12wonderY
Yes, the old writers loved to go on and on about their characters’ physical attributes. But you’ve gotta love them.
“…few palaces in this world could boast a princess so superbly beautiful as this peasant girl that this poor hut contained. Beneath those rich sable tresses was a high, broad forehead, white as snow; slender, black eyebrows so well defined and so perfectly arched that they gave a singularly open and elevated character to the whole countenance; large, dark gray eyes, full of light, softened by long, sweeping, black lashes; a small, straight nose; oval, blooming cheeks; plump, ruddy lips that, slightly parted, revealed glimpses of the little, pearly teeth within; a well-turned chin; a face with this peculiarity that, when she was pleased, it was her eyes that smiled and not her lips; a face, in short, full of intelligence and feeling that might become thought and passion.”
Nora in Ishmael
“…few palaces in this world could boast a princess so superbly beautiful as this peasant girl that this poor hut contained. Beneath those rich sable tresses was a high, broad forehead, white as snow; slender, black eyebrows so well defined and so perfectly arched that they gave a singularly open and elevated character to the whole countenance; large, dark gray eyes, full of light, softened by long, sweeping, black lashes; a small, straight nose; oval, blooming cheeks; plump, ruddy lips that, slightly parted, revealed glimpses of the little, pearly teeth within; a well-turned chin; a face with this peculiarity that, when she was pleased, it was her eyes that smiled and not her lips; a face, in short, full of intelligence and feeling that might become thought and passion.”
Nora in Ishmael
2MrsLee
>1 2wonderY: In reading that, I'm seeing Scarlett O'Hara (or maybe just Vivian Lee?). Always interesting to read what authors think of as "superbly beautiful."
