“ Isolation on a heath renders vulgarity well-nigh impossible. It would have been as easy for the heath-ponies, bats, and snakes to be vulgar as for her. A narrow life in Budmouth might have completely demeaned her. ”
Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native (1878). copy citation
| Author | Thomas Hardy |
|---|---|
| Source | The Return of the Native |
| Topic | isolation vulgarity |
| Date | 1878 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17500/17500-h/17500-h.htm |
Context
“By a latent vein from Alcinous' line, her father hailing from Phaeacia's isle?—or from Fitzalan and De Vere, her maternal grandfather having had a cousin in the peerage? Perhaps it was the gift of Heaven—a happy convergence of natural laws. Among other things opportunity had of late years been denied her of learning to be undignified, for she lived lonely. Isolation on a heath renders vulgarity well-nigh impossible. It would have been as easy for the heath-ponies, bats, and snakes to be vulgar as for her. A narrow life in Budmouth might have completely demeaned her. The only way to look queenly without realms or hearts to queen it over is to look as if you had lost them; and Eustacia did that to a triumph. In the captain's cottage she could suggest mansions she had never seen.”
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