music, books, love and kindness

"She reminded him of a celebrated actress in Paris who was the ideal of tortuous thinness."


"...there was no place like Boston for taking up with such seriousness a second-rate spinster from Brooklyn."

--from the short story "A New England Winter"

After a tough battle with sleep last night I finally fell lightly around four a.m. and I proceeded to dream about finding, buying and even selling rare Henry James books out of the trunk of my car...vivid colors and covers...highlight of the night:)

I don't particularly care for today. I like yesterday or the way I envision yesterday...the past minus sexism, racism and homophobia. A world with lovely sentences and surprisingly sharp insights into the human psyche...written in the manner of a brilliant drawing room comedy.

Whenever I dream about 19th century literature (and life) I have these amazing feelings...like I'd love the emotional restraint and intellectual parts of it...I could so do without technology and would relish the witty dialogue and delicious subtext that probably doesn't exist outside of the novel:)

James, in particular, seemed to have had a feel for emotions and social observations that were ahead of their time...even the meanness buried (and not so buried) within his witty observations has an almost 21st century chic to it...especially in his shorter sentences that don't go round and round the barn with what he really wants to say...