quotes from A Room with a View
December 22nd 2010 06:44
The following four quotes are from E M Forster's
A Room with a View. I obviously found it very quotable, or else had my quotes book handy when I was reading it...
from chapter 1
'He is nice,' exclaimed Lucy. 'Just what I remember. He seems to see good in every one. No one would take him for a clergyman.'
'My dear Lucia…'
'Well, you know what I mean. And you know how clergyman generally laugh; Mr Beebe laughs just like an ordinary man.'
from chapter 3
It so happened that Lucy, who found daily life rather chaotic, entered a more solid world when she opened the piano. She was then no longer either deferential or patronizing; no longer either a rebel or a slave. The kingdom of music is not the kingdom of this world; it will accept those whom breeding and intellect and culture have alike rejected. The commonplace person begins to play, and shoots into the empyrean without effort, whilst we look up, marvelling how he has escaped us, and thinking how we could worship him and love him, would he but translate his visions into human words, and his experiences into human actions. Perhaps he cannot; certainly he does not, or does so very seldom. Lucy had done so never.
She was no dazzling executante; her runs were not at all like strings of pearls, and she struck no more right notes than was suitable for one of her age and situation. Nor was she the passionate young lady, who performs so tragically on a summer's evening with the window open. Passion was there, but it could not be easily labelled; it slipped between love and hatred and jealousy, and all the furniture of the pictorial style. And she was tragical only in the sense that she was great, for she loved to play on the side of Victory. Victory of what and over what-- that is more than the words of daily life can tell us. But that some sonatas of Beethoven are written tragic no one can gainsay; yet they can triumph or despair as the player decides, and Lucy had decided that they should triumph.
from chapter 11
Secrecy has this disadvantage: we lose the sense of proportion; we cannot tell whether our secret is important or not.
from chapter 18
[Mr Beebe] had a theory that musicians are incredibly complex, and know far less than other artists what they want and what they are; that they puzzle themselves as well as their friends; that their psychology is a modern development, and has not yet been understood.
It's interesting to note that when I put all these quotes that I've been reposting here on geocities, several years ago, Wikipedia didn't exist. The links go to various other sites, some of which are no longer there. Now the first port of call tends to be Wikipedia.
from chapter 1
'He is nice,' exclaimed Lucy. 'Just what I remember. He seems to see good in every one. No one would take him for a clergyman.'
'My dear Lucia…'
'Well, you know what I mean. And you know how clergyman generally laugh; Mr Beebe laughs just like an ordinary man.'
from chapter 3
It so happened that Lucy, who found daily life rather chaotic, entered a more solid world when she opened the piano. She was then no longer either deferential or patronizing; no longer either a rebel or a slave. The kingdom of music is not the kingdom of this world; it will accept those whom breeding and intellect and culture have alike rejected. The commonplace person begins to play, and shoots into the empyrean without effort, whilst we look up, marvelling how he has escaped us, and thinking how we could worship him and love him, would he but translate his visions into human words, and his experiences into human actions. Perhaps he cannot; certainly he does not, or does so very seldom. Lucy had done so never.
She was no dazzling executante; her runs were not at all like strings of pearls, and she struck no more right notes than was suitable for one of her age and situation. Nor was she the passionate young lady, who performs so tragically on a summer's evening with the window open. Passion was there, but it could not be easily labelled; it slipped between love and hatred and jealousy, and all the furniture of the pictorial style. And she was tragical only in the sense that she was great, for she loved to play on the side of Victory. Victory of what and over what-- that is more than the words of daily life can tell us. But that some sonatas of Beethoven are written tragic no one can gainsay; yet they can triumph or despair as the player decides, and Lucy had decided that they should triumph.
from chapter 11
Secrecy has this disadvantage: we lose the sense of proportion; we cannot tell whether our secret is important or not.
from chapter 18
[Mr Beebe] had a theory that musicians are incredibly complex, and know far less than other artists what they want and what they are; that they puzzle themselves as well as their friends; that their psychology is a modern development, and has not yet been understood.
It's interesting to note that when I put all these quotes that I've been reposting here on geocities, several years ago, Wikipedia didn't exist. The links go to various other sites, some of which are no longer there. Now the first port of call tends to be Wikipedia.
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