“... him by a picture he had seen in the Brera at Milan. Till now the picture’s identity has remained unknown, but my colleague Robert Dingley, to whose learning this review is much indebted, has identified it as one by the Russian artist Karl Brullov; it shows, in the sentimental fashion of the time, a series of pathetic incidents during the destruction of ...”

“... Her one positive act is to have had a brief affair with a middle-aged Jew in Italy and afterwards, unknown to him, to bear his child. She has not seen him again. The child is now nine months old, cared for with her own family by Constance’s sister, long despised for her conventional virtues, but now turning up trumps. Constance’s last positive act is to ...”

“... presented here represent mysteries which can only be resolved by an appeal to principles as yet unknown. As often as not, they seem to represent nothing more than good old-fashioned muddles, of the kind which human thinkers habitually get into when they carry over their familiar concepts into unfamiliar territory. At the risk of being accused of teaching ...”

“... right words in the right way. Betjeman had no problem either. It came so naturally to him that an unknown contributor to a New Statesman competition was inspired to at least one immortal line by the thought of the Poet Laureate celebrating a coronation procession: ‘Gosh, the flags at C&A!’ It is true that Auden in his maturity, had he been Laureate, would ...”

“... and your ignorance. And very often it may not even be possible to alter that ratio of known to unknown, however the absolute amount of your knowledge grows: some systems are simply not mechanistic in a way that allows their changing states to be predicted. The famous example is weather. Fortunately, as Tenner points out, it is not often the case that ...”

“... spreading, of clean stocks being infected by new arrivals, is very great. Many suspect that an unknown new disease might be causing the slow growth and high mortality which are now being observed in oysters from south-western France. Some have even suggested that Pacific oysters might themselves have carried a disease that finished off the ...”

“... enlisted man of the first scene, troubled with guilt over having exhumed the bones of the Czech Unknown Soldier, thinks: ‘Even a statue can bring forth divine retribution; he had once seen an opera about it.’ On cue, the stone Commandatore from Don Giovanni is soon seen in performance. Heydrich makes a ceremonial speech in which he invokes the statue of ...”

“... ills of meningitis, tuberculosis, schistosomiasis and dysentery there is now Aids. Apart from the unknown factor which has so far enabled the malaria pathogen to keep one step ahead of human ingenuity, Desowitz disentangles a number of human failings instrumental in the débâcle of the fight against the disease. The culture clash between North and ...”

“... profoundly uncivilised. A sad end indeed to what had begun as a brave and spirited adventure in an unknown land – but not one which was determined, as Ware appears to suggest, by a pre-existing but unarticulated racial horror which emerged in contact with Indians the way a photographic print emerges in contact with developing fluid. Ackroyds disillusion with ...”

“... all their belongings had been packed away, including their mother’s photograph. Instead, an unknown and whiskery great-uncle glared from the frame on the dressing-table. The house was full of bustle without animation, an atmosphere of unrest. They were constantly moved on; they could only sit and read, or play with their Meccano in the thoroughfare of ...”

“... the Expert Committee, on which was written: ‘This stamp is a variety unchronicled and hitherto unknown to the Expert Committee. Having regard to the lapse of time since this stamp was issued, the Committee hesitates to express a very decided opinion upon the specimen, but after close examination they believe it to be genuine.’ Stanley Gibbons asked him ...”

“... Kiplings, a researcher on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, sifting data on the reburial of unknown soldiers from 1915, cross-checked a discrepant map reference and proved a hitherto anonymous body to be John Kipling’s. He was one of the first in his regiment of very many. Some years after the war Kipling wrote a moving story called ‘The ...”

“... was in some sense normal’. As if, in the absence of a concept, the idea of midlife angst was unknown. ‘If Catherine lived now, she might well feel (as other women have felt) that her husband’s anger at her had nothing to do with her and a lot to do with his mother. But Catherine, in 1855, could have had no such consoling thought.’ As if, in ...”

“... and jewel-encrusted cups; ‘an affluent Egyptian woman named Chratiankh (birth and death dates unknown)’ whose tomb inscription was said to read: ‘I was a mistress of drunkenness, one who loved a good day, who looked forward to [having sex] every day, anointed with myrrh and perfumed with lotus scent.’Alcohol legislation, O’Meara notes, is often ...”

“... the brittle wrists and yellowed skin, the nicks and weals and livid pink burn marks of unknown origin – and realised I was already way along on that project. It was go home or die, and home was an oblivion that was at least reversible.Home is somewhere in Co. Mayo: ‘a roundabout off a national road, an industrial estate, a five-screen ...”