- description
- # Narrator's Love for Old Things
## Overview
This segment, titled "Narrator's Love for Old Things," is a textual excerpt from the short story "I and My Chimney." It was extracted from the file `i_and_my_chimney.txt` and is part of the larger collection "Melville Complete Works." The segment focuses on the narrator's personal preferences and affections, particularly his fondness for aged items and his aversion to newness.
## Context
The narrator explicitly states his preference for "oldness in things," listing examples such as "old Montaigne," "old cheese," and "old wine." This inclination extends to his physical surroundings and social interactions, as he favors his "old claw-footed chair," his "old club-footed Deacon White," and his "betwisted old grape-vine." This segment serves as a counterpoint to his wife's contrasting preference for newness, as detailed in the preceding segment, "Contrast Between Narrator and Wife," and the subsequent segment, "Fondness for the Chimney and Wife's Newness."
## Contents
The core of this segment is the narrator's detailed enumeration of his beloved old possessions and companions. He cherishes his old furniture, his elderly neighbor, and a venerable grape-vine that shares his window. He contrasts this with his dislike for "young people, hot rolls, new books, and early potatoes," highlighting a fundamental difference in temperament and taste between himself and his wife. The passage emphasizes his contentment with the past and his quiet, settled existence.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T20:47:58.849Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- Narrator's Love for Old Things
- end_line
- 444
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:47:36.358Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 438
- text
- Old myself, I take to oldness in things; for that cause mainly loving
old Montaigne, and old cheese, and old wine; and eschewing young
people, hot rolls, new books, and early potatoes and very fond of my
old claw-footed chair, and old club-footed Deacon White, my neighbor,
and that still nigher old neighbor, my betwisted old grape-vine, that
of a summer evening leans in his elbow for cosy company at my
window-sill, while I, within doors, lean over mine to meet his; and
- title
- Narrator's Love for Old Things