I was watching a movie recently (which I haven't finished yet) about the love affair between John Keats and Fanny Brawne, and it got me thinking about this book, which I picked up a couple of years ago. So I've been re-reading it and reveling in its profound and sometimes heartbreaking beauty.
Some of my favorite quotes:
"I was thinking the other day that certainly and after all (or rather before all) I had loved you all my life unawares, that is, the idea of you." -- Elizabeth Barrett
"For God's sake, madam, when you write to me, talk of yourself; there is nothing I so much desire to hear of; talk a great deal of yourself, that she who I always thought talked best may speak upon the best subject."-- Alexander Pope
"In a man's letters, you know, madam, his soul lies naked. His letters are only the mirror of his heart." -- Samuel Johnson
"I have often thought it a peculiarly unlucky circumstance in love, that though in every other situation in life telling the truth is not only the safest, but actually by far the easiest way of proceeding, a lover is never under greater difficulty in acting nor never more puzzled for expression than when his passion is sincere and his intentions are honourable." -- Robert Burns
"I like the word affection because it signifies something habitual, and we are soon to meet to try whether we have mind enough to keep our hearts warm." -- Mary Wollstonecraft
"Those who have loved longest love best." -- Samuel Johnson
"In a word, I am resolved, nay, content, to be only hers, though it may be impossible she should ever be mine." -- Lord Peterborough
Last time I read it, I was in such agony that I had to frequently stop and put it away, and take it up again after I had recovered myself. This time, I'm in a better place, and I am imagining what it would be like if You were reading it too, and we could talk about it. I know just how you would read it: you would enjoy it letter by letter, taking time to savor each for its own particular beauty, passion, and melancholy, before moving on to the next.
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