WIST Quotations

Clarke, Susanna -- Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004)

Dave — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 12:56:02 +0000

Mr Robinson was a polished sort of person. He was so clean and healthy and pleased about everything that he positively shone — which is only to be expected in a fairy or an angel, but is somewhat disconcerting in an attorney.

Susanna Clarke (b. 1949) British author
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004)

Clarke, Susanna -- Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004)

Dave — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 12:40:31 +0000

In familiar surroundings our manners are cheerful and easy, but only transport us to places where we know no one and no one knows us, and Lord! how uncomfortable we become!

Susanna Clarke (b. 1949) British author
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004)

Clarke, Susanna -- Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004)

Dave — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 12:17:48 +0000

The Foreign Secretary was a quite peerless orator. No matter how low the Government stood in the estimation of everyone, when the Foreign Secretary stood up and spoke — ah! how different everything seemed then! How quickly was every bad thing discovered to be the fault of the previous administration (an evil set of men who wedded general stupidity to wickedness of purpose).

Susanna Clarke (b. 1949) British author
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004)

Clarke, Susanna -- Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004)

Dave — Wed, 21 May 2014 11:51:10 +0000

Upon my word, there is nothing in the world so easy to explain as failure — it is, after all, what everybody does all the time.

Susanna Clarke (b. 1949) British author
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004)

Clarke, Susanna -- Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004)

Dave — Wed, 28 May 2014 12:03:57 +0000

It has been remarked (by a lady infinitely cleverer than the present author) how kindly disposed the world in general feels to young people who either die or marry. Imagine then the interest that surrounded Miss Wintertowne! No young lady ever had such advantages before: for she died upon the Tuesday, was raised to life in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and was married upon the Thursday; which some people thought too much excitement for one week.

Susanna Clarke (b. 1949) British author
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004)

Clarke, Susanna -- Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004)

Dave — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 14:09:29 +0000

“Well, I suppose one ought not to employ a magician and then complain that he does not behave like other people,” said Wellington.

Susanna Clarke (b. 1949) British author
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004)

Clarke, Susanna -- Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004)

Dave — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 12:36:06 +0000

In the end is it not futile to try and follow the course of a quarrel between husband and wife? Such a conversation is sure to meander more than any other. It draws in tributary arguments and grievances from years before — all quite incomprehensible to any but the two people they concern most nearly. Neither party is ever proved right or wrong in such a case, or, if they are, what does it signify?

Susanna Clarke (b. 1949) British author
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004)

Clarke, Susanna -- Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004)

Dave — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 16:39:52 +0000

For, though the room was silent, the silence of half a hundred cats is a peculiar thing, like fifty individual silences all piled one on top of another.

Susanna Clarke (b. 1949) British author
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004)