clew's reviews: a book logNotes & QueriesThe History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume I, Edward Gibbon- January 12, 2008 And a final batch of snippets: The sensual appetites of Maximin were gratified at the expense of his subjects. His eunuchs, who forced away wives and virgins, examined their naked charms with anxious curiosity, lest any part of their body...http://www.tenhand.com/clew/blog/archives/000785.html The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume I, Edward Gibbon- January 12, 2008 More mere snippets, slightly annotated. The true interest of an absolute monarch generally coincides with that of his people. Their numbers, their wealth, their order, and their security, are the best and only foundations of his real greatness; and were...http://www.tenhand.com/clew/blog/archives/000784.html Greatheart, Mary Ethel Dell- January 6, 2008 Somewhere in Dorothy Sayers, I think, reference is made to virtuous spinsters secretly devouring Ethel M. Dell novels; Sayers' character would have been speaking in the twenties or thirties, and this novel was published in 1918, so it was a...http://www.tenhand.com/clew/blog/archives/000783.html |