Quote from Fires Astonishment
July 26th 2011 22:44
Here's a quote from pages 95/6:
He [Anselm, who has just married for the first time in his forties] did not want to be questioned on his accidental bliss.
How strange that he could not bring himself to confide, even in his brother, the extent of his joy. It seemed illogical for one newly married man to tell a man long married the delights of marriage. Leo [the brother] must already know them. But in that case, where was the spark in his eye? Had he really kept a similar rapture secret all these years? Why? Why such a universal conspiracy of silence among the world's married men?
Mann [a manservant!] boasted about the agony of his rheumatism. The ostler boasted that he had helped hang a man once. The steward boasted that all his sons had died in the war. Why was it so unacceptable to boast happiness? Perhaps because it was not generally available. Or perhaps becuase it would sound like an unwillingness to die.
We later discover that Leo has a good reason not to have a spark in his eye, but it has less to do with missing the delights of marriage, than with something much more sinister.
| 29 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
