Monday, December 31, 2012

Barchester Towers: 60% Complete

Well, folks, I hope you all had a good holiday season and are looking forward to a prosperous and happy 2013.  I know I am! I also start school again on Wednesday, so I'll be getting back on track with my reading too!
 
Today's vocabulary word is "dissimulate" which means "to conceal or disguise one's feelings, thoughts or character."  I also ran across another gentleman with an unusual name, the doctor, Sir Omicron Pie.  I'm not sure what the significance of these letter in his name are, but omicron is fifteenth letter of the Greek alphabet and pi is the sixteenth.
 
Often in this book Trollope has expressed his opinion on the place or proper decorum of women in society, and I find those opinions fascinating, even if I don't always agree with them.  So I have three quotes for you that relate to this subject.
 
First, Trollope's opinion on angry women:
 
"As a general rule, it is highly desirable that ladies should keep their temper; a woman when she storms always makes herself ugly, and usually ridiculous also."
 
In this next passage, a women feels she has been wronged by a man, but he doesn't feel he did anything wrong.  As it turns out, he didn't, she just heard the story wrong, so they are both of them in the right.  Trollope writes,
 
"As she spoke she with difficulty restrained her tears--but she did restrain them.  Had she given way and sobbed aloud, as in such cases a women should do, he would have melted at once, implored her pardon, perhaps knelt at her feet and declared his love."
 
And lastly, a truth:
 
"Few men do understand the nature of a woman's heart, till years have robbed such understanding of its value."
 
Happy New Year!

2 comments:

  1. Not a lot of reading this week, Anna? Me either. Happy New Year to you.

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    1. No, it was a bit of a slower week reading-wise. But that's how the holidays always are!

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