Maud Quotes

“You can turn your hand to anything, you clever girl, so do come and give me some advice, for I am in the depths of despair," said Fanny, when the "maid-of-all-work," as Polly called herself, found a leisure hour.
"What is it? Moths in the furs, a smokey chimney, or small-pox next door?" asked Polly as they entered Fan's room, where Maud was trying on old bonnets before the looking glass.
"Actually I have nothing to wear," began Fan impressively.”
― Louisa May Alcott, An Old Fashioned Girl

“Faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null, Dead perfection, no more”
― Alfred Tennyson, Maud

“Everything has changed. Nothing has changed, at all. She has put back my flesh; but flesh will close, will seal, will scar and harden.”
― Sarah Waters, Fingersmith

“We glide, softly, in silence, into our dark and separate hells.”
― Sarah Waters, Fingersmith

“I must bruise her, for all the commonplace wanting of him that ―were I an ordinary girl, with an ordinary heart ― I would surely feel myself.”
― Sarah Waters, Fingersmith

“Now I feel myself a book, as books must seem to her: she looks at me with unreading eyes, sees the shape, but not the meaning of the text. She marks the white flesh ―‘Ain't you pale!’ she says ― but not the quick, corrupted blood beneath.”
― Sarah Waters, Fingersmith

“Don't hurt yourself,’ she will say ―so simply, so kindly, I quite forget that she is only keeping me safe for Richard's sake. I think that she forgets it, too.”
― Sarah Waters, Fingersmith

“

Girls love easily, there. That is their point.

Hip, lip and tongue―

‘Do you think me good?’ I say.

‘Good, miss?’

She does. It felt like safety, once. Now it feels like a trap. I say, ‘I wish― I wish you would tell me―’

‘Tell you what, miss?’

Tell me. Tell me a way to save you. A way to save myself. The room is perfectly black. Hip, lip―

Girls love easily, there.

‘I wish,’ I say, ‘I wish you would tell me what it is a wife must do, on her wedding-night...’

And at first, it is easy. After all, this is how it is done, in my uncle's books: two girls, one wise and one unknowing... ‘He will want,’ she says, ‘to kiss you. He will want to embrace you.’ It is easy. I say my part, and she ―with a little prompting ― says hers. The words sink back upon their pages. It is easy, it is easy...

Then she rises above me and puts her mouth to mine.

”
― Sarah Waters, Fingersmith

“Girls love easily, there. That is their point.
Hip, lip and tongue―
‘Do you think me good?’ I say.
‘Good, miss?’
She does. It felt like safety, once. Now it feels like a trap. I say, ‘I wish― I wish you would tell me―’
‘Tell you what, miss?’
Tell me. Tell me a way to save you. A way to save myself. The room is perfectly black. Hip, lip―
Girls love easily, there.
‘I wish,’ I say, ‘I wish you would tell me what it is a wife must do, on her wedding-night...’
And at first, it is easy. After all, this is how it is done, in my uncle's books: two girls, one wise and one unknowing... ‘He will want,’ she says, ‘to kiss you. He will want to embrace you.’ It is easy. I say my part, and she ―with a little prompting ― says hers. The words sink back upon their pages. It is easy, it is easy...
Then she rises above me and puts her mouth to mine.”
― Sarah Waters, Fingersmith