The Flanders Panel

by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

“In affairs of the heart, Princess,” César used to say, “one should offer neither advice nor solutions . . . just a clean hanky when it seems appropriate.” And that was exactly what he’d done

a relentless war of attrition had succeeded in deadening and displacing, the way you relegate a book to a shelf to gather dust, with no intention of ever opening it again, but which is still there, despite everything.

the ashtray was piled high with cigarette ends.

Far too many references to smoking . Very distracting .

“There’s nothing more misleading than an obvious fact. That’s a principle from logic which is equally applicable in chess: what seems obvious doesn’t always turn out to be what really happened or what is about to happen.

And he raises one delicate, beautiful hand, a manly hand, the kind of hand that immediately brings to mind the sword it must once have wielded, the reins it held, the skin it caressed, the quill it dipped into an inkwell before scratching words on parchment, he raises that hand by way of protest, though he knows it is in vain, for, amongst other things, he is not even sure to whom he should protest.

man was not born to solve the problem of the world, merely to discover where the problem lies.

It’s odd how, against all logic, one clings to life in inverse proportion to the quantity of life one has left to look forward to.”