Explore "Night and Morning, Book I" by Edward Bulwer-lytton on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"Thus things are strangely wrought, While joyful May doth last; Take May in Time -- when May is gone The pleasant time is past. " -- RICHARD EDWARDS. From the Paradise of Dainty Devices.
It was that period of the year when, to those who look on the surface of society, London wears its most radiant smile; when shops are gayest, and trade most brisk; when down the thoroughfares roll and glitter the countless streams of indolent and voluptuous life; when the upper class spend, and the middle class make; when the ball-room is the Market of Beauty, and the club-house the School for Scandal; when the hells yawn for their prey, and opera-singers and fiddlers -- creatures hatched from gold, as the dung-flies from the dung-swarm, and buzz, and fatten, round the hide of the gentle Public In the cant phase, it was "the London season. " And happy, take it altogether, happy above the rest of the year, even for the hapless, is that period of ferment and fever.