Name: Red Amber
Author: Hugh Walpole

Quotes from Red Amber (Hugh Walpole)

Hugh Walpole, Red Amber (1923)

“ Someone has somewhere said that Romance is a state of hallucination—one of those easy statements that mean nothing at all. Well, Mrs. Hanney is now in a state of hallucination. She does not see the grey marble slab of Miss Buck's wallpaper, nor the gaping coal-scuttle, nor the rain now spinning spider webs on the window-pane. No, she feels the wind in her face, the ground is carpeted with golden primroses, the sun is setting in a blaze of amber splendour, she is twenty years of age and lovely. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Hugh Walpole, Red Amber (1923)

“ She thought that it had been bacon and tomatoes once again for breakfast, and that she must positively speak to Mrs. Pascoe about it, and about also how the wind whisked behind the wallpaper in her bedroom, like a man spying upon her as she dressed of a morning, and laughing at her. While these thoughts were occupying her, almost unconsciously she took down the piece of amber from the shelf, and as soon as her fingers felt its cool, sliding surface, she started. She had done something wicked, something she should not, something most certainly that would offend Miss Buck, should she know. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Hugh Walpole, Red Amber (1923)

“ Hanney only the desire to make two difficult ends meet. Culture and finance are worlds apart.
Nevertheless, although for a long time Miss Buck was not aware of it, Mrs. Hanney had something else in her eye, and that something else was colour: colour of anything—colour of sunsets, colour of clothes, colour of shop windows, colour of harmonium, colour of two tomatoes on a plate, colour of beads, colour of a ribbon or two. In her own self Mrs. Hanney could not indulge this passion. Black is so much your cheapest wear. Will not one black bonnet last for ever? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Hugh Walpole, Red Amber (1923)

“ You know what a sick woman's fancies can be? Well, then, that was the way Miss Buck soon came to feel about Mrs. Hanney. She saw her in the dark in bed, saw her twice her natural size and making faces at her. Funny old woman like a strawberry, with her bent shoulders, her groping fingers and her slip-slop slippers. Miss Buck hated to see her in the dark.
And the strange thing was that she never connected her creeping around with the red amber. Miss Buck had almost forgotten it. I dare say if Mrs. Hanney had asked for it, Miss Buck would have given it to her. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Hugh Walpole, Red Amber (1923)

“ Real amber—a fine piece."
"I should like to visit China," said Mrs. Hanney.
"Well," said Miss Buck, her thin body swaying with her sneeze like a poplar in a driving wind, "I'm sure China is a nice place. Our missionaries are doing fine work there. I'm always expecting that Lucy to knock that bit of amber off the mantelpiece. I'll give her something if she breaks it!"
"Breaks it!" cried Mrs. Hanney, "Oh, no! Oh, no! That would be terrible. Why, Miss Buck, it is one of my chief pleasures coming in and looking at it. I think of it of a morning before I get up. It's very kind of you to let me." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Hugh Walpole, Red Amber (1923)

“ He was a conceited and self-opinionated man, spare, with large spectacles, carroty side-whiskers, and a bald, shiny head. Things had never gone well with him. He was self-opinionated at the wrong times, obstinate when he should have been yielding, yielding when he should have been obstinate. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Hugh Walpole, Red Amber (1923)

“ Hanney and Miss Margaret Buck, being the only two lodgers in Mrs. Pascoe's house, should become well acquainted. They were not naturally suited to one another. True friendship depends so much upon what you have in your eye. For one it is a golden pin, for another a canary singing in a cage, for another a well-browned cutlet, for another the Book of Common Prayer. Miss Buck had culture and refinement, Mrs. ”

Hugh Walpole

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Quotes from Red Amber (Hugh Walpole)

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Hugh Walpole

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Quotes from Red Amber (Hugh Walpole)

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Get perspective with Kwize: daily news enlightened by great literature