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Miss Bartlett,
Lucy,
“Charlotte,
“Charlotte,
You're tellibg me this chick's name is Charlotte Barlett? Okay...
under the guise of unselfishness they wrangled.
Lol
George.
“Women like looking at a view; men don’t.”
Funny since I've heard it said my whole life that "men are visual creatures" (aka porn addicts)
Miss Honeychurch,
And Lucy Honeychurch??? Okay, sure
vellum
“Prato! They must go to Prato. That place is too sweetly squalid for words. I love it; I revel in shaking off the trammels of respectability, as you know.”
Bloomsbury
“Emerson.”
George's dad
He has the merit—if it is one—of saying exactly what he means. He has rooms he does not value, and he thinks you would value them.
He has no tact and no manners—I
Lolll this makes me think of when I told Devan and Dean that they had "no tact" when they were misbehaving in public. I was like 13 or 14.
“I hardly know George, for he hasn’t learnt to talk yet. He seems a nice creature, and I think he has brains.
So he's criticizing the dad for being too vocal and the son for being too quiet. Mmkay
“He is nice,” exclaimed Lucy. “Just what I remember. He seems to see good in everyone.
Not what I gathered from this conversation. Mr. Beebe was pretty critical of George and his father
sedulously
“If only Mr. Emerson was more tactful! We were so sorry for you at dinner.”
How are these people so concerned with tact and decorum when almost all of their dialogue thus far has been complaints?
oubliettes
sighed heavily according to her habit, and went to bed.
Me af
The tramcar became entangled in their ranks, and moved on painfully, like a caterpillar in a swarm of ants.
Fun simile!
Over such trivialities as these many a valuable hour may slip away, and the traveller who has gone to Italy to study the tactile values of Giotto, or the corruption of the Papacy, may return remembering nothing but the blue sky and the men and women who live under it.
I live this. While we may be methodical and purpose-oriented about learning and sight-seeing in our travels, often the most lasting impressions are those with local people
the clever lady
Who's the clever lady? Is there a third woman present, or is it just Charlotte Bartlett and Lucy Honeychurch?
Miss Lavish—for that was the clever lady’s name—turned
Asked and answered. "Lavish" is a crazy name though. Will it come to represent her character accurately?
“One doesn’t come to Italy for niceness,” was the retort; “one comes for life. Buon giorno! Buon giorno!” bowing right and left. “Look at that adorable wine-cart! How the driver stares at us, dear, simple soul!”
Okay so Miss Lavish seems condescending and out of touch lol
Take the word of an old woman, Miss Lucy: you will never repent of a little civility to your inferiors.
Yep-- Lavish is condescending!
Though I am a real Radical as well. There, now you’re shocked.” “Indeed, I’m not!” exclaimed Lucy. “We are Radicals, too, out and out. My father always voted for Mr. Gladstone, until he was so dreadful about Ireland.”
Nah, I think Lavish and Honeychurch are both privileged white liberals
Mrs. Butterworth
Brooo like the pancake syrup
Miss Lavish looked at the narrow ribbon of sky, and murmured: “Oh, you have property in Surrey?” “Hardly any,” said Lucy, fearful of being thought a snob. “Only thirty acres—just the garden, all downhill, and some fields.”
Afraid to admit that her family is wealthy for fear of losing coolness points
Miss Lavish was not disgusted, and said it was just the size of her aunt’s Suffolk estate. Italy receded.
"Italy receded" is an interesting turn of phrase. Is this meant to suggest that the cultural experience of Italy is lost on wealthy out-of-touch English folks, who essentially travel there to have the same meaningless conversations they have at home?
no, you are not, not, NOT to look at your Baedeker.
The ego... It's okay to not be an expert. Asking for directions from a local would likely be a culturally enriching experience anyway. Why travel abroad to remain an island?
commodious
Oh, the Britisher abroad!”
Lmao you /are/ "the Britisher abroad." What makes you think you have a greater claim on a city you can't even walk around without getting lost?
“They walk through my Italy like a pair of cows.
I rest my case. Yes, Miss Lavish's name is a tad on the nose
There was no one even to tell her which, of all the sepulchral slabs that paved the nave and transepts, was the one that was really beautiful, the one that had been most praised by Mr. Ruskin.
She needs to be /told/ what is beatiful. What is stopping her from authentically reacting to the pieces? Fear of having the "wrong" taste or inferior education? Filtering everything through public perception keeps her distant from meaningful personal experiences
pernicious
Hahaha. Iconic adjective that I wish I used more! Will always make me think of Camille from RHOBH
Then Lucy realized that they had mistaken Machiavelli for some saint, hoping to acquire virtue. Punishment followed quickly.
Lmao
prelate’s
“My dear,” said the old man gently, “I think that you are repeating what you have heard older people say. You are pretending to be touchy; but you are not really. Stop being so tiresome, and tell me instead what part of the church you want to see. To take you to it will be a real pleasure.”
Absolutely love how direct Mr. Emerson is. Is the name a reference to Ralph Waldo Emerson?
directing them how to worship Giotto, not by tactful valuations, but by the standards of the spirit.
She was sure that she ought not to be with these men; but they had cast a spell over her. They were so serious and so strange that she could not remember how to behave.
curate.”
vexatious.
Fun to see it in this form, rather than "vexing"
“My father has that effect on nearly everyone,” he informed her. “He will try to be kind.”
Direct people are often perceived as argumentative when that is not their intention. I get Mr. Emerson.
“How can he be unhappy when he is strong and alive? What more is one to give him? And think how he has been brought up—free from all the superstition and ignorance that lead men to hate one another in the name of God. With such an education as that, I thought he was bound to grow up happy.”
Democrats experience greater sadness. Women ith higher IQs are likelier to remain single. Intellectualism and social consciousness can be disheartening and alienating.
“Now don’t be stupid over this. I don’t require you to fall in love with my boy, but I do think you might try and understand him. You are nearer his age, and if you let yourself go I am sure you are sensible. You might help me. He has known so few women, and you have the time. You stop here several weeks, I suppose? But let yourself go. You are inclined to get muddled, if I may judge from last night. Let yourself go. Pull out from the depths those thoughts that you do not understand, and spread them out in the sunlight and know the meaning of them. By understanding George you may learn to
...more
We know that we come from the winds, and that we shall return to them; that all life is perhaps a knot, a tangle, a blemish in the eternal smoothness. But why should this make us unhappy? Let us rather love one another, and work and rejoice. I don’t believe in this world sorrow.”
It so happened that Lucy, who found daily life rather chaotic, entered a more solid world when she opened the piano.
Real
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.
This is like Maslow's study of music as a peak experience: sublime
A few people lingered round and praised her playing, but finding that she made no reply, dispersed to their rooms to write up their diaries or to sleep.
She's not playing for praise. She's playing for herself
