- Nikolai Gogol / Dead Souls
Added 2025-06-08 09:43:09 +0000 UTC“Everywhere something could be detected that seemed to be on the point of betraying some secret, something elusively subtle oh, how subtle!...'No,' Chichikov said to himself, 'women are a subject such as...' Here he dismissed it with the wave of a hand: 'What's the use of talking!' Just try and describe or put into words everything that is flitting over their faces, all the subtle twists of meaning, all the hints- and you simply won't be able to put into words. Their eyes alone are such a vast realm that if a man ventured to enter it he'd be as good as done for! You won't drag him out of there by hook or by crook. Just try describing, for instance, their glitter alone: moist, velvety, sugary. Goodness only knows what else you may not find there. Harsh and soft, and quite languishing, or as some say, voluptuous or not voluptuous but a hundred times worse than voluptuous- and it clutches your heart and plays upon your souls, as though a violin bow. No, one simply can't find the right words: the 'ever so refined' half of the human species, and that's all there is to it.”
