File 1.78 Mitfordiana
But all the Mitfordiana - Decca and Debo and Unity Valkyrie, the runnings away, the schoolroom passions for Hitler or Stalin - tend to come into the reader's mind, and to crowd the only thing that matters: the books. [...] Mitford called a collection of miscellaneous writings The Water Beetle, a title borrowed from Hilaire Belloc; the waterbeetle glides gracefully over the surface of the water, but if she ever stopped to think how she did it, she would sink. I don't believe this self-portrait for a second.
P. Hensher, "Introduction", in: Nancy Mitford,
Love in a Cold Climate, Penguin, 2000, p. xii
From behind 2.25
Hanging in the back of the shop, as they have hung for two generations, are bright framed prints of contrasting Victorian beauties, one of a golden-haired, delicate young lady with luminous blue eyes, her soft white shoulders draped in a Pre-Raphaelite something, the other a roguishly pretty gipsy maiden whose incredibly thick black hair falls in great round curls.
J. Mitford,
Hons and Rebels
Spoil 1.96
A curious feature of the Cold War was the prohibition against travel abroad by Americans suspected of Left leanings. From 1952 until 1958, when the Supreme Court took a hand in the matter, passports were arbitrarily withheld or revoked [...] Thus for almost a decade only the true-blue, the politically and intellectually untainted, were permitted to travel abroad. I have often wondered if this accounted for the generally low esteem in which American tourists were held by Europeans.
J. Mitford,
A fine old conflict, London, 1977, p. 175
Von Bagdad nach Stambul
The tale of Genji, with its eerily Proustian anatomisation of social protocol and matters of the heart, is approachable [...] but
The Tale of the Heike feels much more antique, a military chronicle cobbled together from a mishmash of adventure yarns, religious cautionary tales, folk legends and portraits of heroism. (S. Sacks, "The age is ours!".
London Review of Books. 21 November 2013. p.29) || Einfacher gesagt, ist eine Handlung alles, was in und um eine Konfiguration in einem Text 'passiert', und zwar in chronologischer Sukzession. Nehmen wir als Beispiel einen Roman von Karl May, etwa "Von Bagdad nach Stambul". || Stated more simply, a plot is everything that takes place in and around a configuration in a text, and in chronological succession. Let us take as an example a novel by Karl May, for instance "From Bagdad to Istanbul". (J. Link, Literaturwissenschaftliche Grundbegriffe. Munich. W. Fink Verlag. 1974. transl. mine) || Dem Roßhändler schlug das Herz gegen den Wams. Es drängte ihn, den nichtswürdigen Dickwanst in den Kot zu werfen, und den Fuß auf sein kupfernes Antlitz zu setzen. Doch sein Rechtgefühl, das einer Goldwaage glich, wankte noch [...] (H.v. Kleist,
Michael Kohlhaas. 1810.
Projekt Gutenberg) || The horse-dealer's heart thumped against his doublet. He felt a strong desire to throw the good-for-nothing, pot-bellied scoundrel into the mud and set his foot on his copper-colored face. But his sense of justice, which was as delicate as a gold-balance, still wavered [...] (Frances H. King.
Kohlhaas translation. 1914.
Full text) || His most ardent supporters were a group of ageing New York radicals led by Constancia Romilly, the daughter of Jessica Mitford [...] (A. Shatz, "The Life and Death of Juliano Mer-Khamis".
London Review of Books. 21 November 2013. pp.7-8) || [At the Geological Society of London] there followed long, often spirited debates on matters such as where to fix the borders of the Devonian period. "Though I don't much care for geology," one visitor to the society's early meetings noted, "I do like to see the fellows fight." (E. Kolbert, "The Lost World".
The New Yorker. December 23 & 30, 2013. p.48) || Wird das Telefon abgehoert? Und wenn ja: lohnt sich das? Es ist das Beste, diese Frage am Telefon zu besprechen. || Is the telephone being bugged? And if so: is it worth it? It's best to discuss this issue on the telephone. (M. Frisch,
Tagebuch 1966-1971. Frankfurt/Main. Suhrkamp. 1972. p.292. Transl. mine.) || As with French Impressionists who cherished Japanese prints that were nothing more than popular graphics back in Japan, its was a classic case of overvaluing the exotic object in ways that made even third-rate masters seem blessed. (A. Gopnik, "Two Bands".
The New Yorker. December 23&30, 2013. p.126) || Die Brueder Goncourt haben sich nicht gescheut: wer mit ihnen speiste, geriet durch ihr Tagebuch in die Oeffentlichkeit. (M. Frisch,
Tagebuch 1966-1971. Frankfurt/Main. Suhrkamp. 1972. p.311) || What is constant throughout
The Tale of the Heike is its nostalgic, often despairing evocation of a dying culture. Its most famous passage concerns the transient nature of worldly renown:
The Jetavana Temple bells
ring the passing of all things.
Twinned sal trees, white in full flower,
declare the great man's certain fall.
The arrogant do not long endure:
They are like a dream one night in spring.
The bold and brave perish in the end:
They are as dust before the wind.
(S. Sacks, "The age is ours!" Ibid.)
File 1.94 Mitfordiana
The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, at 88, is the last of the famous
Mitford girls.
Mitfordiana
Tom T-t
Palewski was [Nancy] Mitford’s great love and influenced what she felt about art, politics and how life should be lived, but Palewski was a philanderer and probably loved no one. (Caroline Moorehead, “Toff love”, TLS January 27 2012, p.30) || She developed a sense for when Hawthorne was at the front door, feeling “just sure it was Mr. Hawthorne as if I had seen him.” She gave him a nosegay of sweet violets, which he kept in water for a week before taking one to Boston to be seet under black crystal – “enshrined from every possible harm” – and mounted on a gold brooch that he intended to wear himself. (Megan Marshall, “The Other Sister”, The New Yorker, March 21, 2005, p.44) || To understand Vauxhall’s history, they tell us, we should look not for the “political or philosphical rationales”, but to the “remarkable but flawed” nature of Tyers himself, who “seems to have had some sort of psychological imbalance, and may even have suffered from a form of bipolar disorder.” The best written evidence for this is apparently a satirical pamphlet of about 1750 which claims that Tyers has become melancholy as a result of the death of tom T-t, his “favourite Ham-shaver”. I have not been able to find this text, but it appears to suggest that Tyers had grown melancholy at the thought that a new waiter, less skilled than Tom, would carve the ham thicker and so shave his profits thinner. (John Barrell, “South bank nights”, TLS January 27 2012, p.4) || The revolutionary photographer Diane Arbus, who died in 1971, at the age of forty-eight, said, “A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.” [...] Over the years, Arbuses that I once found devastating have seemed to wait for me to change just a little, then to devastate me all over again. (Peter Schjeldahl, “Looking Back”, The New Yorker, March 21, 2005, p.78)
