her . " Hello , Elizabeth , " he shouted . She stopped pad- dling the boat and let it float for a moment . " Hello you ' self , you China boy , " she answered laughing . Again ...
... shoulders were bare . One of the men on the raft called to her . " Hello , Elizabeth , " he shouted . She stopped pad- dling the boat and let it float for a moment . " Hello you ' self , you China boy , " she answered laughing . Again ...
Page 18
... A young man was steal- ing along a street in the darkness and had a cloak wrapped about his shoulders . Overhead the moon shone . The magnolia trees were in blossom filling the air with perfume . The young man was very 18 II.
... A young man was steal- ing along a street in the darkness and had a cloak wrapped about his shoulders . Overhead the moon shone . The magnolia trees were in blossom filling the air with perfume . The young man was very 18 II.
Page 48
... shoulders John Webster went rapidly through a crowded business street . He was quite sure now that he knew what he wanted to do . He did not loiter and give way to vague thoughts , but walked briskly along the street . " I'll keep my ...
... shoulders John Webster went rapidly through a crowded business street . He was quite sure now that he knew what he wanted to do . He did not loiter and give way to vague thoughts , but walked briskly along the street . " I'll keep my ...
Page 49
... shoulders thrown back and felt childishly important about nothing . He had to be careful or he would begin laughing at himself . There was within him a lurk- ing fear that in a few minutes he would begin laugh- ing at the figure of John ...
... shoulders thrown back and felt childishly important about nothing . He had to be careful or he would begin laughing at himself . There was within him a lurk- ing fear that in a few minutes he would begin laugh- ing at the figure of John ...
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Common terms and phrases
arms become bedroom began beside body candles closed clothes cry of love dark daugh door doubt Doubting Thomas everything eyes face factory fancy father feel feet fellow felt floor girl going gone gray gray horse hallway hand happened head heavy house of Natalie insane Jane Webster Jane's John Webster kind knew laughed light little voices lived lying marriage married Mary Webster matter mind mother naked Natalie Swartz Natalie's ness never night notion old Irish once one's oneself perhaps presence river road SHERWOOD ANDERSON shoulders silence sitting sleep smells smiled softly sometimes stairs standing stone stood looking stopped strange street suddenly talking tell terrible old thing thought town train trees trying turned understand Virgin voice walked walked in silence walls wanted washing machine Webster house window woman women words young
Popular passages
Page 15 - Before I'd be a slave I'd be buried in my grave And go home to my Lord And be free.
Page 5 - ... I, ii, 42, Doubt not byt I will use my utmost skill, So that the Pope attend to your complaint. | 1838 Longfellow, Psalm III, Not enjoyment and not sorrow. Is our destined end or way; But to act that each to-morrow Find us farther than to-day. 1923 Sherwood Anderson, Many Marriages 3, He was . . . inclined to have dreams which he tried to crush out of himself in order that he function as a washing machine manufacturer. | Idem 241, She . . . kept putting up the hand that held the stone, first...
Page 1 - If one seek love and go towards it directly, or as directly as one may in the midst of the perplexities of modern life, one is perhaps insane.
Page 192 - If one kept the lid off the well of thinking within oneself, let the well empty itself, let the mind consciously think any thoughts that came to it, accepted all thinking, all imaginings, as one accepted the flesh of people, animals, birds, trees, plants, one might live a hundred or a thousand lives in one life.
Page 66 - ... général atmosphère of fear in which so many modem women live and breathe, clutched at, as it were, and used as a weapon against too close contact with another. She tought, or believed she thought, that even in marriage a man and woman should not be lovers except for thé purpose of bringing children into thé world. One does not go very freely in and out of the body of another when the going in and out involves such heavy responsibility. The doors of the body become rusty and creak (...) Here...
Page 74 - A rich man might have many marriages," he thought. It was certain that the possibility of human relationship had not even been tapped yet. Something had stood in the way of a sufficiently broad acceptance of life.
Page 219 - There was a deep well within every man and woman, and when Life came in at the door of the house, that was the body, it reached down and tore the heavy iron lid off the well. Dark hidden things, festering in the well, came out and found expression for themselves, and the miracle was that, expressed, they became often very beautiful.
Page 85 - having bought a small framed picture of the Virgin, a supply of yellow candles and two glass candlesticks made in the shape of crosses with little gilded figures of the Christ upon them ", he put the picture on the bureau of his room, lighted the candles and began to prance about the room nude, apostrophizing the Virgin, and later got his wife and daughter clad in nightgowns into the room while he regaled them with a narrative of...
Page 107 - There were two trains, one at noon and the other in the afternoon about five, and as she would have to get up in the middle of the night to take the first one we all supposed she would come later.