The Captive Reader

While reading The Lyttelton Hart-Davis Letters, I decided I wanted to get a little more insight into Rupert Hart-Davis so I borrowed A Beggar in Purple from the library.  Published in 1983, it is a selection of pieces from his commonplace book.  A commonplace book, which I suspect many of us keep – or else use our blogs for as a substitute – is a place for readers to copy out passages and quotes that they like for one reason or another.  Every reader takes something different from what they read so looking through commonplace books is a fascinating way to get to know their compiler.

What I learned from Hart-Davis’ reinforced what I’d taken from his letters: he was sentimentally-inclined, enjoyed middlebrow fiction, and read far too much middling poetry (particularly in French).  But the good thing about commonplace books is that they are short and even when your tastes don’t entirely align with the compiler’s there is always something interesting to be found in them.  Here are a few of my favourite quotes:

Harold Nicolson’s advice to duty-bound readers:

It is better to read trash with enjoyment than masterpieces with yawning groans.

Goethe marvelling at the ways of the English:

It is surprising to remark how large a portion of the life of a rich Englishman of rank is passed in duels and elopements.  Lord  Byron himself says that his father carried off three ladies.  And let any man be a steady son after that.

And a poem by V. de Sola Pinto that I (being as sentimental as Hart-Davis) immediately fell in love with:

As I sat at my old desk, writing
in golden evening sunshine,
my wife came in suddenly
and, standing beside me,
said ‘I love you’
(this year she will be sixty-three and I shall be sixty-eight).
Then I looked at her and saw
not the grey-haired woman but the girl I married in 1922:
poetry shining through the faithful prose,
a fresh flower in bloom.
I said ‘You are a rose’
(thinking how awful it would have been if I had missed her)
and I kissed her.