Comment by bilby, 5 months ago

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 16:22:28 +0000

Especially in songs.

Comment by sionnach, 5 months ago

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 16:18:46 +0000

Often followed by the word corpse.

Comment by knitandpurl, 5 months ago

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 15:04:45 +0000

"And I realised that it was for herself that she obeyed these canons in accordance with which she dressed, as though yielding to a superior wisdom of which she herself was the high priestess: for if it should happen that, feeling too warm, she threw open or even took off altogether and gave me to carry the jacket which she had intended to keep buttoned up, I would discover in the blouse beneath it a thousand details of execution which had had every chance of remaining unobserved, like those parts of an orchestral score to which the composer has devoted infinite labour although they may never reach the ears of the public: or, in the sleeves of the jacket that lay folded across my arm I would see, and would lengthily gaze at, for my own pleasure or from affection for its wearer, some exquisite detail, a deliciously tinted strap, a lining of mauve satinette which, ordinarily concealed from every eye, was yet just as delicately fashioned as the outer parts, like those Gothic carvings on a cathedral, hidden on the inside of a balustrade eighty feet from the ground, as perfect as the bas-reliefs over the main porch, and yet never seen by any living man until, happening to pass that way upon his travels, an artist obtains leave to climb up there among them, to stroll in the open air, overlooking the whole town, between the soaring towers."

-- Within a Budding Grove by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, Revised by D.J. Enright, pp 293-294 of the Modern Library paperback edition

Wordie: Exquisite: Comments

Comment by bilby, 5 months ago

Comment by sionnach, 5 months ago

Comment by knitandpurl, 5 months ago