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156 pages, Paperback
First published September 23, 2010
It's also evident, by the way, that Gregor prefers to be alone and live alone in general, and to look at himself in mirrors rather than at other people, and to do without women even though they find him very attractive: he's quite handsome, quite tall, brilliant, has a way with words, he's not yet forty, and he's available. Even though he's certainly not indifferent, given that he's not any fonder of men, the the fact that women cluster discreetly around him, so far Gregor apparently prefers that they keep a certain distance. But this is in part due to various specific parts of his personality.
In the time it takes to invent an arc lamp immediately patented, offered to consumers, and quickly lucrative, time enough for his partners to see a nice little return on their investment and handsome profit, Gregor finds himself promptly fired from his own business, which his associates take over, happy to celebrate their success, leaving him cleaned out. That's how he winds up back in the street--a porter, an excavation laborer, an unskilled construction worker riddled with debts--for four years.
It's an attentive ravishment, a marveling; it's pleasing and rejuvenating, a steady, pure current that he has never experienced until now with anyone, and at the end of the day he finds himself wondering if it might not be an emotion he has only heard about and never paid attention to before, a feeling difficult to define, hard to put into words. A state--let's take the plunge: let's call it love.