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The Powder of Sympathy

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(4 Sterne; 1 Bewertungen)

Another collection of mostly short “soliloquys” from Christopher Morley, an American literary luminary, who introduces them thus: “… these pieces were written, day by day, out of the pressure and hilarity and contention of the mind. I have made no attempt to conceal their ephemeral origin. They were almost all written for a newspaper, and contain many references to journalism. … it is remarkable that they should have been written at all: remarkable that any newspaper should take the pains to offer space to speculations of this sort. I have not scrupled, on occasion, to chaff some of the matters newspapers are supposed to hold sacred. …

But a columnist … is only a deboshed Editorial Writer, a fallen angel abjected from the secure heaven of anonymity. … unsuspecting whether intended by his scheming employer as a decoy, or a doormat, or a gargoyle, or a lightning rod (how is he to know, never having been given instruction of any sort except to go ahead and write as he pleases?) … [T]he columnist pursues his task and gradually distils a philosophy of his own out of his duties. Oddly enough, instead of growing more cautious by reason of his exposure, he becomes almost dangerously candid. He knows that if he is wrong he will be set right the next morning by a stack of letters varying in number according to the nature of his indiscretion. - Summary by Winnifred Assmann and excerpts from the Preface

Note: "The word ... niggardly [used in section 42, is] ... etymologically unrelated to the highly offensive and inflammatory racial slur euphemistically referred to as the N-word, despite the ... visual and auditory resemblance to it." Merriam-Webster (8 hr 2 min)

Chapters

Epigraph and Dedication

7:24

Read by Winnifred Assmann

An Oxford Symbol

10:14

Read by Winnifred Assmann

Scapegoats

7:38

Read by quartertone

To a New Yorker a Hundred Years Hence

6:12

Read by Winnifred Assmann

A Call for the Author

4:25

Read by ChristopherKloko

Mr. Pepys’s Christmases

8:47

Read by John Leloup

Children as Copy

8:18

Read by Winnifred Assmann

Hail, Kinsprit!

3:56

Read by quartertone

Round Manhattan Island

6:36

Read by quartertone

The Unknown Citizen

6:42

Read by quartertone

Sir Kenelm Digby

29:05

Read by John Leloup

First Impressions of an Amiable Visitor

6:21

Read by Natalie Fortier

In Honorem: Martha Washington

5:54

Read by Stacey Malcolm

According to Hoyle

4:40

Read by SC1701

L. E. W.

4:55

Read by Mu

Our Extension Course

5:36

Read by CCam

Some Recipes

6:34

Read by Mu

Adventures of a Curricular Engineer

7:13

Read by SC1701

Santayana in the Subway

13:16

Read by valroth

Madonna of the Taxis

6:26

Read by valroth

Matthew Arnold and Exodontia

16:58

Read by John Leloup

Dame Quickly and the Boilroaster

9:52

Read by Amos Buchanan

Vacationing with De Quincey

31:39

Read by John Leloup

The Spanish Sultry

7:21

Read by John Leloup

What Kind of a Dog?

4:25

Read by Winnifred Assmann

A Letter from Gissing

4:24

Read by Winnifred Assmann

July 8, 1822

6:40

Read by AlexaTindallVA

Midsummer in Salamis

8:12

Read by tshoes76

The Story of Ginger Cubes

41:38

Read by tshoes76

The Editor at the Ball Game

11:02

Read by AlexaTindallVA

The Dame Explores Westchester

10:46

Read by Amos Buchanan

The Power and the Glory

5:59

Read by SC1701

Gissing Joins a Country Club

9:15

Read by Winnifred Assmann

Three Stars on the Back Stoop

7:28

Read by John Leloup

A Christmas Card

7:30

Read by John Leloup

Symbols and Paradoxes

8:10

Read by John Leloup

The Return to Town

7:11

Read by SC1701

Maxims and Minims

54:46

Read by tshoes76

Two Reviews

15:21

Read by tshoes76

Buddha on the L

12:08

Read by Frederick O'Brien

Intellectuals and Roughnecks

14:24

Read by Ann Boulais

The Fun of Writing

5:02

Read by April6090

A Christmas Soliloquy

22:21

Read by Ann Boulais