Celibate LivesFive stories, each chronicling a life. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
afraid Albert answered Albert asked Albert Nobbs Aunt Barbizon began better Bushfield carriage Cissy and Elsie Comte convent Daily Courier dance Davau dinner doctor door dress Dublin Ellen Elsie and Cissy Emily Etta Etta's eyes face fell to thinking flageolet flute Fontainebleau Freemason's Tavern friends garden girl Harold hear heard Helen hope Hubert Joe Mackins journalist kiss knew leave Lisdoonvarna live look lost admirer Lunions Madame Recamier Malmédy Manor House Marr marriage marry mind Miss Gibbs months morning Morrison's Hotel Morton mother never night o'clock old nurse painting Paris passed Phyllis picture Plowden pounds Prioress Priscilla Ralph remembered replied round Sarah seemed Shepherd's Bush shillings sister sleep spoke story Street studio Sutton table d'hôte talking tell there's things thought told waiting walk week Wilfrid woman women wonder words
Popular passages
Page 44 - WHEN we went up to Dublin in the "sixties, Alec, we always put up at Morrison's Hotel, a big family hotel at the corner of Dawson Street, one that was well patronised by the gentry from all over Ireland, my father paying his bill every six months when he was able, which wasn't very often, for what with racing stables and elections following one after the other, Moore Hall wasn't what you "d call overflowing with money.
Page 96 - tis an easy story to tell. Well, Alec, what story should she tell them? In these parts, Alec said, a woman who left her husband and returned to him after fifteen years would say she was taken away by the fairies whilst wandering in a wood. Do you think she'd be believed? Why shouldn't she, your honour? A woman that marries another woman, and lives happily with her, isn'ta natural woman; there must be something of the fairy in her.
Page 64 - ... years, a mere drifting, it seemed to her, from one hotel to another, without friends; meeting, it is true, sometimes men and women who seemed willing to be friendly. But her secret forced her to live apart from men as well as women; the clothes she wore smothered the woman in her; she no longer thought and felt as she used to when she wore petticoats, and she didn't think and feel like a man though she wore trousers. What was she? Nothing, neither man nor woman, so small wonder she was lonely.
Page 194 - I'd better come out with her of an evening. She was down on her luck ; for nearly a week she had not met with any money, and we were as poor as we could be. but still I clung on to hope. I seemed very selfish to myself, but you see, I was only eighteen and knew nobody except Phyllis and the girls at the factory. If I had known then what I know now, I could have gone to an agent and got some charring, maybe a situation. But I'm making a long story out of it, and the telling of it will make no difference....
Page 82 - ... Helen didn't answer at once. Presently she said: you can leave the hat with me. And the stockings? Albert asked. Yes, you can leave the stockings. And the shoes? Yes, you can leave the shoes too. Yet you won't go to Lisdoonvarna with me? No, she said, I'll not go to Lisdoonvarna with you. But you'll take the presents? It was to please you I said I would take them, because I thought it would be some satisfaction to you to know that they wouldn't be wasted.
Page 9 - The lady urged him to run upstairs and fetch it, saying that it would interest her to play the accompaniments. But they are not written, he answered, only the top line. For a moment this seemed a serious difficulty, but the lady offered to improvise ; and Wilfrid came in in such excellent time and tune that she began to foresee a possible combination — Wilfrid supplying the melodies and she the accompaniments, in this way writing an opera between them, a hope that might have been fulfilled had...
Page 51 - I'm to do that, for the story seems to me to be without a beginning; anyway I don't know the beginning. I was a bastard, and no one but my old nurse, who brought me up, knew who I was; she said she'd tell me some day, and she hinted more than once that my people were grand folk, and I know she had a big allowance from them for my education. Whoever they were, a hundred a year was paid to her for my keep and education, and all went well with us so long as my parents lived, but when they died...
Page 44 - I wished to do, but was afraid to get astride of them, lest I should lose my head and fall all the way down to the ground floor. There was nothing to stop me from reaching it, if I lost my balance, except a few gas lamps. I think that both the long passages led to minor stairs, but I never followed either lest I should miss my way. A very big building was Morrison's Hotel, with passages running hither and thither, and little flights of stairs in all kinds of odd corners by which the visitors climbed...
Page 61 - ... girl as lonely as myself, I said: Come along, and we arranged to live together, each paying our share. She had her work and I had mine, and between us we made a fair living; and this I can say with truth, that we haven't known an unhappy hour since we married. People began to talk, so we had to. I'd like you to see our home. I always return to my home after a job is finished with a light heart and leave it with a heavy one. But I don't understand, Albert said. What don't you understand? Hubert...
Page 61 - ... take my word for it. It isn'ta thing there can be any doubt about. Oh, I believe you, Albert replied. And now that that matter is settled, Hubert began, perhaps you'd like to hear my story, and without waiting for an answer she related the story of her unhappy marriage: her husband, a house-painter, had changed towards her altogether after the birth of her second child, leaving her without money for food and selling up the home twice. At last I decided to have another cut at it, Hubert went on,...