Susanna Clarke · 235 pages
Rating: (14.8K votes)
“Magic, madam, is like wine and, if you are not used to it, it will make you drunk.”
― Susanna Clarke, quote from The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
“The governess was not much liked in the village. She was too tall, too fond of books, too grave, and, a curious thing, never smiled unless there was something to smile at.”
― Susanna Clarke, quote from The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
“He smiles but rarely and watches other men to see when they laugh and then does the same.”
― Susanna Clarke, quote from The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
“With characteristic exuberance Tom named this curiously constructed
house Castel des Tours saunz Nowmbre, which means the Castle of
Innumerable Towers. David Montefiore had counted the innumerable
towers in 1764. There were fourteen of them.”
― Susanna Clarke, quote from The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
“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.”
― Susanna Clarke, quote from The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
“Beautiful flames, can destroy so many things—prison walls that hold you, stitches that bind you fast.”
― Susanna Clarke, quote from The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
“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.”
― Susanna Clarke, quote from The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
“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.”
― Susanna Clarke, quote from The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
“She had been a comet; and her blazing descent through dark skies had been plain for all to see.”
― Susanna Clarke, quote from The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
“In the moonlight David saw that Thoresby had become very peculiar indeed. Figs nestled among the leaves of beech-trees. Elder-trees were bowed down with pomegranates. Ivy was almost torn from walls by the weight of ripe blackberries growing upon it. Anything which had ever possessed any sort of life had sprung fruitfulness. Ancient, dried up frames had become swollen with sap and we putting out twigs, leaves, blossoms and fruit. Door-frames and doors were so distorted that bricks had been pushed out of place and some houses were in danger of collapsing altogether. The cart in the middle of the high street was a grove of silver birches. Its broken wheels put forth briar roses and nightingales sang on it.”
― Susanna Clarke, quote from The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
“Now toasted cheese is a temptation few men can resist, be they charcoal burners or kings. John Uskglass reasoned thus: all of Cumbria belonged to him – therefore this wood belonged to him – therefore this toasted cheese belonged to him.”
― Susanna Clarke, quote from The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
“Let us see,” said Saint Oswald. “A man in black clothes, with powerful magic and ravens at his command, and the hunting rights of a king. This suggests nothing to you? No apparently it does not. Well, it so happens that I think I know the person you mean. He is indeed very arrogant and perhaps the time has come to humble him a little. If I understand you aright, you are angry because he does not speak to you?”
“Yes.”
“Well then, I believe I shall loosen his tongue a little.”
“What sort of punishment is that?” asked the Charcoal Burner. “I want you to make Blencathra [hill] fall on his head!”
― Susanna Clarke, quote from The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
“Mr Hawkins said nothing; the Hawkins' domestic affairs were arranged upon the principle that Fanny supplied the talk and he the silence.”
― Susanna Clarke, quote from The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
“Did you ever look into an English novel? Well, do not trouble yourself. It is nothing but a lot of nonsense about girls with fanciful names getting married.”
― Susanna Clarke, quote from The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
“I hope there may be bogs and that John McKenzie may drown in them.”
― Susanna Clarke, quote from The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
“I was always amazed at Cambridge how quickly people appeared to take offence at everything I said, but now I see plainly that it was not my words they hated - it was this fairy face. The dark alchemy of this face turns all my gentle human emotions into fierce fairy vices. Inside I am all despair, but this face shows only fairy scorn. My remorse becomes fairy fury and my pensiveness is turned to fairy cunning.”
― Susanna Clarke, quote from The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
“In 1819 the proudest man in all of England was , without a doubt , the Duke of Wellington . This was not particularly surprising ; when a man has twice defeated the armies of the wicked French Emperor , Napoleon Bonaparte , it is only natural that he should have a rather high opinion of himself .”
― Susanna Clarke, quote from The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
“And are you married, sir?" Mrs Winstanley asked Tom. "Oh no, madam!" said Tom.
"Yes," David reminded him. "You are, you know."
Tom made a motion with his hand to suggest that it was a situation susceptible to different interpretations.
The truth was that he had a Christian wife. At fifteen she had had a wicked little face, almond-shaped eyes and a most capricious nature. Tom had constantly compared her to a kitten. In her twenties she had been a swan; in her thirties a vixen; and then in rapid succession a bitch, a viper, a cockatrice and, finally, a pig. What animals he might have compared her to now no one knew. She was well past ninety now and for forty years or more she had been confined to a set of apartments in a distant part of the Castel des Tours saunz Nowmbre under strict instructions not to shew herself, while her husband waited impatiently for someone to come and tell him she was dead.”
― Susanna Clarke, quote from The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
“David was the son of a famous Venetian rabbi. From his youth he had been accustomed to debate good principles and right conduct with all sorts of grave Jewish persons. These conversations had formed his own character and he naturally supposed that a small measure of the same could not help but improve other people's. In short he had come to believe that if only one talks long enough and expresses oneself properly, it is perfectly possible to argue people into being good and happy. With this aim in mind he generally took it upon himself to quarrel with Tom Brightwind several times a week -- all without noticeable effect.”
― Susanna Clarke, quote from The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
Susanna Clarke
Born place: in Nottingham, England, The United Kingdom
Born date November 1, 1959
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“And who's to say that just because something lasts only a short time, it has little value?”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman
“Here is a little boy,” said Bingo, indicating me to the strange lady, “who wets his bed every night. Do you know what I am going to do if you wet your bed again?” she added, turning to me. “I am going to get the Sixth Form to beat you.” The strange lady put on an air of being inexpressibly shocked, and exclaimed “I-should-think-so!” And here occurred one of those wild, almost lunatic misunderstandings which are part of the daily experience of childhood. The Sixth Form was a group of older boys who were selected as having “character” and were empowered to beat smaller boys. I had not yet learned of their existence, and I mis-heard the phrase “the Sixth Form” as “Mrs. Form.” I took it as referring to the strange lady—I thought, that is, that her name was Mrs. Form. It was an improbable name, but a child has 110 judgement in such matters. I imagined, therefore, that it was she who was to be deputed to beat me. It did Dot strike me as strange that this job should be turned over to a casual visitor in no way connected with the school. I merely assumed that “Mrs. Form” was a stern disciplinarian who enjoyed beating people (somehow her appearance seemed to bear this out) and I had an immediate terrifying vision of her arriving for the occasion in full riding kit and armed with a hunting whip. To this day I can feel myself almost swooning with shame as I stood, a very small, round-faced boy in short corduroy knickers, before the two women. I could not speak. I felt that I should die if “Mrs. Form” were to beat me. But my dominant feeling was not fear or even resentment: it was simply shame because one more person, and that a woman, had been told of my disgusting offence.”
― George Orwell, quote from A Collection of Essays
“We are all creatures of the stars and their forces, they make us, we make them, we are part of a dance from which we by no means and not ever may consider ourselves separate. But when the Gods explode, or err, or dissolve into flying clouds of gas, or shrink, or expand, or whatever else their fates might demand, then the minuscule items of their substance may in their small ways express—not protest, which of course is inappropriate to their station in life—but an acknowledgement of the existence of irony: yes, they may sometimes allow themselves—always with respect—the mildest possible grimace of irony.”
― Doris Lessing, quote from Re: Colonised Planet 5, Shikasta
“remembered it while driving around all morning delivering search warrants at the local hospitals. “Speaking”
― Michael Connelly, quote from City of Bones
“I don’t want to be in pain anymore. I want to be done, to be left unburdened and naked, to tear the hurt off my body like layers of clothes. At the end of the trail I stop and bend forward, hands on my knees, to catch my breath. I’m not healed, but for this moment, I’m better.”
― Kerry Cohen, quote from Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity
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