Recent content by imchongjun

Having reread the posts, I suddenly realized that teechar is right. Yes, I was dumb! Thank you!

Thank you, teechar, for your reply. The Chambers Dictionary says So I think there is not much difference between "would as soon...as" and "would sooner...than" though I suspect the former sounds more old-fashioned. Anyway it is good to know my interpretation is not off the mark. Thanks a ton.

Could you tell me if I understand correctly the sentence in bold in the following passage? "Oh, that is an old door connected with another passage that leads by a dark and wearying staircase to the servants' corridor beneath! I am afraid you won't be able to open it, as it is rusty with age and...

Hi. I have difficulty understanding the "too anxious to have delayed with dressing-gown and slippers" part in the following passage. In that very first glimpse Spotty had felt there was something queer about him. The expression on his face -- his attitude -- they were wrong. In his...

What does "do not press me upon this head" mean? This expression is from a Victorian penny blood "The Mysteries of London" by George W. M. Reynolds. Let me quote the passage which includes this expression. “Ah! my dear sir,” observed Walter, somewhat reproachfully, “you must remember that you...

While reading a Victorian penny dreadful, I came across the expression "the least thing knock-kneed", and I wonder what it means. He wore a tight blue military frock coat buttoned up to the throat; ample black kerseymere trousers, which did not, however, conceal the fact that he was the least...

Could you please tell me what the last sentence means in the following quote from a Victorian novel? "Mercy, mercy! I implore you! Oh! do not devote me to so horrible a death! Do not - do not murder me!" "Hold your noisy tongue, you fool," ejaculated Bill, brutally. "You have heard and seen...

Hi. Could you please tell me what "it should be funny" means in the following paragraph? ‘Look, I hope you’re not taking this thing seriously?’ ‘Seriously?’ ‘I mean these folios and what’s written on them. You don’t believe she has the power to sense death from afar or anything absurd like...

I am reading a british novel and came across the following passage: "I haven't the remotest idea. Sometimes I think it's a farce, sometimes a conspiracy. I am certain of only one thing, and that is that you are as much in the dark as I am. Your presence carries conviction. I don't know...

Hi. Would you please help me understand the following passage from Marie Corelli's THE SORROWS OF SATAN? My pen, consciously or unconsciously, had written down things which my reasoning faculties entirely repudiated,--such as belief in a God,--trust in the eternal possibilities of man's...

Hi. I have trouble understanding the following passage from a humorous sf novel. "They finally gave in," the painter told him. "But do you think they'll buy new signs? Nah. Cheap. That's all they are. Cheap as pretzels." He gave Malone a friendly push with one end of the ladder and disappeared...

Hi. I don't understand the last part of the following paragraph. "Yes, he (a young barrister who lives in Figtree Court in London) will come down here in the wet, perhaps," the young lady continued, "with his hat sleek and shining as if it had been brushed with a pat of fresh butter, and...

Hi. Could you please explain what "interesting" means in the following passage? "She ain't a-sayin' nothin', lovey," answered the old woman, going to the bedside of her son, who even when made more interesting than usual by illness, did not seem a very fit subject for this tender appellation...

Hi. I have difficulty understanding the following passage. The game had been played and lost. I do not think that my lady had thrown away a card, or missed the making of a trick which she might by any possibility have made; but her opponent's hand had been too powerful for her, and he had...

Hi. I am puzzled over the following passage from a novel. (Aubrey suspect Weintraub, the druggist, is plotting to kidnap a young girl, and he looks into his house from the window and sees a savage quarrell between him and his wife.) Aubrey saw the druggist's pointing finger tremble. Again he...