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Twenty-Nine Year Old - John Worthing, J.P.
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John Worthing, J.P. 29

LADY BRACKNELL (pencil and notebook in hand): I feel bound to tell you that you are not down on my list of eligible young men, although I have the same list as the dear old Duchess of Bolton has. We work together, in fact. However, I am quite ready to enter your name, should your answers be what a really affectionate mother requires. Do you smoke?

JACK: Well, yes, I must admit I smoke.

LADY BRACKNELL: I am glad to hear it. A man should always have an occupation of some kind. There are far too many idle men in London as it is. How old are you?

JACK: Twenty-nine.

LADY BRACKNELL: A very good age to be married at. I have always been of opinion that a man who desires to get married should know either everything or nothing. Which do you know?

JACK (after some hesitation): I know nothing, Lady Bracknell.

LADY BRACKNELL: I am pleased to hear it. I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone.

Oscar Wilde  ·  The Importance of Being Earnest - A Trivial Comedy for Serious People

29

Fred Turner

Foreign Affairs

Alison Lurie

"That he is just twenty-nine and Rosemary thirty-seven – though she hardly looks thirty – is in his opinion unimportant..."

29

Dr. John Seward, M.D.

Dracula

Bram Stoker

"Just fancy! He is only nine-and twenty, and he has an immense lunatic asylum all under his own care..."

29

Kenneth Marchal Toomey

Earthly Powers

Anthony Burgess

"I was twenty-nine, a young man, an established writer, and life lay all before me..."

29

Gordon Comstock

Keep the Aspidistra Flying

George Orwell

"He had reached the age when the future ceases to be a rosy blur and becomes actual and menacing..."

29

Headlam

Christie Malry’s Own Double Entry

B.S.Johnson

"‘I’m twenty-nine,’ said Headlam, ‘and I’ve worked for Tapper’s since I was twenty.'"

29

Jimmy Herf

Manhattan Transfer

John Dos Pasos,

"But here I am by Jesus Christ almost thirty years old and very anxious to live…"

29

Keith Talent

London Fields

Martin Amis

"‘Twenty-nine.’ Said boldly, as if his age were one of his less arguable virtues or qualifications..."

29

Unnamed Narrator's Unnamed Father

'In Dreams Begin Responsibilies'

Delmore Schwartz

"He wants to settle down. After all, he is twenty-nine, he has lived by himself since he was thirteen..."

29

Patrick Doyle

A Disaffection

James Kelman

"People said twenty-nine was a landmark but he didni really care one way or the other..."