The Copybook

Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.

1285

© Jakub-Hałun, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

A True Gentleman of Verona Samuel Smiles

A young man from the Italian city on the Adige River demonstrates that class has nothing to do with wealth.

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1286

By Jules Girardet, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

One Last Question Charles Dickens

English lawyer Sydney Carton goes to the guillotine in place of a French aristocrat.

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1287

© Oliver Dixon, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Northumberland Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

A poem of nostalgia for the sea breezes and yellow gorse of Northumberland.

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1288

© Janet Richardson, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

‘Sussex’ Rudyard Kipling

A meditation on our instinctive love for the place in which we live.

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1289

© Richard Crowest Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

Triumph in Adversity Samuel Smiles

Two famous figures, one from the sciences and one from the arts, who turned suffering to advantage.

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1290

© Roger Kidd, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Straightforward English NL Clay

If freedom and democracy are to have any meaning, the public must be able to talk back to their governors.

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