'I dare say, moreover,' she pursued with an interested gravity, 'that I do, that we all so here, run too much to mere eye. But how can it be helped? We're all looking at each other — and in the light of Paris one sees what things resemble. That's what the light of Paris always seems to show. It's the fault of the light of Paris — dear old light!'
'Dear Old Paris!' little Bilham echoed.
'Everything, everyone shows,' Miss Barrace went on.
'But for what they really are?' Strether asked.
'Oh, I like your Boston 'reallys'! But sometimes — yes.'
From The Ambassadors, by Henry James,
quoted in Paris to the Moon, by Adam Gopnik
{The painting is Boulevard Montmarte, by Camille Pissaro, found here}
2 comments:
I have Paris to the Moon on my to-read list but I haven't had a chance to get to it yet. My sister read the book and said it was good.
I'm beginning to think there is a Henry James quote for every occasion... and blogging event! ;-)
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