Tuesday, January 24, 2006

On this day in literature . . .

~ 1862 ~ Edith Wharton (The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome) is born in New York City.


His eye lit on a cluster of yellow roses. He had never seen any as sun-golden before, and his first impulse was to send them to May instead of the lilies. But they did not look like her - there was something too rich, to strong, in their fiery beauty. In a sudden revulsion of mood, and almost without knowing what he did, he signed to the florist to lay the roses in another long box, and slipped his card into a second envelope, on which he wrote the name of the Countess Olenska; then, just as he was turning away, he drew the card out again, and left the empty envelope on the box. "They'll go at once?" he enquired, pointing to the roses. The florist assured him that they would.

- from Chapter 9, The Age of Innocence

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is a book I need to reread. The movie was great too. Good memories of grad school.

12:16 AM  
Blogger Andrea said...

Do you remember when Laura sent yellow roses to the reading group meeting when we read this book? What a happy memory! :-)

3:22 PM  

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