My Mother, Who Was Quite Sharp When

I Can't Read Historical Fiction Because I Find The Real Thing So Much More Interesting.

I Am Re-reading Henry James As A Change From History. I Began With Daisy Miller, And I've Just Finished Washington Square. What A Brilliant, Painful Book.

If I Write That It Was A Cold Day, You Can Be Sure I Know It Was A Cold Day Because Pepys Told Us.

My Mother, Who Was Quite Sharp When I Was Young, Became Utterly Mild.

[in 16th Century European Society] Marriage Was The Triumphal Arch Through Which Women, Almost Without Exception, Had To Pass In Order To Reach The Public Eye. And After Marriage Followed, In Theory, The Total Self-abnegation Of The Woman.