#Forsytesaga26 "...she knew nothing of it, save that it had been the great passion of his life, and his marriage with herself but domestic makeshift. She had always kept the grudge of that up her sleeve, as it were, and used it commercially." Such compact, precise and incisive writing sometimes.

#BalzacTogether Their children—like all children born of love—inherited the mother’s beauty and nothing else, a gift that is often fatal when accompanied by poverty.

#ForsyteSaga26 "That was the negation of all virtue, the overturning of all Forsyte principles. Could civilization be built on any other?"

#ForsyteSaga26 "He remembered the first wave of influenza in 1887—or '8—hatched in China, so they said. He wondered where this—this Expressionism had been hatched. The thing was a regular disease!"

#BalzacTogether "Greed is like love in that both have a kind of second sight with regard to future possible events; it sniffs them out, and cannot leave them alone."

#BalzacTogether The Two Poets "The room’s qualities of patriarchal austerity and its abundance of brown were both due to Monsieur Rouzeau, the predecessor and employer of Jérôme-Nicolas Séchard."

#MidsummerND2026 #NYRBWomen26 Thisbe: What, dead, my dove? (V.1.317)

#MidsummerND2026 Theseus: This is the greatest error of all the rest. The man should be put into the lanthorn. How is it else the “man i' th' moon?” (V.1.231-233)

#MidsummerND2026 PYRAMUS; Oh, kiss me through the hole of this vile wall! (V.1.202)

#SundaySarton Writings on Writing Finis "Till one has expressed a thing, it is like an untidy, unswept, undusted corner of a room. When it is expressed, one feels cleaner and more elegant, as it were, but less profound."

#NYRBWomen26 The Sweet Dove Died "Yet, when one came to think of it, the only flowers that were really perfect were those, like the peonies that went so well with one’s charming room, that possessed the added grace of having been presented to oneself." Finished. I'm sad now.

#MidsummerND2026 Bottom: I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream. It shall be called "Bottom's Dream" because it hath no bottom. (IV.1.215-217)

#MidsummerND2026 Oberon: And that same dew, which sometime on the buds Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls, Stood now within the pretty flowerets' eyes Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail. (IV.1.49-52)

#MidsummerND2026 Robin: Follow my voice. We’ll try no manhood here. (III.2.444-445) Ostensibly, Oberon is Robin's "boss", but they seem, to me, ungovernable and comply with directions only as it amuses them.

#MidsummerND2026 Oberon: When they next wake, all this derision Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision. And back to Athens shall the lovers wend, With league whose date till death shall never end. (III.2.397-400)

#NYRBWomen26 ‘I shall always love you,’ James went on, hardly making things better, for ‘always’ had such a final sound about it; it might just as well have been ‘never’.

#MidsummerND2026 Hermia: What, can you do me greater harm than hate? (III.2.287)

#NYRBWomen26 "Now she was wide awake for the second time and there seemed nothing for it but to go down and make tea, a drink she did not much like because of the comfort it was said to bring to those whom she normally despised."

#MidsummerND2026 Helena: If you were men, as men you are in show, You would not use a gentle lady so To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts, When I am sure you hate me with your hearts. (III.2.158-161)

#MidsummerND2026 Demetrius: So should the murdered look, and so should I, Pierced through the heart with your stern cruelty. Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear, As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere. (III.2.62-65)

#midsummernd2026 Quince: Well. We will have such a prologue, and it shall be written in eight and six. Bottom: No, make it two more. Let it be written in eight and eight. (III.1.21-24)

#NYRBWomen26 "He bent to kiss her cheek, his hands touching her stiffly lacquered hair, the feeling of which gave him a slight shock as if she were made of some brittle unreal substance." "How Humphrey had loomed over her. Looming in the gloaming – she couldn’t really share the joke with James."

SLOW RIVER on sale for $1.99! Today and US only, all platforms. Go buy it: a) At that price why not?! b) It's stuffed with visual and emotional set-pieces: very cinematic c) It's more relevant today that when I wrote it—and suffused with hope. Lots more reasons in the post...

Today Only! Slow River = $1.99!

SLOW RIVER is on sale for $1.99. Today only, US only, all platforms. It's the lowest price in—literally—decades! You should buy it because a) At that price why not?! b) It's stuffed with visual and emotional set-pieces: very cinematic c) It's suffused with hope—and more relevant today that when I wrote it.

nicolagriffith.com

#MidsummerND2026 Helena: Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies, For she hath blessèd and attractive eyes. How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears. If so, my eyes are oftener washed than hers. (II.2.95-98)

#midsummernd2026 Oberon: But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon, And the imperial votaress passèd on, In maiden meditation, fancy-free. (II.1.165-168)

#midsummernd2026 Fairy: Those that “Hobgoblin” call you, and “sweet Puck,” You do their work, and they shall have good luck. Are not you he? (II.1.40-42)

#NYRBWomen26 The Sweet Dove Died "Leonora quickly recovered, deciding that Miss Culver was obviously one of those eccentric women who live alone and don’t always realize what they are saying."

#NYRBWomen26 "‘I suppose I’d have a lot in common with Phoebe, and not only English literature,’ said Ned, giving James a sideways look." 👀

#MidsummerND2026 Bottom: That will ask some tears in the true performing of it. If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes. I will move storms. I will condole in some measure. To the rest. Yet my chief humor is for a tyrant. (I.2.21-24) I wonder if Sh. wrote this with a real actor in mind.

#NYRBWomen26 My favourite line this week from The Sweet Dove Died: "She herself preferred crème de menthe; she had changed into a green chiffon dress which gave her a feeling for that drink."