Elizabeth Jenkins > Quotes

“The woman whose behavior indicates that she will make a scene if she is told the truth asks to be deceived.”
― Elizabeth Jenkins

“The re-dipping of the dishes was a small matter, but the emotional texture of married life is made up of small matters. This one had become invested with a fatal quality.”
― Elizabeth Jenkins, The Tortoise and the Hare

“The celestial brightness of Pride and Prejudice is unequalled even in Jane Austen's other work; after a life of much disappointment and grief, in which some people would have seen nothing but tedium and emptiness, she stepped forth as an author, breathing gaiety and youth, robed in dazzling light.”
― Elizabeth Jenkins

“This is not an age favourable to the development of artistic genius; it may be that for a time all forms of art will pass away into the domination of those who think that a good picture can be painted only if the artist's political views record with theirs, and that it is only possible to write a good novel provided the author follows the rules they have laid down.”
― Elizabeth Jenkins

“Imogen,” he said with forced patience, “you have plenty of occupations of your own, and you don’t care to do the things that give a great deal of pleasure to me – when I have time to do them. You don’t want to fish or shoot and you can’t drive my car, which would be a help to me sometimes. Am I to understand that you object to my having the companionship of another woman who can do these things?”
― Elizabeth Jenkins, The Tortoise and the Hare

“She had much to think over just now, so that to be deprived of a separate bedroom was a real hardship. The reason she had had to vacate her own was the unfortunate coincidence of Harriet’s arrival with that of Alice’s married sister and her husband. Elizabeth Hoppner had married an impecunious young artist of twenty-two, four years younger than herself; they had been living with Patrick’s brother Lewis in a small villa at Streatham; but, the lease having now expired, circumstances combined to make them feel that living in the country would be in every way better”
― Elizabeth Jenkins, Harriet

“You know as well as I do,” she said, “it’s the money we can’t do without, if you’re to have that dress you want. I’m sure it’s no pleasure to me to have Harriet in the house—extra to do for, and no help either; but Jane Ogilvy pays well to get her off her hands, and I’m sure I don’t wonder. It’s a good thing for her she’s got the money to do it, and eight pounds for the month is what I can’t do without, not if you’re to have all your flummeries.”
― Elizabeth Jenkins, Harriet

“in after life the most vivid impression of his cousin which Tom Ogilvy retained was the sight of her holding up a bun and laughing with great heartiness but apparently with no meaning.”
― Elizabeth Jenkins, Harriet

“La enfermera no puso objeciones y lo cierto es que se tranquilizó no poco al advertir lo mucho que había cambiado Lewis ahora que esa fresca y descarada ya no estaba en casa, pues parecía predispuesta, con la mayor naturalidad, a culpar principalmente de la situación al miembro de su mismo sexo.”
― Elizabeth Jenkins, Harriet

“some of their less well-to-do connections were glad to put up with the slight awkwardness of having her in the house for a short space, in consideration of the handsome boarding fee which was paid them for it.”
― Elizabeth Jenkins, Harriet

“Harriet, her only child, was what the villagers in Mrs. Ogilvy’s old home would have called a natural. Her intellect was not so clouded that intercourse with ordinary people was out of the question; the deficiency showed itself rather in a horrid uncouthness, the more noticeable in that she had a vigorous and powerful zest for such aspects of existence as were intelligible to her; she was not easy to put out of the way.”
― Elizabeth Jenkins, Harriet