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gormenghast

Dataset card Data Studio Files
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" ‘And here,’ continued Doctor Prunesquallor, taking no notice of his sister’s interjection, ‘is Titus. Apparisoned in a rag torn from the sun itself, ha, ha, ha! How vast he is getting! But how solemn.’ He made clucking noises in his cheek. ‘The great day draws near, doesn’t it?’
"
" ‘And it’s always been the same,’ she was quavering, ‘always the same. Responserverity all the time, Doctor; and I’m not a little thing any more.’
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" ‘And my husband’s carvings,’ said Keda, ‘what has become of them?’
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" ‘And never stop thinking about it,’ said Cora.
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" ‘And now for the brandy,’ said the Doctor. ‘The brandy for Master … Master …’
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" ‘And now for the little jingle which I threw off in that nonchalant way of mine. How did it go? How did it go?’
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" ‘And now I’m here where you hate me being, I’m here because there was nowhere else to go. I have seen so much. I have been out all night, I have escaped’ (he whispered the word dramatically) ‘and, best of all, I found the field in the clouds, the field of stones.’
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" ‘And now I’ve finished as well,’ said Clarice, breaking the silence. ‘Half a petal, and quite enough, too, for a day like this. Is it tea time?’
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" ‘And now you must tell me, dear ladies, what is your brother’s main interest?’
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" ‘And now,’ he said, ‘what will you have? And what, in the name of hosiery, are you wearing?’
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" ‘And our pride. Don’t forget that.’
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" ‘And proud,’ added Clarice.
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" ‘And romantic nights,’ said Clarice. ‘I’d like that. Yes, yes. Burn! Burn,’ she continued loudly, her flat bosom beginning to heave up and down like a machine. ‘Burn! burn! burn!’
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" ‘And so you came here?’
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" ‘And that’s why we’re going to be powerful.’
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" ‘And that’s why we’re important, too.’
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" ‘And the door closed, and the latch clicked, but the prince with stars for his eyes and a new-moon for his mouth didn’t mind, for he was young and strong, and though he wasn’t handsome, he had heard lots of doors close and click before this one, and didn’t feel at all frightened. But he would have been if he had know...
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" ‘And the time, if I may say so, Lady Fuchsia, when I climbed through the thunderstorm and over the rocks with you in my arms.’
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" ‘And there is Titus. He will be the Earl of Gormenghast. Is that so?’
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" ‘And we’ll get our birds back from Gertrude.’
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" ‘And what does your “ebbing” consist of?’ said the Doctor, returning his silk handkerchief to his pocket. ‘Is it your heart that’s tidal – or your nerves – or your liver, bless you – or a general weariness of the flesh?’
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" ‘And what is that, my very dear ladyships?’ queried Doctor Prunesquallor, tilting his head at them.
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" ‘And what’, said Prunesquallor, placing the tips of his fingers together, ‘are you? Beneath your foetid jacket, which I must say looks amazingly unhygienic even for Swelter’s kitchen. What are you? Are you a problem case, my dear boy, or are you a clear-cut young gentleman with no ideas at all, ha, ha, ha?’
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" ‘And what’s more,’ came a desperate cry from immediately below the knife, ‘he never comes to see me any more! Never! Never!’
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" ‘And why do you think so?’
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" ‘And why to you, my ray of addled sunshine? Why to you aslone? Shtaking it for granted, my dear little Steerpike – taking it for more than for mosht granted, that you, a creature of lesh consequence than stoat’s-blood, are sho far removal’d from anything approaching nature – yet tell me, more rather, don’t tell me wh...
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" ‘And you climbed up the library wall when it was burning. It seems very long ago.’
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" ‘And you make eight,’ said Fuchsia. ‘So you make the most.’
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" ‘And you remember them all?’
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" ‘Anything. Anything at all. He told me so.’
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" ‘Are you an adventurer?’ said Fuchsia, who, although she did not think he looked like one, had been more than impressed by his climb and by the flow of his words.
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" ‘Are you at the table?’
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" ‘Are you attending, Slagg?’
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" ‘Are you enjoying it, Irma?’ She nodded sleepily.
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" ‘Are you going forever and a day?’ shouted the Doctor from his chair in which he was spread out like a length of rope. ‘Am I to be marooned forever, ha, ha, ha! for evermore and evermore?’
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" ‘Are you hungry, my little love? Is there no grain inside you? Is that it? Is that it?’
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" ‘Are you in love with birds, your Ladyships?’ repeated Steerpike, more simply.
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" ‘Are you lishening?’
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" ‘Are you skulks ready?’
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" ‘Are you speaking financially?’ asked the doctor.
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" ‘Aren’t there any, dear?’
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" ‘As I thought,’ said the doctor. ‘Ha, ha, ha, as I very much thought. Then you can have no idea of why you will be indispensable?’
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" ‘As usual,’ said his sister, ‘you are drunk with your own levity. You have a brain, Alfred. I have never denied it. Never. But it is undermined by your insufferable levity. I tell you that someone has been prowling about upstairs and you take no notice. There has been no one to prowl. Do you not see the point?’
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" ‘As you wish,’ said Mr Rottcodd. ‘It was to the section of the visitors’ book devoted to the staff that I was referring.’
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" ‘Asked what?’ said Clarice.
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" ‘ASSEMBLAGE’
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" ‘At eight o’clock in the evening, I shall be awaiting him and them, for you must tell them I have in my mind a breakfast that shall be in honour of my son.’
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" ‘At this signal I and Slagg will retire, and Slagg, having left the infant on the table, Lord Sepulchrave will pass behind the table and stand facing us across its surface.’
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" ‘Avis, avis, you are undone, undone!’ came Prunesquallor’s voice. ‘Your day is over. Oh, ye hordes of heaven! the treetops shall be emptied of their chorus and only clouds ride over the blue heaven.’
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" ‘Away? Where?’
"