Friday, May 13, 2011

Classic novel

I have been swapping books back and forth with a friend, and this was the latest book she arm twisted me to read. I read A Passage to India about 15 years ago, so reading this book was reminiscent to another time in my life - one in which I was totally immersed in my undergraduate studies. Forster is a great novelist - funny, sophisticated wit, intelligent plots, timeless. This book is no different and I am sure that I will watch the movie that came out a few years ago (it too came with high reviews).

Many times I found myself wanting to write out quotes from this book. Thank you wikipedia for the following quotes, saves me from finding them in the book. This is a romance and a period piece, now that a hundred years has passed since it was written, and a fine read. It rings true as a story, and provides a window in to another time, a different place - yet the emotions and the feeling remains constant.

  • There's enough sorrow in the world, isn't there, without trying to invent it
  • The kingdom of music is not the kingdom of this world; it will accept those whom breeding and intellect and culture have alike rejected. The commonplace person begins to play, and shoots into the empyrean without effort, whilst we look up, marveling how he has escaped us, and thinking how we could worship him and love him, would he but translate his visions into human words, and his experiences into human actions.
  • Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practice.
  • It isn’t possible to love and to part. You will wish that it was. You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. I know from experience that the poets are right: love is eternal.

1 comment:

Cher said...

I have picked that book up a few times and as it looked good -must read now! Thanks