Category: Literature

“The pipe that Detective Chief Inspector Maigret lit on coming out of his door in Boulevard Richard-Lenoir was even more delicious than usual. The first fog of the season was as pleasant a surprise as the first snow for children, especially when it was not that nasty yellowish fog you see on certain winter days,… Continue reading Tokyo Vice

The bus was just about to leave, amid rumbles and sudden hiccups and rattles. The square was silent in the grey of dawn; wisps of cloud swirled round the belfry of the church. The only sound, apart from the rumbling of the bus, was a voice, wheedling, ironic, of a fritter-seller; fritters, hot fritters. The… Continue reading Chapter One

“I suppose I’ll have to write a report on this,” the PRO said half-heartedly over bacon and eggs next morning.

”British officers’ messes in Korea were generous to a fault with afterdinner brandy.

“Preface to the Second Edition. Much to the author’s surprise, and (if he may say so without additional offence) considerably to his amusement, he finds that his sketch of official life, introductory to The Scarlet Letter, has created an unprecedented excitement in the respectable community immediately around him. It could hardly have been more violent,… Continue reading The Scarlet Letter