She was dressed in black, and her head was wrapped in a piece of old black lace which showed no hair.
My emotion keeping me silent she spoke first, and the remark she made was exactly the most unexpected.
#James24 #TheAspernPapers
I grew used to her afterward tho never completely; but as she sat there before me my heart beat as fast as if the miracle of resurrection had taken place for my benefit. Her presence seemed somehow to contain his & I felt nearer to him at that first moment of seeing her #James24
“Oh, I see what’s in your head! You fancy you have made such an impression in a quarter of an hour that she is dying for you to come and can be depended upon to bring the old one round. If you do get in you’ll count it as a triumph.”
#James24 #TheAspernPapers
I had not struck the note that translated my purpose, and I need not reproduce the whole of the tune I played. I ended by making my entertainer believe me an undesigning person, though of course I did not even attempt to persuade her that I was not an eccentric one.
#James24
You don’t mean to say you are also by chance American?”
“I don’t know; we used to be.”
“Used to be? Surely you haven’t changed?”
“It’s so many years ago—we don't seem to be anything now.”
#James24 #TheAspernPapers
Naturally in a place like Venice gardens are rare. It’s absurd if you like, for a man, but I can’t live without flowers.”
“There are none to speak of down there.”
#James24 #TheAspernPapers
Her face was not young, but it was simple; it was not fresh, but it was mild. She had large eyes which were not bright, and a great deal of hair which was not “dressed,” and long fine hands which were—possibly—not clean.
#James24 #TheAspernPapers
“The garden, the garden—do me the pleasure to tell me if it’s yours!”
She stopped short, looking at me with wonder; and then, “Nothing here is mine,” she answered in English, coldly and sadly.
“Oh, you are English; how delightful!” I remarked, ingenuously.
#James24 #TheAspernPapers
I was irritated by this survival of medieval manners, though as I liked the old I suppose I ought to have liked it; but I was so determined to be genial that I took my false card out of my pocket and held it up to her, smiling as if it were a magic token. #James24 #TheAspernPapers
Re: Mr Cumnor
they may still suspect you of being his emissary?”
“Certainly, and I see only one way to parry that.”
“And what may that be?”
I hesitated a moment. “To make love to the niece.”
“Ah,” cried Mrs. Prest, “wait till you see her!”
#James24 #TheAspernPapers
Day 1
#James24 #TheAspernPapers #HenryJames #readinganactofsharedsolitude #ReemReel #paperpills💊 #AThingOfBeauty #beedoubleokayess📚🐦
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DO NOT MISS OUT on #Fresán24 #RodrigoFresán #TheInventedPart #TheDreamedPart #TheRememberedPart this summer! Order your books. Give a like to join the group read. #readinganactofsharedsolitude #paperpills💊 #ReemReel #AThingOfBeauty
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Dying fall - from Shakespeare's Twelve Night:
" If music be the food of love, play on
Give me excess of it, that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! It had a dying fall."
#James24 #TheAspernPapers
I owed definite info as to their possession of the papers & I had besieged it with my eyes while I considered my plan of campaign. JAspern had never been in it that I knew of; but some note of his voice seemed to abide there by a roundabout implication & in a dying fall. #James24
Understandable! Just know that you are more than welcome to join us at any time!!!!
#James24 #HenryJames #TheAspernPapers starts today!!!
#readinganactofsharedsolitude #paperpills💊 #reemreel #athingofbeauty #beedoubleokayess📚🐦
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9 likes, 1 comments - paperpills10 on April 21, 2024: "#James24 #HenryJames #TheAspernPapers
#TheAmbassadors #readinganactofsharedsolitude #paperpills💊 #reemreel #athingofbeauty #beedoubleo...".
Besides, he makes much of the internal evidence of the niece’s letter.”
“The internal evidence?”
“Her calling him ‘Mr. Aspern.’”
“I don’t see what that proves.”
#James24 #TheAspernPapers
And as for the people who live in them—no, until you have explored Venice socially as much as I have you can form no idea of their domestic desolation. They live on nothing, for they have nothing to live on.
#James24 #TheAspernPapers
Perhaps the people are afraid of the Misses Bordereau. I daresay they have the reputation of witches.
#James24 #TheAspernPapers
The gondola stopped, the old palace was there; it was a house of the class which in Venice carries even in extreme dilapidation the dignified name. “How charming! It’s gray and pink!”
#James24 #TheAspernPapers
And she had taken no great trouble about it either: she had not hidden herself away in an undiscoverable hole; she had boldly settled down in a city of exhibition.
#James24 #TheAspernPapers
“That is her excuse,” said Mrs. Prest, half-sententiously and yet also somewhat as if she were ashamed of making a speech so little in the real tone of Venice. As if a woman needed an excuse for having loved the divine poet!
#James24 #TheAspernPapers
One doesn’t defend one’s god: one’s god is in himself a defense.
#James24 #TheAspernPapers
you expected to find in them the answer to the riddle of the universe,” she said& I denied the impeachment only by replying that if I had to choose between that precious solution and a bundle of J Aspern’s letters I knew indeed which would appear to me the greater boon.
#James24
I owed definite info as to their possession of the papers & I had besieged it with my eyes while I considered my plan of campaign. JAspern had never been in it that I knew of; but some note of his voice seemed to abide there by a roundabout implication & in a dying fall. #James24
but the circle of her benevolence did not include the two shy, mysterious and, as it was somehow supposed, scarcely respectable Americans (they were believed to have as their name implied, some French strain in their origin), who asked no favors and desired no attention.
#James24
Their name had been mixed up ages before with one of the greatest names of the century, and they lived now in Venice in obscurity, on very small means, unvisited, unapproachable, in a dilapidated old palace on an out-of-the-way canal: #James24 #TheAspernPapers
It was she who invented the short cut, who severed the Gordian knot. It is not supposed to be the nature of women to rise as a general thing to the largest and most liberal view— but it has struck me that they sometimes throw off a bold conception—
#James24 #TheAspernPapers
The Aspern Papers starts today! We will be reading from May 25th until the 31st. There are 9 sections over 7 days. Feel free to read at your own pace.
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The Ambassadors will run May 1st to May 24th. It is divided into 12 books. We'll be spending 2 days on each book. Feel free to read at your own pace. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C59x_-fLzyH/?igsh=...
readinganactofsharedsolitude.wordpress.comWas it worth it? How traumatizing to have to go through that ordeal!
It really was!! So much to quote, and lots of participation. I'm always indebted and grateful to you for your company, David! Thank you!!
Oh you must! You must! I absolutely loved your company! You posts enhanced our read!!!😍❤️❤️
Thank you #James24 #HenryJames #TheAmbassadors readers! This has been a busy read! Truly grateful to you all!!!❤️❤️❤️
#James24 #HenryJames #TheAmbassadors #readinganactofsharedsolitude #ReemReel #paperpills💊 #AThingOfBeauty #beedoubleokayess📚🐦
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www.instagram.comNemi, I'm so blessed that you're a part of so many reads! Thank you so much!!
Goodness! There was a lot that was quotable!!
#James24 #TheAmbassadors
She sighed it at last all comically, all tragically, away. “I can’t indeed resist you.”
“Then there we are!” said Strether.
#James24 #TheAmbassadors
He offered now, should she really like to know, to name the great product of Woollett. It would be a great commentary on everything.
#James24 #TheAmbassadors
What was it?
He found on the spot the image of his recent history; he was like one of the figures of the old clock at Berne.
#James24 #TheAmbassadors
Check out: www.bern.com/en/detail/cl...