Re: What is your favourite Ransome quotation?


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Posted by Peter Ceresole on January 19, 2005 at 01:01:11 from 80.177.22.49 user PeterC.

In Reply to: Re: What is your favourite Ransome quotation? posted by Peter H on January 16, 2005 at 18:36:39:

Softly, at first, as if it hardly meant it, the snow began to fall.

I can see why people like that so much. My favourite though (also from a Ds book, PP) is one I've quoted before- and now I'm quoting it again...

The Ds have just arrived at Beckfoot straight from school. The GA is still only a distant cloud and it's all serene as they fall asleep:

"Dorothea blew out her candle and settled down in the middle of the big spare room bed. An owl called in the woods. 'Not a barn owl, but a tawney,' thought Dick, listening to the sharp 'Gewick! Gewick!' as he fell asleep. A smell of new-mown hay drifted from the meadows on the further side of the river. 'There isn't a lovelier place in all the world,' thought Dorothea. London last night, and now Beckfoot. The summer holidays had begun."

For me it has it all- not just a description, but a sharp appreciation of his characters and a wonderfully sensual and joyful appreciation of their world.

In fact I'm just re-reading PP again in a slightly ponderous adult way; although the story is still fresh, for me now the pleasure is that his characters are wonderfully deep and richly drawn- even the minor ones like the hapless doctor- and the sense of place and time is overwhelming. A delicious book. And although WH is still my favourite book, that quote is my favourite section from all the books and for me illustrates best his remarkable talent.


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