Listen to the poem ‘In a Library’ by Emily Dickinson. Get ready to read it expressively (Find the tape script in appendix 2).

Self – Study Assignment № 2

Suggested Topics for Project Work

1. My favourite writer / poet / playwright.

2. Books I’d enter in the reading list of my child. (From 5 – 12; 13 – 17)

3. Nobel Prize laureates in literature.

4. Bestsellers and bestselling authors of the XX / XXI century.

5. Most successful screen versions of world literature masterpieces.

Appendix 1

Original passage from ‘Pride and Prejudice’

‘Depend on it, Mr Collins,’ she said, ‘that Lizzy shall be brought to reason. I will speak to her about it myself directly. She is a very headstrong foolish girl, and does not know her own interest; but I will make her know it.’

‘Pardon me for interrupting you, Madam,’ cried Mr Collins; ‘but if she really is headstrong and foolish, I know not whether she would altogether be a very desirable wife to a man in my situation, who naturally looks for happiness in the marriage state. If therefore she actually persists in rejecting my suit, perhaps it were better not to force her into accepting me, because if liable to such defects of temper, she could not contribute much to my felicity.’

‘Sir, you quite misunderstand me,’ said Mrs Bennet, alarmed. ‘Lizzy is only headstrong in such matters as these. In every thing else she is as good natured a girl as ever lived. I will go directly to Mr Bennet and we shall very soon settle it with her, I am sure.’

She would not give him time to reply, but hurrying instantly to her husband, called out as she entered the library, ‘Oh! Mr Bennet, you are wanted immediately; we are all in an uproar. You must come and make Lizzy marry Mr Collins, for she vows she will not have him, and if you do not make haste he will change his mind and not have her.’

Mr Bennet raised his eyes from his book as she entered, and fixed them on her face with a calm unconcern which was not in the least altered by her communication.

‘I have not the pleasure of understanding you,’ said he, when she had finished her speech. ‘Of what you are talking?’

‘Of Mr Collins and Lizzy. Lizzy declares she will not have Mr Collins, and Mr Collins begins to say that he will not have Lizzy.’

‘And what am I to do on the occasion? It seems a hopeless business.’

‘Speak to Lizzy about it yourself. Tell her that you insist upon her marrying him.’

‘Let her be called down. She shall hear my opinion.’

Mrs Bennet rang the bell and Miss Elizabeth was summoned to the library.

‘Come here, child,’ cried her father as she appeared. ‘I have sent for you on an affair of importance. I understand that Mr Collins has made you an offer of marriage. Is it true?’ Elizabeth replied that it was. ‘Very well. And this offer of marriage you have refused?’

‘I have, Sir.’

‘Very well. We now come to the point. Your mother insists upon your accepting it. Is not it so, Mrs Bennet?’

‘Yes, or I will never see her again.’

‘An unhappy alternative is now before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr Collins, and I will never see you again if you do.’

Elizabeth could not but smile at such a conclusion of such a beginning; but Mrs Bennet, who had persuaded herself that her husband regarded the affair as she wished, was excessively disappointed.

Appendix 2

Emily Dickinson

IN A LIBRARY

A precious, mouldering pleasure ’t is
To meet an antique book,
In just the dress his century wore;
A privilege, I think,

His venerable hand to take,
And warming in our own,
A passage back, or two, to make
To times when he was young.

His quaint opinions to inspect,
His knowledge to unfold
On what concerns our mutual mind,
The literature of old;

What interested scholars most,
What competitions ran
When Plato was a certainty.
And Sophocles a man;

When Sappho was a living girl,
And Beatrice wore
The gown that Dante deified.
Facts, centuries before,

He traverses familiar,
As one should come to town
And tell you all your dreams were true;
He lived where dreams were sown.

His presence is enchantment,
You beg him not to go;
Old volumes shake their vellum heads
And tantalize, just so.

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 960