Y Thursday, January 29, 2009
Vanity Fair
Alas B's and G's I have not died as the lack of new posts seems to suggest. I've just been away enjoying Chinese new year so much! Whoever doesn't love the smell of fresh crisp notes (nevermind the packaging)and of course meeting up with relatives , steamboat-ing and the best of them all mahjong-ing ;)
Anyway apart from living a hedonistic lifestyle, I have been actively broadening the horizons of my mind through reading. Quote Of The Day : The library is your best friend The latest being the classic Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray. No, not the magazine Vanity Fair. In addition to increasing my range of vocabulary the novel teaches a fair bit about life as well...
All the world used her ill, said this young misanthropist, and we may be pretty certain that persons whom all the world treats ill deserve entirely the treatment they get. The world is a looking glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it , and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it , and it is a jolly kind companion ; and so let all young persons take their choice.
The best of women ( I have heard my grandmother say) are hypocrites. We don't know how much they hide from us: how watchful they are when they seem most artless and confidential: how often those frank smiles, which they wear so easily, are traps to cajole or elude or disarm- I don't mean your mere coquettes, but your domestic models, and paragons of female virtue. Who has not seen a woman hide the dulness of a stupid husband, or coax the fury of a savage one? We accept this amiable slavishness, and praise a woman for it; we call this pretty treachery truth.
It must have often crossed Miss Crawley's mind that nobody does anything for nothing. If she measured her own feeling towards the world , she must have been pretty well able to gauge those of the world towards herself; and perhaps she reflected, that it is the ordinary lot of people to have no friends if they themselves care for nobody.
As an observer of human nature, I regularly frequent St George's, Hanover Square, during the genteel marriage season; and though I have never seen the bridegroom's male friends give way to tears, or the beadles and officiating clergy any way affected , yet it is not at all uncommon to see women who are not in the least concerned in the operations going on- old ladies who are long past marrying, stout middle-aged females with plenty of sons and daughters, let alone young pretty creatures in pink bonnets, who are on their promotion , and may naturally take an interest in the ceremony- I say it is quite common to see the women present piping, sobbing, sniffling , hiding their little faces in their little useless pocket-handkerchiefs; and heaving, old and young with emotion.
Ah! Vanitas Vanitatum! Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or having it, is satisfied?- Come children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out.
p.s this post is dedicated to Amanda who only reads my blog when she has absolutely nothing else in the world to do
youknowyouloveme
you know you love me
xoxo
9:54 AM
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