Status Updates From Life, Letters, and Epicurea...

I’m reading this book expecting an intimate perspective from Ninon herself, but instead it’s a 19th-century moralist constantly reminding me she’s a whore—then backpedaling with, “But don’t let that distract you, she was very clever and had a heart of gold!” It’s condescending, self-contradictory, and oddly obsessed.

Frågan om vad som finns kvar.

timiditet

faran med för många dygder

(brev 8)

St Evremond till L'Enclos: Your life, my well beloved, has been too illustrious not to be lived in the same manner until the end. Do not permit M. de la Rochefoucauld’s “hell” to frighten you; it was a devised hell he desired to construct into a maxim. Pronounce the word “love” boldly, and that of “old age” will never pass your lips.

Sévigné 35: I am beginning to understand, Marquis, that the only way to live with the most reasonable woman, is never to meddle with her heart affairs. I have, therefore, made up my mind. Henceforward I shall never mention your name to the Countess, unless she insists upon my doing so; I do not like bickerings.

Well, Marquis, in love as in war, the pleasure of obtaining a victory is measured according to the obstacles in the way of it.

Brev 28, Sévigné: Antag att kärlek finner oss. Vad kan vi göra med en person som bara är vacker? Vad kan vi tillbringa tid med, med en person som inte charmerar oss, bortom skönhet? Kärleken kräver liv, den brinner och äter sitt bränsle, och den bränner bara det som är nyttigt för den. När inte hjärnan är aktiv med en person, kommer den söka andra nöjen.

Sévigné 27: Is love not a passion? Do not very strict minded people pretend that the passions and vices mean the same things? Is vice ever more seductive than when it wears the cloak of virtue? Wherefore in order to corrupt virtuous souls it is sufficient for it to appear in a potential form.

Brev 20, Sévigné: Moderate, therefore, your imprudent vivacity; manifest less passion and you will excite more in her heart. We do not appreciate the worth of a prize more than when we are on the point of losing it. Some regulation in matters of love is indispensable for the happiness of both parties.

Sévigné brev 15: Vi skulle förlora mycket, om folk var ärliga med sina begär. Världen har valt att leka sin kärlek, som en komemdi, och det kräver att vi låtsas. Låt oss vara charmerade, utan att försöka förstå varför. Den som analyserar kärleken är nära att bota den. "Psyche lost it for having been too curious, and I am tempted to believe that this fable is a lesson for those who wish to analyze pleasure."

Brev 14, Sévigné: We are always forming attachments without sufficient circumspection, hence I am not wrong in comparing love to an appetite which one sometimes feels for one kind of food rather than for another, without being able to give the reason.

Brev 11, Sévigné: Friendship is a sentiment that has nothing to do with the senses; the soul alone receives the impression of it, and the soul loses nothing of its value by giving itself up to several at the same time. Compare friendship with love, and you will perceive the difference between a desire that governs a friend, and that that offers itself to a lover.

Brev 9, Sévigné: Come now, Marquis, retract your error; abandon your chimera, reserve delicacy of sentiment for friendship; accept love for what it is. The more dignity you give it, the more dangerous you make it; the more sublime the idea you form of it, the less correct it is. Believe de la Rochefoucauld, who knows the human heart, “If you expect to love a woman for love of herself, you will be much mistaken.”

Brev till Sévigné 6: It is doubtless to be desired, that true sentiments, real merit, should have more power over our hearts, that they might be able to occupy them and find a permanent place there forever. But experience proves that this is not so. I do not reason from what you should be, but from what you really are.

Det var länge sedan jag läste dessa. Denna del av breven handlar om tillfälliga relationer.

Brev till Sévigné 4: In a word, woe to the one of too monotonous a temperament; her monotony satiates and disgusts...A caprice puts you in uncertainty, which you have as much trouble and grief in dispelling as though it were a victory obtained over a new object... love is never so strong as when you believe it ready to break. It loves, it storms; everything is convulsive. Reduce it to rule? It languishes.

Brev 2 till Sévigné: In a word, love is the nourishment of the heart as food is of the body; to love is to fulfill the desire of nature, to satisfy a need. But if possible, manage it so that it will not become a passion.

Gud, jag har inte saknat den dumfascinerade texten om Ninons liv, inte heller försöken att putsa upp henne för att passa puritanska sensibiliteter.