To own a certain book - and to choose it without help - is to define y…

Julian Barnes
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To own a certain book - and to choose it without help - is to define yourself.
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There is a German word, Sehnsucht, which has no English equivalent; it means 'the longing for something'. It has Romantic and mystical connotations; C.S. Lewis defined it as the 'inconsolable longing … ▶
Those were the days in this country where H. G. Wells, Bernard Shaw and Conan Doyle could have influence, and thats gone, thats true. But I dont think we have less influence in the hearts and minds o … ▶
Poets seem to write more easily about love than prose writers. For a start, they own that flexible ‘I’…. Then again, poets seem able to turn bad love – selfish, shitty love – into good love poetry. P … ▶
Discovering, for example, that as witnesses to your life diminish, there is less corroboration, and therefore less certainty, as to what you are or have been. [p. 65]
Pride makes us long for a solution to things – a solution, a purpose, a final cause; but the better telescopes become, the more stars appear. ✨ Julian Barnes (1984). Flaubert's parrot, Vintage

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