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A Fine & Private Place
A Fine & Private Place | Peter S Beagle
14 posts | 15 read | 19 to read
For nineteen years, Jonathan Rebeck has hidden from the world within the confines of the Bronxs Yorkchester Cemetery, making an abandoned mausoleum his secret home. He speaks with the newly dead as they pass from life to wherever spirits finally go, providing them with comfort, an understanding ear, and even the occasional game of chess. But Mr. Rebecks reclusive life is soon to be disrupted. An impossible love has blossomed between two ghosts at Yorkchester Cemetery, and Rebeck finds himself drawn to a living woman. Helped along by a cynical raven and a mysterious security guard, these four souls must learn the true difference between life and death and make choices that really are forever. Told with an elegiac wisdom, Peter S. Beagles first novel is a timeless work of fantasy, imbued with hope and wonder. This updated edition contains the authors final revisions and stands as the definitive version of an enduring modern classic.
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myellenbee
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Biverson12 Spooky cover! 👻 added to my stack ☺️ 5y
myellenbee @Biverson12 that's great! It's such a good book. I think it is much better than his The Last Unicorn. 5y
8 likes2 comments
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TobeyTheScavengerMonk
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“'I had a good time that night, too,' Michael said, 'but I kept thinking, This is forever. This is forever. You will have this good time again and again, a million times over, until it will be like a play in which you and Laura and a few #fugitive lives sit around an imaginary fire and talk and sing songs and love each other and sometimes throw imaginary brands at the eyes blinking beyond the circle of imaginary firelight.'"

TobeyTheScavengerMonk @emz711 Both authors must dig Andrew Marvell‘s “To His Coy Mistress”. 5y
62 likes3 comments
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TobeyTheScavengerMonk
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“The stars were going out now, one by one, dropping like pennies behind the television aerials and the skylights and the washing strung between the chimneys. The sky was still dark - a sated, navy-blue woman - but the grass was jittery with the expectation of dawn”

#star #QuotsyMay19

Peter S. Beagle sure puts words together pretty. Art by J. J. Long.

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llwheeler
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1. A Fine and Private Place; Circe
2. The Cider House Rules (Circe is kind of yellow too)
3. Changes on a whim, but usually something jewel toned... blues, greens, purples...

Love this bright graphic on a grey and rainy weekend!
#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

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llwheeler
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Apparently sff authors really like Marvell's To His Coy Mistress...

I was thinking of LeGuin's story today, Vaster Than Empires and More Slow. Looked up the poem the title comes from as I couldn't remember it entirely. Hit the line "a fine and private place". Thought, hey that's the title of a Beagle novel I have, I wonder if... yep, sure enough the back cover has a longer quote from the poem.

I ❤️ literary allusions and intertextuality.

llwheeler Also this is I think the 2nd time I've referenced my BritLit anthology textbook since finishing undergrad. Twice in 8 years, not too shabby haha 6y
36 likes2 stack adds1 comment
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TobeyTheScavengerMonk
A Fine & Private Place | Peter S Beagle
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“Walking by yourself in the #rain is for college kids who think loneliness makes poets.”

#QuotsyMarch18

GarthRanzz Don‘t think I‘ve ever heard of this one. Just tossed it on the TBR. 7y
64 likes3 stack adds1 comment
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GirlChandler
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Romantasy and travelogues. I sense a pattern here ... thanks again to @BetterWorldBooks !

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TobeyTheScavengerMonk
A Fine & Private Place | Peter S Beagle
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“There are no #happy endings, he knew, because nothing ends; and if there were any being dispensed, a great many worthier people would be in line for them long before... himself. But the happiness of the unworthy and the happiness of the so-so is as fragile and self-centered and dear as the happiness of the righteous and the worthy; and the happiness of the living is no less short and desperate and forgotten than the joys of the dead.”

67 likes1 comment
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TobeyTheScavengerMonk
A Fine & Private Place | Peter S Beagle
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“I love you, more, I #think, than I know, but our kind of love isn't a sword. It's a light. Not a fire. A small light, just bright enough to read love letters by and keep the animals at a growling distance. In time it will go out. All lights go out. So do all fires, if it's any comfort. Love me, and look at me, and remember me, as I'll remember you.”

#QuotsyFeb18

Cathythoughts Love takes many forms ❤️love this quote 7y
merelybookish Beautiful! 7y
TK-421 Beautiful ❤️ This book sounds intriguing! Adding it to TBR Mountain! 7y
61 likes1 stack add3 comments
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TobeyTheScavengerMonk
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“Sitting up all night would be pointless if somebody you loved wasn't sitting up with you, picking out music to play and helping you kill the bourbon. Walking by yourself in the rain is for college kids who think loneliness makes poets.”

This is a sweet sad love story about two ghosts who fall for each other in a New York cemetery by the author of The Last Unicorn. #aQuoteaDay

IamIamIam Stacked!!!! 8y
JazzFeathers Two ghosts falling in love in a cemetery? Now that's something l want to read! 8y
Gissy I need to read it too! 8y
52 likes12 stack adds3 comments
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Amy_H
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I was dithering between two Beagle books at the public library, but I knew I choose the right when it opened with a raven stealing a whole bologna from a deli.

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Angeles
Pickpick

I really loved this book. The fantasy elements are not the main point of the story which is really a meditation on love and life. Very sweet and romantic, it is more suited to Valentine's Day book than to Halloween

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Larkken
A Fine & Private Place | Peter S Beagle
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Hey, so, littens, I tried to find a good #creepycover. I did! I even Internet searched for particularly good and properly #scarycover. And now I am well and creeped out and will be reading something light and fluffy and notscaryatall before bed 😱. Backfire. Sooo, here's a ghost story that is gorgeous and that I don't remember seeing yet on #AllHallowsRead - and thus, an excellent #underappreciated spooky read. Imma gonna hide now... #booktober

bmsddk Here's a dose of adorable to help! 🐶🌸🦄🌹🐘🏵🐰🌼🐥 8y
Larkken Aw! Thanks, @bmsddk 💞 8y
12 likes2 comments
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Angeles
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My Halloween book this year. The title made me look up the whole of Andrew Marvell's famous poem and I must say it cured me from this idea that back in the day there were no obnoxious jocks. His line about "worms devouring your virginity" which I imagine was his argument on why the mistress should "give it up " made me laugh and throw up in my mouth a little??

SusanPogo Don't let the poem throw you off. This ranks as number two on my list of favorite books (no easy feat). Peter S. Beagle also wrote "The Last Unicorn," and he brings that same, brilliant blend of wit, philosophy, and magical elements to this book. Sorry to gush, but I'm such a fan. I hope you enjoy this. 8y
6 likes1 stack add1 comment