Recently Quoted

• "As well," he continued. "don't you love a rather foggy day in a wood in autumn? You'll find we shall be perfectly warm sitting in the car." Jane said she'd never heard of anyone liking fogs before but she didn't mind trying. All three got in. "That's why Camilla and I got married," said Denniston as they drove off. "We both like Weather. Not this or that kind of weather, but just Weather. It's a useful taste if one lives in England."
  
  "How ever did you learn to do that, Mr. Denniston?" said Jane. "I don't think I should ever learn to like rain and snow."
  
  "It's the other way round," said Denniston. "Everyone begins as a child by liking Weather. You learn the art of disliking it as you grow up. Haven't you ever noticed it on a snowy day? The grown-ups are all going about with long faces, but look at the children and the dogs? They know what snow's made for."
  
  "Im sure I hated wet days as a child," said Jane.
  
  "That's because the grown-ups kept you in," said Camilla. "Any child loves rain if it's allowed to go out and paddle about in it."

  an excerpt from That Hideous Strength, written by Clive Staples Lewis in 1945

• One does not become angry with a madman; but while a man has power in his hands over others, and when he misuses that power grossly and cruelly, who is there that will not be angry? The misery of the insane more thoroughly excites our pity than any other suffering to which humanity is subject; but it is necessary that the madness should be acknowledged to be madness before the pity can be felt. One can forgive, or, at any rate, make excuses for any injury when it is done; but it is almost beyond human nature to forgive an injury when it is a-doing, let the condition of the doer be what it may.

  an excerpt from He Knew He Was Right, written by Anthony Trollope in 1869

• [This paragraph was so confusing to me - a kind of joke that Trollope makes I didn't really follow, and was really eagerly turning pages after this thinking: he's not REALLY going to do this to Hugh is he???]
  
  We must now go back to Exeter and look after Mr. Brooke Burgess and Miss Dorothy Stanbury. It is rather hard upon readers that they should be thus hurried from the completion of hymeneals at Florence, to the preparations for other hymeneals in Devonshire; but it is the nature of a complex story to be entangled with many weddings towards its close. In this little history there are, we fear, three or four more to come. We will not anticipate by alluding prematurely to Hugh Stanbury's treachery, or death,—or the possibility that he after all may turn out to be the real descendant of the true Lord Peterborough and the actual inheritor of the title and estate of Monkhams, nor will we speak of Nora's certain fortitude under either of these emergencies. But the instructed reader must be aware that Camilla French ought to have a husband found for her; that Colonel Osborne should be caught in some matrimonial trap,—as, how otherwise should he be fitly punished?—and that something should be at least attempted for Priscilla Stanbury, who from the first has been intended to be the real heroine of these pages. That Martha should marry Giles Hickbody, and Barty Burgess run away with Mrs. MacHugh, is of course evident to the meanest novel-expounding capacity; but the fate of Brooke Burgess and of Dorothy will require to be evolved with some delicacy and much detail.

  an excerpt from He Knew He Was Right, written by Anthony Trollope in 1869

Recently Noted

• And re-reading it again with the benefit of knowing so much about Charles Williams, I absolutely understand why people think this one is so CW-influenced. It really is! Thematically and tonally it does read like a CW / CSL mashup, and there's a bunch of CW references. A bird is named favorite author with the good team calling themselves 'Logres', and at one point they even literally quote from CW's Taliessin thru Logres.

  an note about That Hideous Strength, written by Clive Staples Lewis in 1945

• This weekend I was standing out in a very cold rain watching a soccer game - and loving it - and was reminded of the part where the Dennistons invite Jane out to have a picnic in the fog. They are fans of weather, they say - not nice weather, but just all kinds of weather. So I picked it up to reread over this weekend, and am really enjoying it so far.

  an note about That Hideous Strength, written by Clive Staples Lewis in 1945

• A bestseller with a lot of hype, blurbs from people I like, etc - I doubted it would be that great. But I loved it, devoured it in a weekend. Made me want to work on big projects.

  an note about Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, written by Gabrielle Zevin in 2022

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