Showing posts with label Edith Wharton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edith Wharton. Show all posts

Friday, June 5, 2009

Edith Wharton and Cynthia Griffin Wolff, Ethan Frome




Aphorism 86: “Cold is the absence of passion!” Cynthia Griffin Wolff’s Signet Classic Edition introduction.

Full Quote: “There is cold, the absence of passion. There is starvation, the desperate need for affection.”

Aphorism 85: “The hypnotizing effect of routine!”

Full Quote: “I chafed at first, and then, under the hypnotizing effect of routine, gradually began to find a grim satisfaction in the life.” Wharton, Prologue

Aphorism 84: “There is nothing unfriendly in silence!”

Full Quote: “..there was warm and sentient in him fast bound below the surface; but there was nothing unfriendly in his silence.” Wharton, Prologue

Aphorism 83: “Why don’t you say something? Because I am listening.”

Full Quote: “Sometimes, in the long winter evenings, when in desperation her son asked her why she didn’t ‘say something,’ she would lift and finger and answer: ‘Because I’m listening.’” Wharton Chapter 4