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"When the corpses of some of Franklin's officers and crew were later discoverer, miles from their ships, the men were found to have left behind their guns but to have lugged such essentials as monogrammed silver cutlery, a backgammon board, a cigar case, a clothes brush, a tin of button polish, and a copy of The Vicar of Wakefield. These men may have been incompetent bunglers, but, by God, they were gentlemen."

#reread #annefadiman

"When the Irish novelist John McGahern was a child, his sisters unlaced and removed one of his shoes while he was reading. He did not stir. They placed a straw hat in his head. No response. Only when they took away the wooden chair in which he was sitting did he, as he puts it 'wake out of the book.'" #ExLibris #AnneFadiman #ConfessionsOfACommonReader #FirstLines