To Each His Dulcinea

"You cannot love any one person adequately until you have made friends with the rest of the human race also. Adult love demands qualities which cannot be learned living in a vacuum of resentment."

Dorothy Dunnett (via seeminglysweet)

(via fuckyeahlymond)

"Kate, my dear? Haven’t your raspberries been marvellous this year? Come and be licked; I haven’t dined yet."

Francis Crawford of Lymond, The Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnett (via inthetiredspaces)

"And, long since ashore with his men and his booty, Crawford of Lymond, man of wit and crooked felicities, bred to luxury and heir to a fortune, rode off serenely to Midcutler to break into his new sister-in-law’s castle."

Dorothy Dunnett, The Game of Kings (via inthetiredspaces)

saltspray:

The beginning of my addiction to Lymond, one of the best characters I’ve ever come across in fiction. He’s delicious.

Miss you, Dorothy. 

Aww shucks, y’all are the best for your outfit approval (Note: this does not include my sister). I stole a long vintage navy blue jacket from my friend once I was downtown DC, and that way I was mixing all the neutrals and it actually kinda worked. Library of Congress-ing was successful and fun, I shall return tomorrow for an actual day of work. I got my researcher-ID, though, which is a helpful government-issued photo ID to have & it will make researching in the Jefferson reading room possible. 

In other news, I poetically finished Checkmate, the last book in the Lymond Chronicles, in the apartment of the friend who gifted them to me. I read the last twenty pages while she was off at a lawyer-dinner-thing, and under her instructions I continued to read even when I wanted to throw the book across the room and give up on life. I made it through, and it was so worth the heartache. What a beautiful series! It feels weird to be done — like I don’t know what to do next. Do I wake up and eat breakfast in the morning? What will my day look like?

Walking to Union Station this morning and watching the sun hit the Capitol Building was cold, but lovely. I want so badly to live in a city. 

"A lie is a broad and spacious and glittering thing, sweeping belief before it from its very grandeur. But the truth fits, like an old man cutting cloth in an attic."

Dorothy Dunnett, Checkmate

Because my desktop always matches the book I’m reading. Really, I ought to change my desktop to the map of Paris in 1550 but I really love this photo of Lyon. 

"Because subterranean schemes and deception are central to Lymond’s modus operandi, it is revealed only long afterward that the inexcusable had its excuses. ”I have no pretty faults,” as he remarks, ”only, sometimes, a purpose.” The constant interplay between the contradictory sides of his character, and the consequent realignments of our understanding of both him and the story, give ”The Lymond Chronicles” their unusual fascination."

 ANNE MALCOLM in the NY Times

"There is no land uninhabitable or sea unnavigable.
They made the whole world to hang in the air."

Dorothy Dunnett, from The Ringed Castle (via aubade)

Must. Stop. Researching Lymond-y things on the internet. Only end up discovering things I haven’t read yet.

Today was the first time I spoiled something for myself. && it’s only pages away!