OxBlog

Friday, April 16, 2004

# Posted 6:49 AM by Patrick Belton  

TWO MATURIN QUOTATIONS: After coming back from a surprise birthday party that Josh and I, and a handful of our Oxford friends, threw for Rachel last night, I laid in bed for a bit with my moment's Patrick O'Brian novel, HMS Surprise, and ran across two passages which I wanted to share with our readers:
'Even more painful than the fact that my let us call it interrogation was carried out by the French, the nation I love best.'

'What civilised man does not? Their rulers, politicians, revolutions set apart, and this horrible engouement for Bonaparte.'


'Bonden,' cried Stephen, 'take pen and ink, and write-'
'Write, sir?' cried Bonden.
'Yes. Sit square to your paper, and write: Landsdowne Crescent - Barret Bonden, are you brought by the lee??'
'Why, yes, sir; that I am - fair broached-to. Though I can read pretty quick, if in broad print; I can make out a watch-bill.'
'Never mind. I shall show you the way of it when we are at sea, however; it is no great matter - look at the fools who write all day long.'
Just as a sidenote, I was still thinking about the first passage as I was about to wake up this morning, and while I was in the midst of dreaming of a very intense older woman who had been recounting to me how, as a member of the Free French in June 1940, she had broadcast the rally to occupied France: "Vous, vous, vous, vous, vous, vous, vous maintenant devez agir de dĂ©fendre votre patrie. Vous, vous, vous, vous, vous, vous, vous devez soutenir vos voisins et vos familles. Vous, vous, vous, vous, vous, vous, vous vous devez prouver aujourd'hui que vous ĂȘtes digne fils de la France." I quickly woke up to realise the pigeons had begun their broadcast of "ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo" from outside my window, as they do dutifully each morning from 6 am until the broadcast day ends around dinner-time, occasionally later.

PS: And incidentally, I couldn't agree more wholeheartedly with David's sterling taste in the blogosphere's best exemplars, as reflected in the post immediately below!
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