Megan West(erby)

nonmodernist:

‘I don’t read novels,’ Tietjens answered. ‘I know what’s in ‘em. There has been nothing worth reading written in England since the eighteenth century except by a woman…But it’s natural for your enamel splashers to want to see themselves in a bright and variegated literature. Why shouldn’t they? It’s a healthy, human desire, and now that printing and paper are cheap they get it satisfied. It’s healthy, I tell you. Infinitely healthier than…’ He paused.

‘Than what?’ Macmaster asked.

‘I’m thinking,’ Tietjens said, ‘thinking how not to be too rude.’

— Ford Madox Ford, Parade’s End (Some Do Not…)

This is basically the Edwardian version of hating on bloggers.

I’m behind in my Parade’s End reading but I already love Tietjens. 

5 February 2012 ·