A Grave Robbery (Veronica Speedwell, #9)

by Deanna Raybourn

a golden lion tamarin—Leontopithecus rosalia, to be exact—also known as a golden marmoset,

Stoker with an affinity for large mammals and extensive taxidermic skills

I preferred lepidoptery.

I had claimed the French Gothic chapel

Stoker slept in the Chinese pagoda.

It has been my experience that the male of the species, though often thoroughly illogical, can—when encouraged to sit quietly and think hard—be guided into a position of sense.

belle au bois dormant,

“Veronica, are you quite all right?” “I do not know,” I replied. “You are agreeing with me. It is a curious feeling.” A ghost of a smile touched his lips. “I shall not make a habit of it.” “Don’t,” I begged. “It is distinctly unsettling.”

Memory is an unreliable, meretricious hussy, and I have always found that setting down events whilst they are fresh is the surest defence against her depredations.

Professor Pygopagus’ Travelling Curiosity Show.

Signore Branzino,

rebenque.

“Lord Ambrose Despard. The younger son of the late Marquess of Harwich.”

Men are seldom cheerful when they have been persuaded out of an emotional state into rationality. They are, in my experience, creatures of feeling rather than thought, and one must make allowances.

Men require, in my experience, considerable bolstering of the spirits in order to carry out any activity requiring imagination or fortitude.

the fine line which marked peculiarity from madness was often simply a matter of wealth.

pangolin.

Volta

Galvani.

Giovanni ...

Aldini who theorised that it is the heart which is the engine of animation to the human body.

how felicitous it is to be understood and loved for oneself—really loved, with no design to alter or diminish the object of one’s affection. It is a rare thing.”

“She drowned in February of 1873, at least that is when she was found in the canal, and she had not been dead long. She was floating there, they said.

so they sent her to a mortuary. Julius knew the proprietor and the old fellow—Plumtree, his name was—suggested Julius sculpt a death mask of her.

Crown Prince Rudolf’s death

“Of losing that which I have come to realise I cannot live without. But I do not want a small and stifled version of you. I want you—in all your intrepid and audacious glory. I want you just as you are, the entirety of your chaos and your wildness. You are the whirlwind I did not know I needed, but now that you are here, I will not be the one to ask you to be anything different than exactly as you are. More than anyone, I ought to understand that nature cannot be denied. And your nature is tumult.”

Agrias claudina