daccn

I am not a clerk
2004-07-07 02:18:40 (UTC)

silly chatterbox

I haven't always been one to get emotional while reading
books - even very sad ones. But every so often, a phrase
or a paragraph will float up, almost unseen, and give a
little kick to my heart or my hypothalamus or wherever it
is that emotions are supposed to be registered. It usually
takes me completely by surprise, to be reading along idly
while sitting on a park bench and glancing at the passers-
by, and to suddenly find tears leaping to my eyes without
warning.

The following passages have had this effect:

"Child, what do you mean? What sorrowful eyes you fix on
me! Well, but Missis and the young ladies and Master John
are going out to tea this afternoon, and you shall have
tea with me. I'll ask cook to bake you a little cake..."

- from "Jane Eyre" (Bronte), in which Bessie the maid is
kind to poor, young, put-upon Jane

"What an extraordinary habit that was, Clarissa thought;
always playing with a knife. Always making one feel, too,
frivolous; empty-minded; a mere silly chatterbox, as he
used. But I too, she thought, and, taking up her needle,
summoned, like a Queen whose guards have fallen asleep and
left her unprotected (she had been quite taken aback by
this visit - it had upset her) so that anyone can stroll
in and have a look at her where she lies with the brambles
curving over her, summoned to her help the things she did,
the things she liked; her husband; Elizabeth; her self, in
short, which Peter hardly knew now, all to come about her
and beat off the enemy"

-from "Mrs. Dalloway" (Woolf)

"The two girls used to meet several times a day, and every
time they met, Kitty's eyes said: "Who are you? What are
you? You are the delightful person I imagine you to be,
aren't you? But for goodness' sake", her look
added, "don't think that I'm trying to force myself on
you. I simply admire you and love you." "I love you too
and you are very, very sweet. And I should love you still
more, if I had time," answered the unknown girl's eyes."

-from "Anna Karenina", Tolstoy




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