"The first disappointment was Martha; she wore the wrong clothes. I had thought she had been planning to don her purple wool suit, toward which I had both a sentimental and aesthetic attachment, or at least the skirt to the suit and her white silk blouse. But when she rushed past me to answer the knock at the front door, it was not a woman that moved by but a circus--a burst of color and a clattering of ornaments. She had managed to tart herself up in a full orange skirt, an off-the-shoulder blouse with a ruffled neck, strands of multicolored beads, and on her feet what I shall refer to in the language of the streets (the streets around the University) as her Humanities II sandals. So that none of us would miss the point, she had neither braided her hair nor put it up. It was combed straight out, and when she tossed her head, the heavy blond mane draped down her back and almost brushed her bottom. Somehow her outfit managed to call into question the very thing we wished (or I wished) to impress upon Libby and upon Paul--the seriousness of our relationship. That the Herzes' lives were often more threatened than my own had led me on occasion to believe that their lives were also more serious than my own; whatever the mixture of insight and bafflement that had produced in me such an idea, it contributed also to the quality of my affections and anxieties where these two needy people were concerned.
The visitors peered out of the stairway; they were Paul and Libby Herz, they said, but it was this Mrs. Reganhart's apartment? Apparently Martha looked to them as though she could not be a Mrs. anything, which may indeed have been what was in her head as she had dressed herself before her bedroom mirror." (309)
Roth, Philip. Letting Go. London: Corgi Books, 1967 [1961].
Sorry for so much silence and repetition: I'm reading these two huge books, the James integral to the Roth.
What outfit would ruin a dinner in 2012? Where do I buy Humanities II sandals??
Maybe here:
Or are these too chic? The orange sure seems to fit...
The visitors peered out of the stairway; they were Paul and Libby Herz, they said, but it was this Mrs. Reganhart's apartment? Apparently Martha looked to them as though she could not be a Mrs. anything, which may indeed have been what was in her head as she had dressed herself before her bedroom mirror." (309)
Roth, Philip. Letting Go. London: Corgi Books, 1967 [1961].
Sorry for so much silence and repetition: I'm reading these two huge books, the James integral to the Roth.
What outfit would ruin a dinner in 2012? Where do I buy Humanities II sandals??
Maybe here:
Or are these too chic? The orange sure seems to fit...