Portrait by George Charles Beresford Wikipedia
Virginia Woolf was a landmark writer; Mrs Dalloway and A Room of One’s Own are characteristic examples of the quality of her fiction and nonfiction respectively. They also happen to be two of my favorite books of all time. But if I was to choose only one quote, it is to Flush: A Biography that I would turn to. Brilliantly situated between fiction and nonfiction, this is a biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel. It is also an insightful portrayal of the female artist whom the dog loves, and a highly imaginative interpretation of the bond between them; a rare gem in every respect.
It so happened that I discovered a copy of the first edition of this book, published by Hogarth Press in 1933, in my local library. This was about ten years ago, and I was going through a transitional phase of my life, as one does when decisions need to be made and difficulties have to be dealt with. The following quote was illuminating; and yes, pulling oneself up is hard work, just as it is immensely empowering, because nothing is worth more than a smile regained; it may as well be the brightest ever.
And as he lay there, exiled, on the carpet, he went through one of those whirlpools of tumultuous emotion in which the soul is either dashed upon the rocks and splintered or, finding some tuft of foothold, slowly and painfully pulls itself up, regains dry land, and at last emerges on top of a ruined universe to survey a world created afresh on a different plan. Which was it to be – destruction or reconstruction? That was the question.
1933, pp. 66-67
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