The Crown of Life by George Gissing

Author:George Gissing
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: George Gissing, life, Victorian, family, relationship, romance, norms, rules, satire, humour, British, materialism, consumerism, conformity, middle-class, society
Publisher: Sovereign Classic
Published: 2016-04-16T00:00:00+00:00

The ideal remained; the worship, the gratitude. How much she had been to him! Rarely a day—very rarely a day—that the thought of Irene did not warm his heart and exalt his ambition. He had yielded to the fleshly impulse, and the measure of his lapse was the sincerity of that nobler desire; he had not the excuse of the ordinary man, nor ever tried to allay his conscience with facile views of life. What times innumerable had he murmured her name, until it was become to him the only woman’s name that sounded in truth womanly—all others cold to his imagination. What long evenings had he passed, yonder by the Black Sea, content merely to dream of Irene Derwent; how many a summer night had he wandered in the acacia-planted streets of Odessa, about and about the great square, with its trees, where stands the cathedral; how many a time had his heart throbbed all but to bursting when he listened to the music on the Boulevard, and felt so terribly alone—alone! Irene was England. He knew nothing of the patriotism which is but shouted politics; from his earliest years of intelligence he had learnt, listening to his father, a contempt for that loud narrowness; but the tongue which was Irene’s, the landscape where shone Irene’s figure—these were dear to him for Irene’s sake. He believed in his heart of hearts that only the Northern Island could boast the perfect woman—because he had found her there.

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