Commonplace Book
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From Books Do Furnish A Room (Dance to the Music of Time) “[Trapnel] borrowed literally to keep alive, a good example of something often unrecognized outside the world of books, that a writer can have his name spread all over the papers, at the same time net perhaps only a hundred pounds to keep
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From The Picture of Dorian Gray (Dover Thrift Editions): “Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.”
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From Books Do Furnish A Room (Dance to the Music of Time) “[Trapnel] looked about thirty, tall, dark, with a beard. Beards, rarer in those days than they became later, at that period hinted of submarine duty, rather than the arts, social protest or a subsequent fashion simply for much more hair.”
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‘An artist does not live a personal life as we do, he hides it, forcing us to go to his books if we wish to touch the true source of his feelings.’
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“The morals of the time were, as we know, severe. But exceptions were made, often with alacrity. This was one of a handful of aristocratic principles, according to which ordinary citizens were second-class people, but the occasional middle-class officer was made personal equerry to the Emperor; according to which Jews were barred from claiming high
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‘It is our disease’ [Clea] said ‘to want to contain everything within the frame of reference of a psychology or a philosophy. After all Justine cannot be justified or excused. She simply and magnificently is; we have to put up with her, like original sin. But to call her a nymphomaniac or to try and
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“Try and think about the absence of God, and do realise that before you can knock at the door – and remember that it is not only at the door of the Kingdom understood in the general way, but that Christ really says ‘I am the door’ – before you knock at the door, you
Virginia Rounding: Author, editor, proofreader, indexer 