Crazy love

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog - by Caspar David Friedrich

"Was it by reason that I attained to the knowledge that I must love my neighbour and not throttle him? They told me so when I was a child, and I gladly believed it, because they told me what was already in my soul. But who discovered it? Not reason! Reason has discovered the struggle for existence and the law that I must throttle all those who hinder the satisfaction of my desires. That is the deduction reason makes. But the law of loving could not be discovered by reason, because it is unreasonable."

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The climax of Levin's search for meaning and purpose. Anna Karenina - Book 8, Chapter 12.

In defence of fiction

A Good Book by Wybrand Hendriks

"It is untrue that fiction is nonutilitarian. The uses of fiction are synonymous with the uses of literature. They include refreshment, clarification of life, self-awareness, expansion of our range of experiences, and enlargement of our sense of understanding and discovery, perception, intensification, expression, beauty , and understanding. Like literature generally, fiction is a form of discovery, perception, intensification, expression, beauty, and understanding. If it is all these things, the question of whether it is a legitimate use of time should not even arise."

-Leland Ryken (Realms of Gold: The Classics in Christian Perspective)

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What more is there to say, except "Amen to that!"

On writing romances

Woman Writing a Letter, by Gerard ter Borch

‘You should write a novel. The regular resource of people who don’t go enough into the world to live a novel is to write one.'

‘I have done it,' said Elfride, looking dubiously at Mrs. Swancourt, as if in doubt whether she would meet with ridicule there.

‘That’s right. Now, then, what is it about, dear?'

‘About—well, it is a romance of the Middle Ages.'

‘Knowing nothing of the present age, which everybody knows about, for safety you chose an age known neither to you nor other people. That’s it, eh? No, no; I don’t mean it, dear.'

~Thomas Hardy, A Pair of Blue Eyes

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I laughed when I read that. It is a very accurate summary of my own novel-writing adventures, I am ashamed to say. And Mrs. Swancourt! Who would have thought to find such an Austenian/Heyer-esque character in a Thomas Hardy book! Then again, she might turn out to be a "baddie" - I've only just met her character.

A Pair of Blue Eyes is my first Hardy novel, and I'm quite enjoying it - so far. I might have to take back my words on Thomas Hardy.

Little Dorrit quotes

I thought I'd share a few wonderful quotes (well, I like them!) that I've found as I've been reading Little Dorrit. . .

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[Flintwinch speaking to Mrs. Clennam] "The peculiarity of my temper is, ma'am, that I won't be swallowed up alive." (Chap. XV)

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It is not easy to walk alone in the country without musing on something. (Chap. XVI)

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Mr Henry Gowan, inheriting from his father, the Commissioner, that very questionable help in life, a very small independence, had been difficult to settle; the rather, as public appointments chanced to be scarce, and his genius, during his earlier manhood, was of that exclusively agricultural character which applies itself to the cultivation of wild oats. (Chap. XVII)

Who says Dickens isn't funny? He had a wicked sense of humour.

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[At Pet Meagles' and Henry Gowan's wedding] Then Lord Decimus, who was a wonder on his own Parliamentary pedestal, turned out to be the windiest creature here: proposing happiness to the bride and bridegroom in a series of platitudes that would have made the hair of any sincere disciple and believer stand on end; and trotting, with the complacency of an idiotic elephant, among howling labyrinths of sentences which he seemed to take for high roads, and never so much as wanted to get out of. (Chap. XXXIV)

I love Dickens! The complacency of an idiotic elephant. . . kind of like myself just after I get out of bed in the morning. :P

~All pictures from Sharona Lee

Victorian novels

Kate Beckinsale as Flora Poste in the 1995 adaptation of Cold Comfort Farm

Flora pounced on some books which lay on the broad window-sill . . . She put these treasures away in a drawer, promising herself a gloat when she should have time. She liked Victorian novels. They were the only kind of novel you could read while you were eating an apple.

~Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons - Chap. 5

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I could not agree more. Flora is a kindred spirit.

BTW, I am thoroughly enjoying reading Cold Comfort Farm - it's just as good as the movie, for any of you who have seen it.

"I declare. . ."

"I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library."

~Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter XI of Volume I

The mask

Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee, is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns. . . Appearance should not be mistaken for truth; narrow human doctrines, that only tend to elongate and magnify a few, should not be subsituted for the world-redeeming creed of Christ.

~Interesting words--from Charlotte Bronte's preface to the second edition of Jane Eyre.

Current Mood:  Enthralled

To dare. . .

"To dare is to lose one step for but a moment, not to dare is to lose oneself forever" - Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark in a letter to Miss Mary Donaldson as stated by them on their official engagement interview.

Current Mood: Full

Today

Look to this day . . . for yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision . . . but today well-lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope.

~Author Unknown

Wonder

Whatever it be that keeps the finer faculties of the mind awake, wonder alive, and the interest above mere eating and drinking, money-making and money-saving; whatever it be that gives gladness, or sorrow, or hope, be it violin, pencil, pen . . . is simply a divine gift of holy influence for the salvation of that being to whom it comes, for the lifting of him out of the mire and up on the rock.

George MacDonald