#AMREADING EDITH
WHARTON, THE REEF. Americans in
Paris, 1912.
An
American in Paris: It’s not quite clear whether
he lives in Europe in order to cultivate an art, or cultivates an art as a
pretext for living in Europe.
Being
ladylike: What were all her reticences
and evasions but the result of the deadening process of forming a lady? Passion
was completely absent. She was sure that
if anything of the kind had occurred in her immediate circle, her mother would
have consulted the family clergyman.
Getting
used to beauty: He was wondering whether
to a really fine taste the exceptional thing could ever become indifferent
through habit, whether the appetite for beauty was soon dulled and could be
kept alive only by privation.
The
company of a good-looking woman: He knew
the primitive complacency of the man at whose companion other men stare. She
had a responsive temperament, and he
felt a fleeting desire to make its chords vibrate for his own amusement.
Unhappiness:
She had been unhappy before, and the
vision of old miseries flocked like hungry ghosts about her fresh pain.
A
stolid friend: She found refuge from unhappiness in her friend’s unawareness. She guessed no more than one chose, and yet
acted astutely on such hints one vouchsafed her. She was like a well-trained
retriever whose interest in his prey ceases when he lays it at his master’s
feet.
(Image: newyorker.com)
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