“ she seemed to long for the abstraction called passionate love more than for any particular lover. ”
Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native (1878). copy citation
| Author | Thomas Hardy |
|---|---|
| Source | The Return of the Native |
| Topic | love passion abstraction |
| Date | 1878 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17500/17500-h/17500-h.htm |
Context
“Like the summer condition of the place around her, she was an embodiment of the phrase "a populous solitude"—apparently so listless, void, and quiet, she was really busy and full.
To be loved to madness—such was her great desire. Love was to her the one cordial which could drive away the eating loneliness of her days. And she seemed to long for the abstraction called passionate love more than for any particular lover.
She could show a most reproachful look at times, but it was directed less against human beings than against certain creatures of her mind, the chief of these being Destiny, through whose interference she dimly fancied it arose that love alighted only on gliding youth—that any love she might win would sink simultaneously with the sand in the glass.” source
To be loved to madness—such was her great desire. Love was to her the one cordial which could drive away the eating loneliness of her days. And she seemed to long for the abstraction called passionate love more than for any particular lover.
She could show a most reproachful look at times, but it was directed less against human beings than against certain creatures of her mind, the chief of these being Destiny, through whose interference she dimly fancied it arose that love alighted only on gliding youth—that any love she might win would sink simultaneously with the sand in the glass.” source
Meaning and analysis
