Chapter One
- ‘Lucy felt that she had been selfish’.
- “I have a view, I have a view.” – Mr Emerson
- ‘Miss Bartlett was startled.’
- ‘She knew that the intruder was ill-bred, even before she glanced at
him.’
- ‘Said Miss Bartlett, repressing Lucy,’
- ‘Miss Bartlett… was powerless in the presence of brutality.’
- “It is so difficult- at least, I find it difficult- to understand people who
speak the truth.” – Mr Beebe
- “Am I to conclude… that he is a Socialist?” – Charlotte
- “About old Mr Emerson… no, he is not tactful; yet, have you ever
noticed that there are people who do things which are most
indelicate, and yet at the same time- beautiful?” – Lucy
- “Are not beauty and delicacy the same?” - Charlotte
- “But things are so difficult, I sometimes think.”
Chapter Two
- Ch 2 opens with a vivid, vibrant description of Italy, contrasting from
the dull, Capitalist mood of Ch 1- preparing us for change- ‘It was
pleasant to wake up in Florence… to fling wide the windows… to
lean out into the sunshine.’
- “How the driver stares at us, dear, simple soul!” – Eleanor Lavish
- ‘Playful as a kitten, though without a kitten’s grace’ – Lavish
- ‘Said Lucy, fearful of being thought a snob.’
- ‘For one ravishing moment Italy appeared.’
- “I would like to set an examination paper at Dover and turn back
every tourist who couldn’t pass it.” – Lavish
- ‘Miss Lavish, who was really almost too original… talking as a
woman of culture, and half-persuading herself that she was full of
originality.’
- ‘Then the pernicious charm of Italy worked on her… she began to be
happy.’ -Lucy
- ‘She no longer despised the Emersons. She was determined to be
gracious to them.’
- ‘She was again conscious of some new idea.’
- “My dear, I think that you are repeating what you have heard older
people say.” -Mr Emerson
- ‘She felt like a child in school who had answered a question rightly.’
- ‘She was sure that she ought not to be with these men; but they had
cast a spell over her… she could not remember how to behave.’
- ‘She watched the singular creature’ – Lucy about George
- ‘He yet gave her the feeling of greyness,’
- ‘It was unlike her to have entertained anything so subtle.’
, - ‘Born of silence and of unknown emotion, it passed when Mr
Emerson returned,’
- “But let yourself go… let yourself go.”- Mr Emerson
- “By understanding George, you may learn to understand yourself.”
- “The old trouble: things won’t fit” “What things?” “The things of the
universe.” – Mr Emerson and Lucy
- “All life is perhaps a knot, a tangle, a blemish in the eternal
smoothness. But why should this make us unhappy? Let us rather
love one another, and work and rejoice.” – Mr Emerson
- “There’s enough sorrow in the world, isn’t there, without trying to
invent it.” – Lucy
Chapter Three
- “I do not like the Emersons. They are not nice… they don’t
understand our ways. They must find their level.” – Miss Alan
Chapter Four
- ‘Why? Why were most big things unladylike? … It was not that ladies
were inferior to men; it was that they were different.’ – Lucy’s
thoughts
- ‘One man was stabbed, and another held her in his arms.’
- “How quickly these accidents do happen, and then one returns to
the old life!” “I don’t… I shall want to live.” – Lucy and George
- ‘Leaning her elbows on the parapet, she contemplated the River
Arno, whose roar was suggesting some unexpected melody to her
ears.’
Chapter Five
- ‘For good or for evil, Lucy was left to face her problem alone.’
- ‘She was accustomed to have her thoughts confirmed by others or,
at all events, contradicted; it was too dreadful not to know whether
she was thinking right or wrong.’
- ‘The river was a lion that morning in strength, voice and colour.’
- ‘Since she could not unravel the tangle, she must take care not to
re-enter it.’
- ‘I intend to be unmerciful to the British tourist.’ – Lavish about the
Emersons
- ‘For the first time Lucy’s rebellious thoughts swept out in words- for
the first time in her life.’
Chapter Six
- ‘She did not know what had happened, and suspected that he did
know. And this frightened her.’
- ‘At the same moment the ground gave way… Light and beauty
enveloped her.’