a very indecent costume

“‘It’s a very indecent costume,’ said Mrs. Davidson. ‘Mr. Davidson thinks it should be prohibited by law. How can you expect people to be moral when they wear nothing but a strip of red cotton round their loins?’”

—Somerset Maugham, Rain.

the green of pistachio ices

“Harry was enjoying his dinner. It was part of his—well, not his nature exactly, and certainly not his pose—his—something or other—to talk about food and to glory in his ‘shameless passion for the white flesh of the lobster’ and ‘the green of pistachio ices—green and cold like the eyelids of Egyptian dancers.’”

—Katherine Mansfield, Bliss, 1920.

kicked in the head by a red mare

JIMMY: I knew a party was kicked in the head by a red mare, and he went killing horses a great while, till he eat the insides of a clock and died after.

—J.M. Synge, The Playboy of the Western World, 1907.

White skulls and black skulls and yellow skulls

JIMMY: Did you never hear tell of the skulls they have in the city of Dublin, ranged out like blue jugs in a cabin of Connaught?

PHILLY: And you believe that?

JIMMY: Didn’t a lad see them and he after coming from harvesting in the Liverpool boat? “They have them there,” says he, “making a show of the great people there was one time walking the world. White skulls and black skulls and yellow skulls, and some with full teeth, and some haven’t only but one.”

—J.M. Synge, The Playboy of the Western World, 1907.

A large blueness

“A large blueness that smelled of tar took shape beside me. “No got the dough—or just tight with it?” the gentle voice asked in my ear.

I looked at him again. He had the eyes you never see, that you only read about. Violet eyes. Almost purple. Eyes like a girl, a lovely girl. His skin was as soft as silk. Lightly reddened, but it would never tan. It was too delicate. . . . He was not as big as Moose Malloy, but he looked very fast on his feet. His hair was that shade of red that glints with gold. But except for the eyes he had a plain farmer face. . . .”

—Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, 1940.

that vague color

“Her face was gray and puffy. She had weedy hair of that vague color which is neither brown nor blond, that hasn’t enough life in it to be ginger, and isn’t clean enough to be gray.”

—Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, 1940.

Seaweed colored eyes

“Seaweed colored eyes stayed on the bottle. A coated tongue coiled on her lips.”

—Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, 1940.

green as the back of a new dollar bill

“A bar was right in front of me and I was shaking again. But it seemed smarter to walk into the West Los Angeles police station the way I did twenty minutes later, as cold as a frog and as green as the back of a new dollar bill.”

—Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, 1940.

a dark red tie with black spots on it

“He wore a dark red tie with black spots on it and the spots kept dancing in front of my eyes.”

—Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, 1940.

stars of chromium on a sky of black velvet

“The fog had cleared off outside and the stars were as bright as artificial stars of chromium on a sky of black velvet. I drove fast. I needed a drink badly and the bars were closed.”

—Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, 1940.