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kevinblake
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gormenghast

Dataset card Data Studio Files
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" ‘Babies?’ said Mrs Slagg in the most animated tone that she had so far used. ‘I could eat the little darlings, sir, I could eat them up!’
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" ‘Back to that loathsome chef?’ he cried at last, ‘oh no! couldn’t!’
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" ‘BARQUENTINE AND STEERPIKE’
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" ‘Be a long time.’
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" ‘Be careful of him, Fuchsia,’ said the Doctor. ‘Will you remember that?’
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" ‘Be quiet, indeed,’ said Nannie Slagg, in a thin animated voice. ‘If you only knew what it means to be in such a position of honour – oh, my poor heart! You would not dare to try to make me quiet indeed! I have never heard such ignorance. Why is he so long? Isn’t it time for him to call me? And the precious thing so ...
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" ‘Be so good as to draw the blind,’ says the Doctor, raising himself to his full height beside the bed, and returning his needle to its little silver case. This done, he taps the points of his long white fingers together thoughtfully. With the blinds drawn across the sunrise the colour of his lordship’s face is mercif...
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" ‘Bear what?’ said Clarice.
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" ‘Because he can’t,’ said Cora. ‘Go and show him,’
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" ‘Because I could carve no more.’
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" ‘Because I haven’t given any for such a long time … Have you?’
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" ‘Because I heard the bell go in the corridor.’
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" ‘Because I never mentioned them,’ said Steerpike.
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" ‘Because I’m as good as you.’
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" ‘Because it wasn’t you that she was disobedient with, stupid.’
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" ‘Because of this room. Because of the exquisite furnishings you possess; because of your calf-bound books; your glassware; your violin. You could not have collected together such things without ambition.’
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" ‘Because of today.’
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" ‘Because there isn’t one.’
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" ‘Because we were passing,’ said Clarice. ‘That’s the only reason.’
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" ‘Because we’re just the same.’
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" ‘Because we’re not as young as we were, are we, sir?’
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" ‘Because we’re of the original blood,’ says Clarice. ‘That’s why.’
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" ‘Because you can’t go as deep as I can. You never could.’
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" ‘Before I begin,’ said Steerpike, placing his innocent-looking swordstick on a table, ‘may I inquire out of my innocence why you ladies were put to the inconvenience of bidding me to enter your room? Surely your footman has forgotten himself. Why was he not at the door to inquire who wished to see you and to give you...
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" ‘Birds,’ he said more loudly; ‘do you like them?’
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" ‘Birds,’ she said, with something arch in her voice and manner, ‘birds depend – don’t you think, my dear Ladyships – I said birds depend a lot upon their eggs. Do you not agree with me? I said do you not agree with me?’
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" ‘Born,’ said Flay. ‘And you mope in the Lanes. With me, Swelter’s boy. Show you what it means. A male Groan. New, eh? Seventeen? Ugh! Never understand. Never. Turn right and left again – again … through the arch. Ugh! A new body under the old stones – one of Swelter’s, too … don’t like him, eh?’
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" ‘Boy,’ she said, ‘what are you here for?’
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" ‘Braigon,’ she cried, ‘it is you – it is you whom I love.’ And she clenched her hands together. ‘I am in pain because of you and him, but my pain makes me happy. I must tell you the truth, Braigon. I am in love with all things – pain and all things, because I can now watch them from above, for something has happened ...
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" ‘Bring the crown,’ she said.
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" ‘Buds and fledglings? So they still spawn ’em so! Seventeen.’ He put a withered tongue between his dry, wrinkled lips. It might have been the tongue of a boot. ‘Seventeen,’ he repeated in a voice of such ruminative incredulity as startled the youth, for he had never before heard any such intonation emerge from that o...
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" ‘Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn!’ until they had exhausted themselves.
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" ‘But don’t you think it’s wrong if some people have nothing to eat and others have so much they throw most of it away? Don’t you think it’s wrong if some people have to work all their lives for a little money to exist on while others never do any work and live in luxury? Don’t you think brave men should be recognized...
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" ‘But Gertrude has all the power,’ came the echo, ‘which we ought to have but which we haven’t got.’
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" ‘But he is only two months old, the little thing,’ broke in Nannie in a tear-choked voice.
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" ‘But he reads it all in books,’ said Clarice.
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" ‘But he’s no cleverer than we are.’
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" ‘But how would we start the fire, Lady Clarice?’ said Steerpike pretending to look perplexed.
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" ‘But I am not afraid,’ said Keda.
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" ‘But I saw you – leaning out of the window like a great heavy thing – and never listening though I called you and called you and called you to open the door. Oh, my weak heart! – it’s always the same – call, call, call, with no one to answer. Why do I trouble to live?’ She peered at Fuchsia. ‘Why should I live for yo...
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" ‘But I want to give her some punishment, too,’ said Clarice.
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" ‘But it’s not enough, you argumentary thing. It’s not enough when there’s so much to do. What with your big mother being so cross with me as though I could help your poor father’s disappearance and all the trouble of the food in the kitchen; as though I could help.’
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" ‘But my carriage! Alfred, my carriage!’
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" ‘But my deportment, Alfred. Haven’t you noticed it? What’s wrong with your sex – can’t they see I move well?’
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" ‘But no one is awed when they see us. He said he’d make them be.’
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" ‘But nobody sees them,’ said Clarice. ‘We are left alone. Nobody wants our advice on anything. Gertrude doesn’t take any notice of us, nor does Sepulchrave. You know what we ought to have, don’t you, Cora?’
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" ‘But not as clever, are you, dear?’
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" ‘But she can’t,’ said Clarice.
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" ‘But there is yet a still more bloody crime. The crime of speech. The crime of Mentioning, Mentioning. For this, I murder in a darkened room. I shall be watching. Each time you move your mouths I shall be watching. Watching. Watching with my enormous eyes of bone. I shall be listening. Listening, with my fleshless ea...
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" ‘But they will take me in. Their home is cold; but they will take me in. And it may be their tower is lined with love – each flint a cold blue stanza of delight, each feather, terrible; quills, ink and flax, each talon, glory!’ His accents were infinitely melancholy as he whispered: ‘Blood, blood, and blood and blood...
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