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Then I being left alone to the high cogitations of loue, hauing passed ouer a long and tedious night without sleepe, through my barren fortune, and aduerse constellation, altogether vncomforted and sorrowfull, by means of my vntimely and not prosperous loue, weeping, I recounted from point to point, what a thing vnequall loue is: and how fitly one may loue that dooth not loue: and what defence there may bee made against the vnaccustomed, yet dayly assaults of loue: for a naked soule altogether vnarmed, the seditious strife, especially being intestine: a fresh still setting vpon with vnstable and new thoughts.

- Anonymous, Hypnerotomachia (Poliphilo’s Strife of Love in a Dream) (1499) [full text]

Wikipedia: Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

I believe it to be a fact that the colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them.

- Anonymous, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912) [full text]

Wikipedia: The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

Apologies for the unplanned hiatus. The Project Gutenberg Project returns with a bang and perhaps the occasional whimper as we celebrate authors anonymous and/or unknown - some whose names are lost in the mists of time, others whose names were deliberately withheld due to the controversial nature of their works. Expect everything from the sublime to the profane; from the divine to the debauched. 

As always, suggestions are welcome.

In one month a woman of ordinary intelligence, with the desire to learn, should be able to make perfectly, and serve attractively, enough simple dishes to supply the family table with sufficient variety, without troubling the mistress to plan and think for her.

- Mary Ronald, The Century Cook Book (1895) [full text]

“I’m so tired of Christmas I wish there never would be another one!” exclaimed a discontented-looking little girl.

- Louisa M. Alcott, ‘A Christmas Dream’ (1885) in The Louisa Alcott Reader [full text]

Let no man deceive himself; if by vulgarity we mean coarseness of speech, rowdiness of behaviour, gossip, horseplay, and some heavy drinking, vulgarity there always was wherever there was joy, wherever there was faith in the gods. Wherever you have belief you will have hilarity, wherever you have hilarity you will have some dangers. And as creed and mythology produce this gross and vigorous life, so in its turn this gross and vigorous life will always produce creed and mythology. 

- G.K. Chesterton, ‘Christmas and the Aesthetes’ (1905) in Heretics [full text]

As I said before, everybody is prickly at Christmas time, especially one’s relations. And so, to make the season as festive as possible, we, in our sensible way, collect as many of these cheerful, sociable beings together as we can; and, in short, make a delightful family party. Holly? it is an insult to the tree to compare it in any way. No, I think the whole gathering resembles a hedgehog more than anything else. It is one mass of prickles. Ah, these happy family parties! Is there ever one member that agrees with another, I wonder?

- Jenny Wren, Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Girl (1891) [full text]

Jo was the first to wake in the gray dawn of Christmas morning. No stockings hung at the fireplace, and for a moment she felt as much disappointed as she did long ago, when her little sock fell down because it was crammed so full of goodies.

- Louisa M. Alcott, Little Women (1868) [full text]