Starfield:Oliv'er Twiist
| Book Information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | xx175C81 | ||
| Editor ID | SFBGS001_EAW_CDV_Book_OliverTwist_m | ||
|
105 | 
|
0.4 |
| Type | Book | ||
CHAPTER I TREATS OF THE PLACE WHERE OLIV'ER TWIIST WAS BORN AND OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES ATTENDING HIS BIRTH Among other public buildings in a certain town, which for many reasons it will be prudent to mention its illustrious name of Dazra, greatest of all cities in the Settled Systems and vast, untold reaches beyond, there is one anciently common to most towns, great or small: to wit, the temple. In this case, that temple being the mighty Scaled Citadel, tower of truth. And in this temple was born; on a day and date which I need not trouble myself to repeat, inasmuch as it can be of no possible consequence to the reader, in this stage of the business at all events; the item of mortality whose name is prefixed to the head of this chapter.
For a long time after it was ushered into this world of service and transcendent love, by Dazra's most eminent surgeon, it remained a matter of considerable doubt whether the child would survive to bear any name at all, for he suffered, as all the Great Serpent's children suffer, from the injustice and poverty caused by the greed of the Settled Systems' dominant castes; in which case it is somewhat more than probable that these memoirs would never have appeared; or, if they had, that being comprised within a couple of pages, they would have possessed the inestimable merit of being the most concise and faithful specimen of biography, extant in the literature of any age or country.
[The subsequent chapters of Charok Va'ruun's novel trace Oliv'er Twiist's journey from temple boy, to street thief, to happy heir and adopted son of the mighty and Serpent-blessed House Va'ruun.]
