#penelope mortimer

[whosafraidofvirginiawoolf]

But how shall I deal with myself? What shall I do with myself all my life?

— Daddy's Gone A-Hunting by Penelope Mortimer

[womansfilm]

Daddy's Gone A-Hunting by Penelope Mortimer, 1958

[stickandch0ke]

Another great quote from The Pumpkin Eater

[writerly-ramblings]

Books Read in June:

1). The Pumpkin Eater (Penelope Mortimer)

2). In the Woods (Tana French)

3). White on White (Aysegül Savas)

4). The Lost Properties of Love (Sophie Ratcliffe)

5). Exteriors (Annie Ernaux)

6). All the Beloved Ghosts (Alison MacLeod)

7). The Queen of the Night (Alexander Chee)

8). The Manningtree Witches (A.K. Blakemore)

9). Brooklyn (Colm Tóibín)

[rain-drenched-streets]

My only feeling was...I wanted to get away. Most people, I know, have this fantasy. One day they'll walk out of the door, through the garden gate, and...then? Then what?

The Pumpkin Eater: Penelope Mortimer

[elizabethanism]

"I want to fly from a window and pour through the air like a wind of love."

Penelope Mortimer

[whosafraidofvirginiawoolf]

In all the years of her marriage, a long war in which attack, if not happening, was always imminent, she had learned an expert cunning. The way to avoid being hurt, to dodge unhappiness, was to run away. Feelings of guilt and cowardice presented no problems that couldn't be overcome by dreams, by games, by the gentle sound of her own voice advising and rebuking her as she went about the house. 'Poor old Mum,' she had heard Julian saying to Angela, 'she's going a bit balmy.' She was still young and her apparently commonplace life was full of hiding places, a maze of secrecy and deceit and hope tunneled below the unvarying days.

— Daddy's Gone A-Hunting by Penelope Mortimer

[whosafraidofvirginiawoolf]

You are hopeless. Hopeless. A nightmare was beginning, far away in the house, in the empty rooms. Silence was accumulating. She could feel it waiting, growing deeper, more deadly. The room was full of dangers, her own reflection in the mirror, her own voice, her own hand stretching out in front of her.

— Daddy's Gone A-Hunting by Penelope Mortimer