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Tash's avatar

I stumbled upon this entry from VW's diary dated 24 Sept 1925 and thought of you (and this post):

'Maynard & Lydia came here yesterday-- M. in Tolstoi's blouse & Russian cap of black astrachan--A fair sight, both of them, to meet on the high road! An immense good will & vigour pervades him. She hums in his wake, the great mans wife. But though one could carp, one can also find them very good company, & my heart, in this the autumn of my age, slightly warms to him, whom I've known all these years, so truculently pugnaciously, & unintimately...'

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E.J. Barnes's avatar

Thanks, yes. It reveals a lot about her changing – mellowing – view of the couple, and what she sees as their strengths and weaknesses.

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Michael Dawson's avatar

Here's hoping this is a sign of a forthcoming JMK trilogy novel...revolution, dance, legacy? Fingers crossed!

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E.J. Barnes's avatar

Thank you, Michael. Yes, I am working on a third, very slowly, and have a title in mind!

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Tash's avatar

Interesting! Thank you.

(Though slightly disconcerted by the arm of the woman in the image!)

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E.J. Barnes's avatar

Yikes! I'm not very visually observant and hadn't noticed! I've tended to use substack generated images in a lot of my posts, because I quite like the look of them, and I can be sure I'm not infringing anyone's copyright (otherwise tend to use wikicommons for images in public domain). But I'm not sure it's the best approach.

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Tash's avatar

I'm also very cautious about infringing copyright so I understand! Sometimes AI images have weird glitches for some reason.

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E.J. Barnes's avatar

It would be interesting to know how many people notice - I'm guessing most of the time our brain tells us we are seeing what we expect to see.

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Maria (Linnesby essays)'s avatar

Such a moving story, somehow. Thank you.

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E.J. Barnes's avatar

Thank you, Maria.

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