mountain solitude
native stone
ironbound oaken door
darkly wainscoted hallway
antiquities
silence
sound-muffling carpet
leather-covered furniture
teak and ivory table
carved marble owl
walls of shelves with more codices than reels
"A grandfather clock from centuries agone..." (p. 1)
That last phrase evokes the passage of time in three ways. First, clocks measure time. Secondly, "grandfather" entails the passage of three generations. Thirdly, "...centuries agone..." says it all. Sf readers sense the unseen presence of the Time Traveller and his successors. It is good to get a sense of Earth's past before the action moves to another planet.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
More literally, a "grandfather clock" is a tall, long-case clock with a weight driven pendulum mechanism kept inside the waist of the clock. Invented around 1670 and long since superceded by digital/analog clocks. Some people still have them for reasons of antiquarianism or as family heirlooms.
Ad astra! Sean
IINM the term "grandfather clock" comes from the song "My Grandfather's Clock", and before the song became popular that term was not used for that style of clock.
I just checked, and Wikipedia confirms my understanding of the origin of the term.
Kaor, Jim!
Well, I was more literally about the grandfather clock simply as a clock. I also recalled ow
Charles II, who loved clocks, probably had some in his collection.
Ad astra! Sean
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