“Do you ever think of death?”
Maurice had been the listener for so long that he started.
“Death?” he echoed, and was as much embarrassed as though asked whether he believed in God. “I don’t know. No, I don’t think I do. Why should one think of death when one is alive and well?”
Krafft laughed at this, with a pitying irony. “Happy you!” he said. “Happy you!” His voice sank, and he continued almost fearfully: “I have the vision of it before me, always wherever I go. Listen; I will tell you; it is like this.”
He laid his hand on Maurice’s arm, and drew him nearer. “I know—no matter how strong and sound I may be at this moment; no matter how I laugh, or weep, or play the fool; no matter how little thought I give it, or whether I think about it all day long—I know the hour will come, at last, when I shall gasp, choke, grow black in the face, in the vain struggle for another single mouthful of that air which has always been mine at will. And no one will be able to help me; there is no escape from that hour; no power on earth can keep it from me. And it is all a matter of chance when it happens—a great lottery: one draws to-day, one to-morrow; but my turn will surely come, and each day that passes brings me twenty-four hours nearer the end.”
He drew still closer to Maurice. “Tell me, have you never stood before a doorway—the doorway of some strange house that you have perhaps never consciously gone past before—and waited, with the atrocious curiosity that death and its hideous paraphernalia waken in one, for a coffin to be carried out?—the coffin of an utter stranger, who is of interest to you now, for the first and the last time. And have you not thought to yourself, with a shudder, that some day, in this selfsame way, under the same indifferent sky, among a group of loiterers as idly curious as these, you yourself will be carried out, feet foremost, like a bale of goods, like useless lumber, all will and dignity gone from you, never to enter there again?—there, where all the little human things you have loved, and used, and lived amongst, are lying just as you left them—the book you laid down, the coat you wore—now all of a greater worth than you. You are mere dead flesh, and behind the horrid lid lie stark and cold, with rigid fingers and half-closed eyes, and the chief desire of every one, even of those you have loved most, is to be rid of you, to be out of reach of sight and smell of you.
And so, after being carted, and jolted, and unloaded, you will be thrown into a hole, and your body, ice-cold, and as yielding as meat to the touch—oh, that awful icy softness!—your flesh will begin to rot, to be such that not your nearest friend would touch you. God, it is unbearable!”
from the book titled "Maurice Guest, by Henry Handel Richardson (aka Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson) 1909
Author Portrait
Quality book review and breakdown of Maurice Guest novel
It is the first day of September 2024, and I have just completed reading the entire book "Maurice Guest, by H.H. Richardson." While it was the writing that attracted me to this tome of a book, the story it tells of obsessive love is one for the ages. The saying, "I stayed up into the wee hours engrossed in reading this novel," is no cliche when reviewing the book Maurice Guest. The 1909 edition I read was somewhat challenging, with descriptions of old and German words thrown in here and there. But it's a challenge I would encourage other avid readers to take on. For you don't just read about the characters and events, you see, feel, and experience their entwined lives along with them, both emotionally and psychologically. And should you find familiarity in a character's love dealings with your own personal experience of obsessed love or love loss, take comfort in knowing you are not alone. Love throughout history has not always been patient and kind. And in many cases, it hurts and leaves scars.
