Follow the instructions for Discussion 3 (March 2007).
Choose any motif and part number not chosen by anyone yet. You can do as many bonus postings as you want. For example, if you would like to track Animals / Animal Imagery in Part 1 for Discussion 3, you may choose to continue this in Part 2 (This would count as one bonus assignment).
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Part 4 Animals/Animal Imagery
“The fields are filled with Black and white cows.”(144)
“Larks fly up in endless song.”(144)
“Deer would come out of the nearby forest.”(144)
“Sketch books with toads and things.”(149)
“Our old Pin The Tail on the donkey game.”(152)
“Robert Ross said he had been for a walk and had seen three foxes in the field.”(153)
“The dogs out baying in the yard.”(154)
“Everything they’d done was like a dance between two birds.”(155)
“and honour to see the new foal in the barn.”(157)
“The horses seemed to love the race.”(157)
“One of whom died in a barn with her rabbits.”(162)
“He’s already given me the sketch book with the toads and mice.”(162)
Part Two
Photographs / Paintings / Artwork
“It was an odd sensation, being drawn through the water, almost submerged with his clothes flowing back and his knees pressed hard against the horse and the stirrups banging against his ankles. Pegasus.” (80)
“Poole, who was also naked and wrapped in a blanket, played a tune on the bugle and everybody sang: 'We're here because we're here.' (80)
“After all—a door should bear striking from time to time. But not this one. As soon as he looked he could see why it was precious. It contained a panel of stained glass.” (84)
“He then showed Levitt three or four other pieces that he kept wrapped in burlap. These were fragments from a church and they depicted the Flight into Egypt—(the head of the donkey and the head of the Virgin)—Christ Walking on the Water—(His feet and the hem of His gown)—and the Martyrdom of St. Marinus, the Roman soldier who was denounced as a Christian and put to death by his fellows. This fragment showed his sword and helmet—laid at his bloodied feet.” (84)
“The glass, in spite of the fact that it came from a house, as Devlin had said, nonetheless depicted a saint—or at least someone holy enough to warrant a halo. The figure—of a bearded man—was stripped to the waist and wore a leather apron. He was working at a forge and held a gigantic 'butterfly' in a pair of tongs...” (84)
“Looking around the dugout—which seemed an inordinately civilized place—he noted there was also a kneeling angel made of plaster and a pair of plaster sheep, no doubt from a crèche. 'Are you religious?' he asked Devlin point blank... 'The fact is, I'm devoted to fragility. Glass has a certain fineness and brittleness that a man with my bones appreciates.' He laughed” (85)
“'... After all—everyone likes a good read from time to time. What have you brought us, Levitt?' 'Clausewitz on War.' Bonnycastle and Devlin and Robert stared at him in disbelief.” (86)
“There was a stove at the rear with a coffee pot made of enameled tin and there was a knotted rug on the floor, Levitt's books now graced the shelf above his bed and the kneeling angel was set in a semi-circle of candles.” (87)
“Rodwell, it turned out, was fat and dour as a portrait of Doctor Johnson and Robert feared he would be a bad-tempered man, since he seemed to continually scowl and squint.” (87)
“Levitt, thinking to inject some interest into the conversation, made himself thoroughly unpopular by quoting Clausewitz...” (87)
“Rodwell waved the apology aside with his hand. 'Think nothing of it,' he said. 'I don't expect people to know my work. I'm an illustrator, you see. I illustrate children's books.'” (88)
“'There's nothing wrong with fairy tales,' said Rodwell. 'Although, that doesn't happen in my line. Sometimes, I wouldn't mind a good old fashioned beanstalk to get me out of all this mud.” (89)
“'Bugler,' said Bonnycastle. 'Play us a song. The peaches have made me sad.
'I will indeed, sir,' said Poole. He liked to play for an audience. He drew off his trumpet and made himself comfortable. 'Anything you'd like?' he asked.
'Just don't play Abide With Me,' said Devlin.” (89)
“Levitt said: 'Clausewitz says an excess of artillery leads to a passive character in war... That way, he says, the whole war can be carried out as a serious, formal minuet...'” (90)
“The dugout was full of eyes: Robert's that would not close; Levitt's that stared at Clausewitz; Rodwell's squinting against the smoke and the animals' staring at the dark that only they could penetrate.” (90-91)
“ONE AFTERNOON Robert came late because he'd been to a matinee at the theatre. His mind was full of music and it was hard to sit there on his death watch and not tap his toes.” (94)
“Her picture, like those of Cathleen Nesbitt and Lady Diana Manners, was 'everywhere.' Recently, more often than not, she was photographed with Taffler; dancing for charity—joking with the Prince of Wales—riding in the park. Taffler was looking more like a Boy's Own Annual hero than ever, dressed in his uniform with its green field tabs; carrying a swagger stick and groomed within an inch of his life.” (94)
“His eyes and his mouth were like pictures of a mouth and eyes: static.” (94)
“At last you make your way by trial and error to the second-floor landing and a door marked LADY JULIET D'ORSEY—PLEASE RING TWICE. You feel like Aldren on the moon.” (97)
“You have already been directed down a long cream-coloured hall hung with ancestors and lit by open doorways.” (97)
“The windows, leading to balconies, look out directly at the portals of St. Paul's, Knightsbridge—a Gothic miscarriage where a choir practice is presently in progress.” (97)
“Something in Latin being sung across the road comes to a conclusion and finally Lady Juliet turns to you and says: 'I know you'll forgive me. I can't resist the Mass.'” (97)
“There she is over there. It's not a bad picture. You can see the sceptical eyes and the strange perpetual smile. I'll tell you a secret about that smile. It wasn't a smile at all. It was a nervous dimple on her left side.” (99)
“But Barbara said that Clive had undermined Jamie's morals and she called them Oscar and Bosie and ultimately settled her affections elsewhere.” (100)
“This is perhaps as good a place as any to point out that Lord Clive Stourbridge, Juliet and Barbara's eldest brother, was one of the Cambridge poets whose best-known work—like that of Sassoon and Rupert Brooke—had its roots in the war. Other poets who were present on the First of July, besides Stourbridge and Sassoon, were Robert Graves and Wilfred Owen. Both Sassoon and Graves have written accounts of the battle.” (100-101)
“Ariadne and Dionysus. Well—it's not a bad analogy. Yes? Deserted by one god—she took up another. Every year, Dionysus was destroyed and every year he was born again from ashes.” (102)
“Robert pried off the lid and placed his hand for a moment over the exposed ashes. They were grey. A sort of yellowish grey. Robert thought: I've never seen this done or read about its being done—not even in Chums or Joseph Conrad, so I don't know what to say.” (105)
“... and Barbara said to Robert: You may not realize, Lieutenant Ross, that General Wolfe was born at Greenwich. No. Robert hadn't realized. Yes, said Barbara. Then he grew up and got our country for us.” (106)
“One of these blew up the trenches five hundred yards directly in front of the stained glass dugout.” (106)
“In this silence, Rodwell was heard to say to Levitt: 'Some minuet.'” (106)
Part Three
Photographs / Paintings / Artwork
“He crawled out—still clutching Clausewitz—and banged the book against the tails of his greatcoat and stamped his boots and slapped his arms, sending up clouds of talcum powder into the air. Lavender.” (110)
“Now, Robert stood outside the Stained Glass Dugout (for that is what they called it, in honour of Devlin's collection) and looked down where the trench had been.” (113)
“Rob the Ranger always whistled like a white-throat if he saw an Indian moving in the woods. And the Indians hooted like owls and howled and barked and yipped like wolves.” (127)
“Fourteen 'carriers' had appeared in No Man's Land at about the time of sundown, wearing metal breast plates with large red crosses painted on the front. These were not the crosses of mercy. They were the emblem of the units specially trained in 'liquid warfare' and shown off only a month before to an enthusiastic Kaiser.” (132)
“They cleared the table. Paper was produced (torn from the frontispiece of Volume Three of Clausewitz).” (133)
“One of Rodwell's sketchbooks was open on his lap. There was the toad. Quite, as Rodwell had promised, realistic—lacking entirely any sentimental nuance. Just a plain, bad-tempered grumpy toad. Robert smiled. He leafed through the pages. There were birds and mice. The rabbit and the hedgehog. More toads. A frog and some insects. Then, towards the back of the book, he found himself. 'Robert.' ... The likeness was good. Unnerving. But the shading was not quite human. There was another quality—speckled and fading into brightness where his clothes touched his neck and cheek. Robert could not decipher what that quality was—until he finished leafing through the book and glanced through the others (there were five, all told). In all of them—on every page, the drawings were of animals. Of maybe a hundred sketches, Robert's was the only human form. Modified and mutated—he was one with the others. What had Rodwell meant by this? Or was it just the way he drew?” (138)
Animal Imagery Part 3
" The bird shook its feathers." (110)
" The rabbit turned with its eyes shut tight ad huddled in the corner of its cage facing Robert. The hedgehog lay on its side in a ball." (110)
" All the animals had survived, although the hedgehog still had not unrolled himself." (111)
" There was a horse-railway, "(115)
"… were being drawn away by huge black horses or pushed along the track." (115)
" A bird sang, something like a white-throated sparrow: one long note descending; three that wavered. This was the bird that has sung before." (127)
" The bird had made him extremely nervous." (127)
" And the Indians hooted like owls and howled and barked and yipped like wolves. Robbers could meow like cat. Anyone in hiding was an imitation animal. (127)
" The bird sang." (128)
"The bird sang." (131)
" The rabbit, the hedgehog and the bird had died- asphyxiated in the gas attack." (133)
" Robert was walked beside the horse." (134)
"Just a plain, bad-tempered grumpy toad." (138)
" There were birds and mice. The rabbit and the hedgehog. More toads. A frog and some insects." (138)
" In all of them- on every page, the drawings were of animals." (138)
" The toad at once had begun to burrow into the welcome mud." (13
Violence Part 5
“He struggled with such impressive violence that all his assailants fell upon him at once-still without a sound-and holding his legs and arms out wide, they jerked him off his feet”(174)
“He was spun around in the dark so many times that he lost all sense of gravity. Then he was lowered on to his back and held there by someone who was lying underneath him. His legs were forced apart so far he thought they were going to be broken. Mouths began to suck his privates. Hands and fingers probed and poked at every part of his body. Someone struck him in the face”(174)
“All he could feel was the shape of the man who entered him and the terrible strength of the force with which it was done.”(175)
“Less than a mile away-shells were falling.”(178)
“Something exploded.”(179)
“…an officer of the C.F.A. had shot and killed one of his men and had then made off with a great many horses in the direction of Magdalene”(190)
“Cassles had been shot.”(190)
“The fire was set.”(191)
Mental Illness / Madness Part 2:
“Everything is waterlogged. Even bits of grass won’t float. In front of him the road is apparently empty.” (69)
“Their graves, it seemed, just dug themselves and pulled them down.” (70)
“Houses, trees and fields of flax once flourished here. Summers had been blue with flowers. Now it was a shallow sea of stinking grey from end to end. And this is where you fought the war.” (70)
“He spoke Flemish. Robert first of all thought it was gibberish. The scene had taken place on the road in the rain and the man’s incoherent words and waving arms made Robert think he’s possibly escaped from Desolé.” (71)
“The smell was unnerving – as if some presence were lurking in the fog like a dragon in a story.” (72)
“There must be something terribly wrong and they knew it but neither one knew how to put it into words. The birds, being gone, had taken some mysterious presence with them. There was an awful sense of void – as if the world had emptied.” (74)
“It was as if the rain had boiled and turned to steam – except that the steam was frigid.”(74)
“An occasional chilly breeze blew through the fog – intimations of another world and other weather” (74)
“Each turned to watch where the voice had been. A man came floating though the fog. His collar was turned up. His hat was missing. This was not the man they had sent away. He was walking.” (75)
“Perhaps he thought you weren’t in the war unless the enemy could shoot you. In this he was much like everyone else who’d just arrived. You weren’t a real soldier unless you were in jeopardy.” (76)
“Then he left it standing there and struck out into the fog alone.” (77)
“Many people die without a sound – because their brains are shouting and it seems they’ve called for help and they haven’t. Robert kept thinking – why doesn’t someone come? But no one did. He’d told them not to.” (78)
“A hand fell on his shoulder. Robert yelled and grabbed at it. Bones and claws. It drew away.” (79)
“It was an odd sensation, being drawn though the water, almost submerged... Pegasus.” (80)
“ Half-an-hour’s firing was a mere gesture: nuisance firing it was called.” (82)
“ Robert stopped walking and turned and waved at the German lines. Nothing happened. He waved again. Still nothing. He called out... He ran. At once there was a shot. Robert fell” (83)
“ Levitt wondered what made the door so special that he shouldn’t hit it. After all – a door should bear striking from time to time. But not this one. As soon as he looked he could see... It contained a panel of stained glass.” (84)
“Looking around the dugout ... he noted there was a pair of plaster sheep...’Are you religious?’ he asked Devlin.” (85)
“’He sort of keeps a lot of things. Maybe you’d like to look under the bunk just here...’ Robert looked. There was a whole row of cages. Rowena.” (85)
“ Bonnycastle said: ‘I do like a peach. I think a peach is probably the finest thing I can think of.’ ‘You’re drunk, dear,’ said Devlin... ‘Play us a song. The peaches have made me sad.’” (89)
“[Levitt] was a strange man, Robert decided. Eager to be of help – and resourceful in his way – he was also a cold man to whom, it seemed, nothing much existed outside of the mind.” (89)
“... Everyone is strange at war I guess. Ordinary is a myth.) Rodwell was feeding the toad. They were two of a kind.” (90)
“Sleep was dangerous. The animal memory in you knew that. No matter what your mind said, your body didn’t listen. Part of you always stayed awake.” (91)
“They told him bluntly no one should die alone.” (92)
“Harris said the strangest things – lying on his pillow staring at the ceiling. Strange and provocative. Robert didn’t know, sometimes, what to do with Harris’ sentences; where to fit them in his mind, or how to use them.” (93)
“Then I’d slide. Like a seal. Out of the air and into the water. Out of my world into theirs...I never have to breathe again. I’ve changed. It changes you. But the thing was – I could do it. “ (93)
“Barbara stood at the foot of the bed and looked at the man without speaking ...The profile she turned to Roberts was unsmiling. She held the flowers the way that wreaths are held – a an emblem, not as a gift.” (95)
“The [Ministry] is infused with the threat of large numbers of people in hiding.” (96)
“...she had a taste for heroes and athletes. She enjoyed the spectacle of winning – but more than that, she made a sort of cult of exclusivity: letting people in and out of her life...You had to intrigue her or you didn’t exist.” (99)
“You can see that Barbara was possessive to say the least. Once she set her cap – that was that. It couldn’t matter less who got hurt. She even tried to hold on to Clive and Michael. Her brothers!” (100)
“... the truth is often pedestrian and I think the fact is that extremely physical men like Robert and Taffler are often extremely sensitive men as well...more apt to be maudlin and sentimental.” (101)
“...after a while you saw [dead men] everywhere and you sort of accepted it. But the acceptance made him mad and he said this marvelous thing: I still maintain that an ordinary human being has a right to be horrified by a mangled body seen on an afternoon walk.” (102)
“She stood and watched them dying like a stone. Ariandne and Dionysus.” (102)
“... [Harris] told how he would float that way sometimes for hours, just to get the feel of landfall... the way a million years ago or more we came ashore ourselves as fish or frogs...” (103)
“He didn’t want to abandon his friend to strangers. The army might have buried him – but that was grotesque; a body in a box beneath a flag he’d never had a chance to fight for...” (104)
Gender/Sexuality- Part 3
“Bates was so afraid that he collapsed backward and sat like a child in the sand and dug in his underwear for his penis. It had shrunk with fear.” (125).
“The warmth of Bate’s body was a shock and the two men lay in one another’s arms for almost a minute before Robert moved” (130).
“One of Rodwell’s sketchbooks was open on his lap. There was the toad. Quite, as Rodwell had promised, realistic-lacking entirely any sentimental nuance. Just a plain, bad tempered grumpy toad. Robert smiled. He leafed through the pages. There were birds and mice… Then towards the back of the book he found himself ‘Robert’. ..In all of them – on every page, the drawings were of animals. Of maybe a hundred sketches, Robert’s was the only human form. Modified and mutated- he was one with the others. What had Rodwell meant by this? Or was it just the way that he drew?” (138).
Part 5 :Social /Political Commentary
“His Father told him women demanded to things of men before they would sit with them, eat with them, or sleep with them.” (168)
“ He thought he would stand and see himself like a god in the glass – and there he was …” (169)
“Robert raised his hat to show that he had no designs on the ducks – but the child did not wave back” (171)
“Sometimes patients were allowed to bathe with the soldiers, …” (172)
“The job of the M.P.s was often quite brutal. . . .Their orders were to kill any man who refused to go over the top” (178)
“”No matter what the numbers thrown against the enemy, German numbers and tenacity seemed to be greater.”(181)
“Mister Ross was the only member of his family who came to see him buried.” (196)
Part 5: Photographs /Art / Paintings
“Shed sent it in a package with her photograph…” (170)
“Robert sat on the mutilated mattress and opened his kit bag. Everything was there – including the picture of Rowena.” (177)
“ In the drawing room, sitting in its silver frame, Roberts picture started to fade.” (186)
“ I served at Bois de Madeline from the spring of 1916 to the fall of 1917 – roughly eighteen months. A lifetime. Here is a photograph …” (193)
“She wrote. ‘ At my age, you don’t need pictures any more’.” (195)
“ Later, Marin Turner sent along a photograph in which she is seen with her friend Olivia ….” (195)
“ There is a photograph of Robert and Juliet taken about a year before his death.” (196)
Loneliness / The Journey to Identity Part Four
“… She is now in her seventies and a very large portion of her diet consists of gin and cigarettes. The voice, at times, sails off in what can only be described as song and its resonance causes the crystals dangling from the chandeliers to vibrate. The voce the quavers – cracks and is reduced to a helpless whisper.”
“He died in 1952 when Juliet was forty-eight years old. She had not seen him for so long she didn’t even recognize the corpse” (145)
“I must admit to a lifelong love affair with curiosity” (147)
“I shall always feel guilty that I didn’t prepare him for seeing Captain Taffler. And I wonder if there’s something mean in my spirit that makes me do these things. (151)
“…even after his death she continued to light the candles and keep her vigil. She died at the age of sixty-five and was found in the chair by his bead with her candles burning all around the room.” (154)
“Captain Taffler did not want to live—and, in my bungling way. I made him. Why do I always end up being mean no matter what I do..?” (155)
”..I’m not aloud to go to the words anymore so I sent him flowers by Robert Ross. Tonight I prayed and prayed. I want to be a nun.” (156)
“Once when he thought he was alone and unobserved I saw him firing his gun in the woods at a young tree. It was a sight I’d rather not have seen. He destroyed it absolutely. Other times he would throw things down and break them on the ground. He broke his watch that way. I don’t know why. But he had a great deal of violence inside and sometimes it emerged this way with a gesture and other time it showed in his expression when you found him sitting alone on the terrace or staring out of a window” (156-157)
”She was never—even when she was dying herself and further refused to see her—reconciled to the character of a man she had married.” (157)
“Amanda seemed to be the only friend I had and I held her very tight. I’d been so mean. I’d just left her on the window sill for weeks. Her loneliness was just unbearable.” (161)
“Then I said: Why are Robert and Barbra so afraid? And Clive said: everyone they’ve loved has died.” (161)
Violence part 1
“its engineer and crew had wither abandoned it, or else the had been killed” (5)
“behind her, a warehouse filled with medical supplies had just caught fire” (5).
“This was when the moon rose- red” (6)
“Lawrence was hurled against the wall-Scott entombed in ice and wind-Mallory blasted on the face of Everest. Lost. We’re told Euripides was killed by dogs- and this is all we know. The flesh was torn and scattered- eaten. Ross was consumed by fire.”(7)
“Six thousand dead and wounded” (8)
“Robert regained his feet and lunged, butting his head like a battering ram between the giant’s shoulder blades” (20)
“He reached over his head and grasped the only thing that came to hand. One of Robert’s Indian clubs. With it he struck out blindly at the figure in the overcoat, whose face he could not see.”(21)
“The soldier and the father and the brother pulled the rock embracer away and prevented a human murder” (21)
“’Killing bottles’” (29)
“Nothing had been thought of to entertain the men and so there was a good deal of fighting, most of it having to so with cheating at cards and sexual bullying”(52).
“Second-lieutenant Ross would have to go back down to the hold of the ship because the horse would have to be shot and, of course, and officer had to do it.” (57).
“He never squeezed a trigger against a living creature in the whole of his life” (57).
“he must have killed over a hundred times or more-men rats horses- whatever it was you killed in wars” (57).
“the hold was filled with a moaning noise and many of its lamps had been extinguished by the violence of the storm” (58).
“He fired” (60).
“Jesus; for Christ’s sake-die” (60).
“Robert forced his eyes to open: aimed- and fired again” (60).
“He began to squeeze the trigger and he squeezed it again and again and again- so many times the when the Sergeant-Major pulled him away the gun went right on clicking in his hands” (61).
“And then hell broke loose” (61).
“Mrs. Ross’s only brother- a boy called Monty Miles- had been killed while walking home on Shuter Street.” (63).
Bonus Discussion- Gender/ Sexuality - Part 5
“He heard women’s voices…Robert thought: it’s perfect. I will go down and join them. Then he saw himself in the mirror and remembered that he hadn’t bathed in days. His father told him women demanded two things of men before they would sit with them, eat with them or sleep with them: a clean body and a clean breath.” (168)
“Lying there-listening to the mingled sounds of horses down in the courtyard and the women in the dining room- he slid his hand across his stomach and down between his legs. Bang-bang-bang! Went the guns at the front. Robert didn’t listen. He undid his trouser buttons almost languidly-one by one.” (168)
“Lil-Lil-Picadilly Lil- sitting on the hill- spooning with her honey- on a bright and sunny afternoon.” (168)
“Robert undid his buttons on his shirt and took it off. … He stood up and slid his trousers and his underwear to the floor. He could see himself now- pale in the aureole of candlelight in the mirror. It was a shock….his eyes made him look like an old, old man… He’d thought he would stand and see himself like a god in the glass- and there he was: a scarecrow.” (169)
“His groin was wet with perspiration… He made a fist around his penis. He thought how small it was… The women laughed… He slept with his fist in its place and the cold, wet blooming of four hundred thousand possibilities- of all those lives that would never be- on his fingertips.” (169)
“…he wore the khaki sweater Eloise Brown had knitted for him. She’d sent it in a package with her photograph. Eloise had always been in the background so long as Heather Lawson was around, but now that Heather was engaged to Tom Bryant, Eloise took a giant step forward. She was shy and sort of pretty in a pale, blonde way and Robert didn’t mind her attentions. The sweater was well made.” (170)
“It was not till he was two or three steps inside that he noticed the lantern had been extinguished- and then it was too late. Someone was in there with him and the door was swinging closed behind him…Someone was moving. So was someone else… Robert heard a third sound that told him he was surrounded…He was afraid to put his hands out. He was certain he would touch someone and the thought of this was unbearable… The towel was suddenly yanked from his hand and he stood there naked and defenseless…A hand reached underneath his arm from behind and caressed him just above his groin. Finger dipped down through his pubic hair and seized his penis. Robert felt the length of a body press against his back and a mouth press down against his shoulder. Robert pressed back as if to escape the fingers but someone kneeling in front of him grasped him… Robert threw his head back and tried to scream.” (174)
“ He struggled with such impressive violence His legs were forced apart so far he thought they were going to be broken…Somebody struck him in the face. Robert began to pass out.” (174)
“It was Poole…They stood there. Robert wished with all his heart that men could embrace. But he knew now they couldn’t. Mustn’t. … Poole simply walked away…He wished that Poole would wave-but he didn’t.”(177)
“Juliet d’Orsey has said that she loved Robert Ross. There can be no doubt of this. She rarely left his side” (195)
“He is holding is holding Juliet’s hand. And he is smiling.”(195)
Part Four
Photographs / Paintings / Artwork
“On the Sunday the windows were tightly closed and the drapes were drawn against the noise of the storms and nothing was heard from St Paul's, Knightsbridge till Evensong when the drapes were opened and the sunlight and the singing poured across the terrace.” (143)
“The voice, at times, sails off in what can only be described as song and its resonance causes the crystals dangling from the chandeliers to vibrate. The voice then quavers—cracks and is reduced to a helpless whisper. The effect of this singing in the passages where Lady Juliet reads from the diaries she wrote when she was twelve years old is both magical and devastating..” (143)
“Oh! I had bits of Monteverdi—Mozart—Bach all jumbled up. It was glorious. A gourmet's hash of music.” (145)
“... I was this malapert dwarf with a notebook. At the end of every day, I put down everything that happened—intrigues—conversations—all my questions—all the answers and all the things I'd seen. The affairs of my brothers and my sister—all their friends and all my parents' friends provided me with endless pleasure... I was a born observer. Boswell in bows. These diaries will tell you what you want to know, I think. But I warn you—I was ears and eyes and that was all.” (147)
“He had a satchel full of books and I asked him what they were and he showed me: sketch books with toads and things.” (149)
“Her portrait shows she was immensely beautiful. The dress she wears in her appearances is indigo. The golden light is from her hair and the yellow from the candle forms that were painted in a later age to depict the legend.” (154)
“I was standing on the third step from the bottom and I think I must already have come to a stop because what happened next was is sort of like a photograph in my mind and I see myself in the picture. Robert Ross came out of Captain Taffler's room and the door, as it opened, gave a kind of click like a shutter of a camera.” (155)
“I've blundered into all my favorite books—like Turn of the Screw and The Picture of Dorian Gray.” (158)
“Last night I was sitting on the stairs in the black hole of Calcutta.” (159)
“Lady Holman and Caroline Tedworth spent the entire morning in mother's office weeping and wailing. Major Larrabee-Hunt, who at least has a sense of humour, said it sounded like the chorus from the Trojan Women.” (159)
“All week I've wondered what I should give him to take away. He's already given me the sketch books with the toads and mice and himself asleep.” (162)
Any motif from Findley's 'Catalogue of Personal Obsessions' - Silence, distance, yellow, blue Part 2:
“The fog was full of noises. They were ill defined and had no perimeter. Distance had been swallowed whole” (73)
“’Birds,’ said Poole. The other man remained silent.” (73)
“Ducks? ... It was odd – how they’d sat so still and silent till that moment.” (73)
“There was an awful sense of void – as if the world had emptied.” (74)
“The trumpet fell silent” (74)
“But Robert thought it was absolutely wonderful, the way the little planes would sail through hundreds of rounds of anti-aircraft fire without being touched.” (82)
“Summers had been blue with flowers.” (70)
“On the 27th – a high blue, cloudless Sunday - ...” (82)
“It gave the war some meaning if you knew that the men who took your fire ( and returned it) wore blue scarves...like your own” (82)
“Not one of the animals made a sound.” (86)
“Levitt stood up – shook Rodwell’s hand and sat down. There was a silence.” (88)
“On the far horizon to the south towards Verdun there was a sickly, yellow pall.” (89)
“...the childhood smell of winter living rooms where great blue chunks of channel-coat had burned all day.” (90)
“...when someone held him in a knitted blanket almost asleep by a yellow flame.” (90)
“Escape... Dreams and distance are the same. If he could run away... like Longboat.” (91)
“No one spoke, except to say ‘excuse me’ or ‘watch where you’re going!’ It was like a tunnel through which you walked not knowing your destination.” (92)
“It was evidently true that Harris’ estrangement from this father was final. There was not even thanks. Just silence.” (92)
“ – others lay silent, wrapped in bandages and held together by splints.” (92)
“She carried a dozen yellow roses.” (92)
“The effect of her sudden appearance was the same as always when you see someone materialize whose fame has kept them at a distance. You think how small they are and you wish they’d stand still.” (94)
“Robert had already been intrigued by his silence.” (95)
“At the far end there is a wide and charming drawing room full of tall blue chairs...” (97)
“This is the hardest thing of all for me to admit about my sister. Her silence in Jamie’s presence. Was it cruel?” (102)
“[Harris had] grown up eating alone with his father...with a candle in the centre between them. Burning and silent.” (104)
“When [Harris] died, Robert took his gloves with the bitten fingers and the long blue scarf he’d worn around his neck.” (104)
“...drove all the way to Greenwich – Robert sitting on the jump seat with the ashes on his lap – Barbara sitting apart from Taffler with the roses cradled in her arm. Nobody Spoke.” (105)
“Robert pried off the lid and placed his hand for a moment over the exposed ashes. They were grey. A sort of yellowish grey.” (105)
“After the landmines had gone up and after the first long salvo had been fired by the guns, there was a very brief moment of silence.” (106)
Your Notable Quotes for "Hunting Findley"
You many be asking yourself, "How can there be a notable quote if I am only quoting?" Full marks will be given to anyone with substantial annotations. Be alarmed if you do not see your name next week ... 'Notable Quotes' returns with vengence (kind of).
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