Book meme

Leslee tagged me for this. I quite like it as it doesn't require a lot of thought or jumping through hoops, but it's rather interesting to see what people are reading and also if they don't tell you beforehand, trying to guess what it might be.

The rules go like this:

1. Pick up the book you are reading, or else the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences (I'm going to do seven, I'll tell you why...)
5. Tag five people.

So, here goes.

' Now, frankly, we artists do not normally write well when we are distraught, if we can bestir ourselves to write at all. But my famous elegy is a glorious exception. Though composed rapidly, it's a better elegy than Milton's to Edward King or Shelley's on the death of Keats, which is pure dreck - revolting, sentimental dreck. 'Oh weep for Adonais, he is dead.' What kind of shit is that? Adonais instead of Adonis? Shelley needed that extra syllable?'

Now, to make this meme more interesting, I'm inviting submissions for what the book is, which is why I made the extract a bit longer. Clue: It's a biblical character narrating, and the author died in 1999, on my birthday, I just found out.

I'll publish the answer... when I feel like it, if no one gets it first, and decide who to tag then!