(no subject)
OMG. I lovelovelove Rebecca! It's definitely one of the best books I've ever read. Like, ever. Here's a taste: (I know it's super long; it's more for me to come back to)
(on Maxim's grandmother) "I knew how she must have looked when she was young, tall and handsome, going round to the stables at Manderley with sugar in her pockets, holding her trailing skirt out of the mud. I pictured the nipped-in waist, the high collar, I heard her ordering the carriage for two o'clock. That was all finished now for her, all gone. Her husband had been dead for forty years, her son for fifteen. She had to live here in this bright, red-gabled house with the nurse until it was time for her to die. I thought how little we know about the feelings of old people. Children we understand, their fears and hopes and make-believe. I was a child yesterday. I had not forgotten. But Maxim's grandmother, sitting there in her shawl with her poor blind eyes, what did she feel, what was she thinking? Did she guess that we had come to visit her because we felt it right, it was a duty, so that when she got home afterwards Beatrice would be able to say, "Well, that clears my conscience for three months."
"Did she ever think about Manderley? Did she remember sitting at the dining-room table, where I sat? Did she too have tea under the chestnut tree? Or was it all forgotten and laid aside, and was there nothing left behind that calm, pale face of hers but little aches and little strange discomforts, a blurred thankfulness when the sun shone, a tremor when the wind blew cold?
"I wished that I could lay my hands upon her face and take the years away. I wished I could see her young, as she was once, with colour in her cheeks and chestnut hair, alert and active as Beatrice by her side, talking as she did about hunting, hounds, and horses. Not sitting there with her eyes closed while the nurse thumped the pillows behind her head."
"It's only just turned the half-hour, Madam," said Norah in a special voice, bright and cheerful like the nurse. I wondered if Maxim's grandmother realized that people spoke to her in this way. I wondered when they had done so for the first time, and if she had noticed then. Perhaps she had said to herself, "They think I'm getting old, how very ridiculous," and then little by little she had become accustomed to it, and now it was as though they had always done so, it was part of her background. But the young woman with the chestnut hair and the narrow waist who gave sugar to the horses, where was she?" (I've often wondered this...)
"Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind."
I wish I could quote the entire book, it's so lovely.
I definitely need to go and meditate for a while...I've just gotten into a horrible mood after Matt said something without thinking whatsoever and now I'm sure I'm attracting lots of nasty things :( Unfortunately for him, he had me thinking about it all day and therefore, made me go off on a rather long rant to him this evening. But I will be a good girl and refrain from whining about it on here :)
One more thing: I watched the recent Heroes last night and OMG. Like, whoa. I have so many questions! That twist was just batshit crazy, yo. No joke, I was on the floor and could not breath for at least ten minutes, lol. You thought The Village had a twist? No. THAT mofo, was an effing twist.
(on Maxim's grandmother) "I knew how she must have looked when she was young, tall and handsome, going round to the stables at Manderley with sugar in her pockets, holding her trailing skirt out of the mud. I pictured the nipped-in waist, the high collar, I heard her ordering the carriage for two o'clock. That was all finished now for her, all gone. Her husband had been dead for forty years, her son for fifteen. She had to live here in this bright, red-gabled house with the nurse until it was time for her to die. I thought how little we know about the feelings of old people. Children we understand, their fears and hopes and make-believe. I was a child yesterday. I had not forgotten. But Maxim's grandmother, sitting there in her shawl with her poor blind eyes, what did she feel, what was she thinking? Did she guess that we had come to visit her because we felt it right, it was a duty, so that when she got home afterwards Beatrice would be able to say, "Well, that clears my conscience for three months."
"Did she ever think about Manderley? Did she remember sitting at the dining-room table, where I sat? Did she too have tea under the chestnut tree? Or was it all forgotten and laid aside, and was there nothing left behind that calm, pale face of hers but little aches and little strange discomforts, a blurred thankfulness when the sun shone, a tremor when the wind blew cold?
"I wished that I could lay my hands upon her face and take the years away. I wished I could see her young, as she was once, with colour in her cheeks and chestnut hair, alert and active as Beatrice by her side, talking as she did about hunting, hounds, and horses. Not sitting there with her eyes closed while the nurse thumped the pillows behind her head."
"It's only just turned the half-hour, Madam," said Norah in a special voice, bright and cheerful like the nurse. I wondered if Maxim's grandmother realized that people spoke to her in this way. I wondered when they had done so for the first time, and if she had noticed then. Perhaps she had said to herself, "They think I'm getting old, how very ridiculous," and then little by little she had become accustomed to it, and now it was as though they had always done so, it was part of her background. But the young woman with the chestnut hair and the narrow waist who gave sugar to the horses, where was she?" (I've often wondered this...)
"Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind."
I wish I could quote the entire book, it's so lovely.
I definitely need to go and meditate for a while...I've just gotten into a horrible mood after Matt said something without thinking whatsoever and now I'm sure I'm attracting lots of nasty things :( Unfortunately for him, he had me thinking about it all day and therefore, made me go off on a rather long rant to him this evening. But I will be a good girl and refrain from whining about it on here :)
One more thing: I watched the recent Heroes last night and OMG. Like, whoa. I have so many questions! That twist was just batshit crazy, yo. No joke, I was on the floor and could not breath for at least ten minutes, lol. You thought The Village had a twist? No. THAT mofo, was an effing twist.