"The nine carts behind him, with their mountains of cabbages and peas, their piles of artichokes, lettuces, celery, and leeks, seemed to be rolling over him as if to bury him beneath an avalanche of food," (Chapter 1, p. 7).

"On the two side panels of the shop front, similarly painted and under glass, were chubby little Cupids playing in the midst of boars' heads, pork chops, and strings of sausages; and these still lifes, adorned with scrolls and rosettes, had been designed in so pretty and tender a style that the raw meat lying there assumed the reddish tint of raspberry jam," (Chapter 1, p. 34).

"She had the fine skin and pinky-white complexion of those who spend their lives surrounded by fat and raw meat," (Chapter 1, p. 35).

"There, on the highest tier of this temple of gluttony, amid the caul and between two bunches of purple gladioli, the altar display...