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403dd56
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Like many spells with unusual names, the Unrobed Ladies was a great deal less exciting than it sounded.
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Susanna Clarke |
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739ebe5
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They were Englishmen and, to them, the decline of other nations was the most natural thing in the world. They belonged to a race blessed with so sensitive an appreciation of its own talents (and so doubtful an opinion of anybody else's) that they would not have been at all surprised to learn that the Venetians themselves had been entirely ignorant of the merits of their own city - until Englishmen had come to tell them it was delightful.
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Susanna Clarke |
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141e540
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It has been remarked (by a lady infinitely cleverer than the present author) how kindly disposed the world in general feels to young people who either die or marry.
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Susanna Clarke |
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28f9953
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You think that I am angry, but I am not. You think I do not know why you have done what you have done, but I do. You think you have put all your heart into that writing and that every one in England now understands you. What do they understand? Nothing. I understood you before you wrote a word. What you wrote, you wrote for me. For me alone.
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Susanna Clarke |
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d613e42
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Strange stared thoughtfully at her for several seconds, so that Arabella mistakenly supposed he must be considering what she had just said. But when he spoke it was only to say in a tone of gentle reproof, "My love, you are standing on my papers." He took her arm and moved her gently aside."
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Susanna Clarke |
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2a5a816
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It is the contention of Mr Norrell of Hanover-square that everything belonging to John Uskglass must be shaken out of modern magic, as one would shake moths and dust out of an old coat. What does he imagine he will have left? If you get rid of John Uskglass you will be left holding the empty air.
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Susanna Clarke |
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093da30
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Beware Stephen! There will probably be a magical combat of some sort. I daresay I shall have to take on different forms - cockatrice, raw head and bloody bones, rains of fire, etc., etc. You may wish to stand back a little!
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magic
transformation
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Susanna Clarke |
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8276251
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perhaps mortals are not formed for fairy bliss?
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Susanna Clarke |
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608623f
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Well, Henry, you can cease frowning at me. If I am a magician, I am a very indifferent one. Other adepts summon up fairy-spirits and long-dead kings. I appear to have conjured the spirit of a banker.
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Susanna Clarke |
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4a67095
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He thought he stood upon an English hillside. Rain was falling; it twisted in the air like grey ghosts. Rain fell upon him and he grew thin as rain. Rain washed away thought, washed away memory, all the good and the bad. He no longer knew his name. Everything was washed away like mud from a stone. Rain filled him up with thoughts and memories of its own. Silver lines of water covered the hillside, like intricate lace, like the veins of an a..
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Susanna Clarke |
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64483b1
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It seemed off that anyone could live behind such a high hedge of thorns, and he began to think it would be no great surprize to discover that Mr. Wyvern had been asleep for a hundred years or so. 'Well, I shall not mind that so much,' he thought, 'so long as I am not expected to kiss him.
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Susanna Clarke |
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6df4e9d
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Mr. Honeyfoot did not propose going quite so far --indeed he did not wish to go far at all because it was winter and the roads where very shocking.
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Susanna Clarke |
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b95bc32
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How is a magician to exist without books? Let someone explain to me. It is like asking a politician to achieve high office without the benefit of bribes or patronage.
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magic
books
2004
jonathan-strange
patronage
bribery
corruption
politicians
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Susanna Clarke |
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9ecdce4
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I have no cause to love Mr. Norrell- far from it. But I know this about him: he is a magician first and everything else second- and Jonathan is the same. Books and magic are all either of them really care about.
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magic
reading
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Susanna Clarke |
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1bffb20
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And I hope that all my readers are acquainted with an old English Cathedral town or I fear the significance of Mr Norrell's chusing that particular place will be lost upon them. They must understand that in an old Cathedral town the great old church is not one building among many; it is the building - different from all others in scale, beauty, and solemnity. Even in modern times when an old Cathedral town may have provided itself with all ..
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Susanna Clarke |
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05d76a9
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One day," he said,"I shall find the right spell and banish the Darkness And on that day I will come to you."
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Susanna Clarke |
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fe3f5d5
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He had discovered that it was easier - far easier than any one could have supposed - to make oneself mad, but like all magic it was full of obstacles and frustrations. Even if he succeeded in summoning the fairy (which did not seem very likely), he would be in no condition to talk to him. Every book he had ever read on the subject urged magicians to be on their guard when dealing with fairies. Just when he needed all his wits, he would have..
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magic
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Susanna Clarke |
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a082b67
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I was told once by some country people that a magician should never tell his dreams because the telling will make them come true. But I say that is great nonsense.
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magic
magicians
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Susanna Clarke |
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ff756ec
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To a magician there is very little difference between a mirror and a door.
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Susanna Clarke |
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2cd5bf0
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But that is not to say that there might not be someone in the world - I do not say I have seen him yet - whom I would be a little afraid to look at sometimes - for fear that he might be looking sad - or lost - or thoughtful, or - what, you know, might seem the worst of all - brooding on some private anger or hurt and so not knowing or caring if I looked at him at all.
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Susanna Clarke |
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1325a84
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Yes," agreed Childermass, "very great harm! For while he was in the pantry he ate three meat-pies." "And two cream cheeses," added Lucas. Mr. Norrell was forced to admit to himself that this did not seem much like the actions of a great magician"
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Susanna Clarke |
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3db071d
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In his madness and his blindness he was Lear and Gloucester combined.
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Susanna Clarke |
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fdf6855
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Houses, like people, are apt to become rather eccentric if left too much on their own;
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Susanna Clarke |
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8987404
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He understood for the first time that the world is not dumb at all, but merely waiting for someone to speak to it in a language it understands. In the fairy's song the earth recognized the names by which it called itself.
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Susanna Clarke |
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9a1f0f3
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This young woman," he indicated Miss Wintertowne, "she has, I dare say, all the usual accomplishments and virtues? She was graceful? Witty? Vivacious? Capricious? Danced like sunlight? Rode ilk the wind? Sang like an angel? Embroidered like Penelope? Spoke French, Italian, German, Breton, Welsh and many other languages?" Mr. Norrell said he supposed so. He believed that those were the sorts of things young ladies did nowadays."
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Susanna Clarke |
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3fdbebb
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He shut his mouth again and assumed a supercilious expression; this he wore for the remainder of the night, as if he regularly attended houses where young ladies were raised from the dead and considered this particular example to have been, upon the whole, a rather dull affair.
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Susanna Clarke |
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956a3a6
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How quickly was every bad thing discovered to be the fault of the previous administration (an evil set of men who wedded general stupidity to wickedness of purpose). As for the present Ministry, the Foreign Secretary said that not since the days of Antiquity had the world seen gentlemen so virtuous, so misunderstood and so horribly misrepresented by their enemies.
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Susanna Clarke |
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a5e4ba8
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Mr Norrell was delighted. He did not believe that anyone had ever proposed such a piece of magic before and begged Sir Walter to convey his compliments to Lord Castlereagh as the possessor of a most original brain.
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Susanna Clarke |
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c9681af
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Where have they gone?" "Wherever magicians used to go. Behind the sky. On the other side of the rain."
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historical-fiction
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Susanna Clarke |
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613cef7
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He said, "Were he only like his sister--what a difference that would make! For there never was such a sweet and gentle lady! I hear her footsteps, as she goes about the world. I hear the swish-swish-swish of her silken gown and the jingle-jangle of the silver chain about her neck. Her smile is full of comfort and her eyes are kind and happy! How I long to see her!" "Who, sir?" asked Paramore, puzzled. "Why, his sister, John. His sister."
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death
sandman
sister
neil-gaiman
smile
lady
eyes
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Susanna Clarke |
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bbe846c
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For this is England where a man's neighbours will never suffer him to live entirely bereft of society, let him be as dry and sour-faced as he may.
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Susanna Clarke |
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887fa7e
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Mr. Norrell did not know a great deal about war, but he suspected that soldiers are not generally your great respecters of books. They might put their dirty fingers on them. They might tear them! They might- horror of horrors!- read them and try the spells!
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Susanna Clarke |
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a47d0b5
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Yet we ought to kill someone!' said the gentleman, immediately reverting to his former subject. 'I have been quite out of temper this morning and someone ought to die for it.
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Susanna Clarke |
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2b75744
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Though liberal in his praise and always courteous and condescending to the shop-people, he was scarcely ever known to pay a bill and when he died, the amount of money owing to Brandy's was considerable. Mr. Brandy, a short-tempered, pinched-faced, cross little old man, was beside himself with rage about it. He died shortly afterwards, and was presumed by many people to have done so on purpose and to have gone in pursuit of his noble debtor.
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Susanna Clarke |
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86c9fcf
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Beautiful flames, can destroy so many things--prison walls that hold you, stitches that bind you fast.
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Susanna Clarke |
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6a029df
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Saints, such as me, ought always to listen attentively to the prayers of poor, dirty, ragged men, such as you. No matter how offensively those prayers are phased.
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Susanna Clarke |
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ed793ea
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Ah, but sir,' said Lascelles, 'it is precisely by passing judgments upon other people's work and pointing out their errors that readers can be made to understand your own opinions better. It is the easiest thing in the world to turn a review to one's own ends. One only need mention the book once or twice and for the rest of the article one may develop one's theme just as one chuses. It is, I assure you, what every body else does.
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Susanna Clarke |
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69d508e
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Above all remember this: that magic belongs as much to the heart as to the head and everything which is done, should be done from love or joy or righteous anger.
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witches
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Susanna Clarke |
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02d838d
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Sometimes you my graciously permit all the most beautiful ladies in the land to wait in line to kiss your hands and fall in love with you.
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Susanna Clarke |
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3a2a581
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A] smile is the most becoming ornament that any lady can wear.
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beauty
happiness
becoming
most
ornament
wear
smile
lady
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Susanna Clarke |
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3cabc83
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Mr. Norrell gazed at Strange with an odd expression upon his face as though he would have been glad of a little conversation with him, but had not the least idea how to begin.
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Susanna Clarke |
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16b1598
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And all the nursemaids and kitchen maids I ever knew when I was a child, always had a aunt, who knew a woman, whose first cousin's boy had been put into just such a box, and had never been seen again.
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Susanna Clarke |
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e23d8a9
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She had been a comet; and her blazing descent through dark skies had been plain for all to see.
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Susanna Clarke |
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6bd5f7b
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For the rest of the night he sat by himself under the elm-tree. Until this moment it had never seemed to him that his magicianship set him apart from other men. But now he had glimpsed the wrong side of something. He had the eeriest feeling - as if the world were growing older around him, and the best part of existence - laughter, love and innocence - were slipping irrevocably into the past.
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waterloo
magician
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Susanna Clarke |