Julius Quotes

“She had no will of her own now, no consecutive thought, no power of concentration; she was being dashed and hurtled into a chaos that blinded her, some bottomless pit, some sweet, appalling nothingness.
[...]
Papa who played her on a thousand strings, she dancing to his tune like a doll on wires - Papa who harped at her and would not let her be. He was cruel, he was relentless, he was like some oppressive, suffocating power that stifled her and could not be warded off; he gave her all these bewildering sounds and sensations without causing so that she was like a child stuffed with sweets cloying and rich; they were rammed down her throat and into her belly, filling her, exhausting her, making her a drum of excitement and anguish and emotion that was gripping in its savage intensity. It was too much for her, too strong.
She felt as though she were a dry stack in a deep wood, and he had put a match to her and was watching her burn.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“Once you were used to this you did not want to go back, it got into your blood and kept you - this voice of luxury folding and wrapping you were soft caressing fingers.
It was smooth and warm life the texture of velvet, it was cool and soothing like a linen sheet, it shone white and still like the pearls Rachel wore, and slowly, cunningly, with infinite subtlety it wove a web around your hands and feet, it cast a chain about your neck.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“She would have him proud of her, she thought, if she took pains to look her best, she would have him showing her off, perhaps, watching her with a smile, she would learn to be smart and clever and she would be his lady.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“Was it true the lovely part of love only lasted a moment and the sorrow went on for a lifetime?”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“He saw the face that stared at him now, ugly, degenerate and old, and he knew that his life counted therefore as nothing, that no achievement lay behind him, no battle won, no beauty possessed; that Julius Lévy was a name already vanished and lost in the sky, that had never been, that would not go on; and he wondered if there was no continuation of life, not future, no treasure beyond the stars, and if in reality there was neither God nor man, nor any world at all.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“He was on her before she could move, seizing her throat in his right hand, bending her legs with his knees, pressing her down into the water beneath him. She fought in his grip, but was unable to free herself. She opened her mouth: 'Papa - Papa... Papa...' a last cry, a last choking struggle for breath.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“I have a new thing about living, it's not going to be the same any more. It's going to be more wonderful than anything has ever been. I'm so happy.'
[...]
'This will hurt you, of course, but - I can't help that, I can't think of anyone but myself when I'm happy. You said I was always to think of myself.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“And as he sat there alone, he knew that never again would he have any sensation of peace or contentment, that never would his days or his nights be free from anguish and bitter distress. Because of what he had seen and heard that evening he would be driven tormented to mental horror as yet unknown to him and feared, there would be no rest for him until he had crushed and hidden and made secure into eternity his own creation, possessed for ever or returned to the place from whence it came.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“You know what's the matter with you, you're getting old,' she said. Then she went out of the room.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“Why should you mind?' she said.
He brushed the remark away.
'How do you think I'm going to live if I'm never to be certain of you, day or night?' he said to her.
She shrugged her shoulders.
'It's not my affair if you choose to make a fool of yourself,' she told him.
There was a pause and then she said: 'You might have known this would happen. I'm nearly twenty-five, my life's my own, after all.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“Because I wouldn't lie to you,' she said. 'If I ever want anyone, I'll tell you. As it happens, I've never felt like wanting anyone up to date.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“You know, I think she's terribly attractive, but when you dance with her she makes you feel she doesn't want you. It's as if she were tremendously alive and you were a piece of wood. And that's all wrong, because she obviously must hate pieces of wood - shes has such hot eyes.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“She would be the victor, she would never be possessed. Nothing could hurt her now. In her life she would go out and do as she pleased and take the things that waited for her, She and Papa were two branches on a tree, and he had tried to see if he was stronger than she. He thought he had won. He thought he had beaten her down and she would let him go on thinking this as long as it suited her. She would keep him by her side and draw upon his strength; his life was her life, his flesh and blood were her flesh and blood, but it would never be he who was master. She held him between her hands and he did not know. When two forces came against each other and struggled and battled for supremacy one of the two must suffer and be hurt.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“Oh!' She rose in irritation. 'Don't harp at me, it bores me so. I'll go with you when I want to and not before.'
He flushed under his skin, hating her.
'You're such a bitch,' he said.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“You're an odd creature.' he said, staring at her. 'I don't believe you ever feel anything, do you? Are you fond of your mother? Do you like me? Do you care about anyone?'
[...]'I don't know,' she said carelessly. 'I like doing things.'
'You won't always be like that,' he insisted. 'Some day you'll feel something, surely?”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“The Gabriel who returned home needed no counsel, asked for no advice; she emerged from a child into a vivid, flamboyant personality with a depth of knowledge in her eyes, as sure of herself as though she were a woman grown [...]”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“He was his own god, he, Julius Lévy, and the power he made for himself. He was beholden to nothing and to no one and his destiny belonged to him,”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“The sentiments he inspired by his fortune and success were the sentiments he craved, not affection, not loyalty nor trust, for there could pass him by, these were worthless anaemic qualities but envy and angry admiration and hatred at times and fear,
It was good to be envied by men, it was good to be feared, it was food to experience deeply the sensation of power by wealth, the power of money tossed to and fro lightly in his hands like a little god obedient as a slave. The voices around him were warm and thrilling to his heart because of their envy.
[...]
Voices, and eyes, and fingers directed towards him; wherever he walked he would be aware of them, and it was meat and it was drink to him, it was life, and lust, and glory, and desire.
[...]
his intuition was like a streak of lightning that comes before the thunder. He was first in all things he was ready two seconds before his opponents. It was as though in his mind for those two seconds of caution and reconsideration, and in that time he was away from them, he had cast his fly, he had won.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“It seemed to him that she belonged more to him since her family disbanded. She and Gabriel were more definitely and finally his than they had been before, and he was pleased with this because possession was dear to him.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“Possession - yes, possess the whole earth if you wanted, but keep it for yourself. What should it matter to you how your things were scattered to the winds - after you were dead? There was only one life that mattered in this world and that was your own.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“Meanwhile, this only child helped to make up the pattern of his background, she was a necessary ornament to his private domestic life. There was something pleasing about the possession of a wife and a child, they formed another link in a chain of power.
A son would have grown up - proved difficult. A son was hard to control, and lived all the time in the hopes of inheriting money and position. There need be none of this trouble with a daughter. Daughters could be managed, all they had to do in life was to look attractive.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“He had chosen her, she was his wife, she would do. The discovery he made was that the sensation of owning a wife, and a house, and a staff of servants, was a pleasurable one; that to order and be obeyed in his own home, to know he was master here as well as in his cafés, to entertain guests and be aware of their covetous glances at his goods, and his woman, was a thrill of keen intensity new and extremely satisfying.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“Was it true the lovely part of love only lasted a moment and the sorrow went on for a lifetime? [...] she always wished men and women would just be content talking about books and music and things.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“I don't know whether you are a devil or a saint." [...]
He became human for a moment, and then he looked out of the window, a shadow on his face, baffling, inscrutable, as though he had reached for a secret and found it gone.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“She tried to say his name and call to him, but her strength was gone from her.
He saw by her eyes that she knew she was dying, and that her faith was gone and she was afraid. He saw that she did not believe in God, or continuation After death, and that this was the end for her and she would never see him again. She would be a candle blown in the darkness. He saw by her eyes that she knew now he could have saved her had he wanted, but he chose to let her die, and she did not understand.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“He made her laugh too much, and laughing hurt.
'You're killing me,' she protested, [...] you mustn't do it's you're killing me.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“Elsa, coughing her life away in the little bedroom next to him, was happy in the ignorance of death like a child who believes in God.
Time was not slow to her, the seconds passed kn the crest of a wave and so out of her reach for ever.
She live in a world of pure imagination.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“He considered her only as someone who worked under him. Someone he employed. Stung to anger by his sneers she let her tongue run away with her.
'Since you think of me as one of your servant, why do you expect me to work without wages?”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“After some harshness to her [...] She would say to herself: 'Thus is the end, I won't bear it any more. I shall go from him and never come back'; and then sit white-faced and tight-lipped over the evening meal in the stuffy parlor behind the shop. [...] She could never go from him without her own life leaving her.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“You do love me, don't you? Tell me you do.'
'Of course, little idiot; be quiet, anyway,' and she must be content with that.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius