Today was a snowy and slow moving day which meant that it was a perfect chance to just stay in and read. I've been reading Pride and Prejudice and Peter Pan (I can't seem to just stick to one book at a time. Or choose a book without the letter "P" in the title...). I love the language in both books; I wish people still spoke the way they did then.
Here is what I mean:
"'Oh my dear, dear aunt,' she rapturously cried, 'what delight! what felicity! You give me fresh life and vigor. Adieu to disappointment and spleen. What are young men to rocks and mountains? Oh! what hours of transport we shall spend!'"
-Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Reading Pride and Prejudice is definitely expanding my vocabulary (spleen? It means bad temper). And the diction (literary term, had to throw it out there, Jane Austen is making me feel like a wimp when it comes to word choice) of Peter Pan is pure magic:
" Of course, the Neverlands vary a good deal. John's, for instance, had a lagoon with flamingos flying over it at which John was shooting, while Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it. John lived in a boat turned upside down on the sands, Michael in a wigwam, Wendy in a house of leaves deftly sewn together. John had no friends, Michael had friends at night, Wendy had a pet wolf forsaken by its parents, but on the whole the Neverlands have a family resemblance, and if they stood still in a row you could say of them that they have each other's nose, and so forth. On these magic shores children at play are forever beaching their coracles. We too have been there; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no more."
-Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie
Wendy is my kind of girl, living in a house of leaves with a wolf as a pet. I'm pretty sure that was my ultimate dream as a child. And sort of still is...
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