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Eric Byrd

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Eric is Currently Reading

Eric Byrd is currently reading

The Contessa

by Benedetta Craveri

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Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres

by Henry Adams

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Jun 10, 2026 11:32AM

“Then Montesquieu was mentioned, and somebody described his first love-affair, a Baudelairean love-affair with a female ventriloquist who, while Montesquieu was straining to achieve his climax, would imitate the drunken voice of a pimp, threatening the aristocratic client.”
― Edmond de Goncourt, Pages from the Goncourt Journals

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“The childhood and youth of the Bakunins were passed in an atmosphere of fantasy, of tender emotions and intellectual excitement, which sounds like Turgenev or Chekhov.”
― Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History

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“There’s no doubt war is a proper subject for the philosopher, partly because it gives rise to some of the greatest and most important upheavals, and then for its connections with endless ramifications of the theories of society, man, and other living beings.”
― Giacomo Leopardi, Passions

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“I think you will come to Balzac yet. When one has disproved all one’s theories, outgrown all of one’s standards, discarded all one’s criterions, and left off minding about one’s appearance, one comes to Balzac. And there he is, waiting outside his canvas tent—with such a circus going on inside.”
― Sylvia Townsend Warner, The Element of Lavishness: Letters of Sylvia Townsend Warner & William Maxwell, 1938-1978

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“I always went alone to the palaces where collections of pictures and statues were exhibited, so as not to have my enjoyment spoiled by stupid remarks or questions. All these palaces are open to strangers, and much gratitude is due to the great Roman nobles for being so obliging. It may seem hard to believe, but it is true that one might spend one's whole life in palaces and churches.”
― Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun

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