Bobby expresses his confusion

Dublin Core

Title

Bobby expresses his confusion

Subject

Literature--Twentieth Century--Sean O'Faolain--Lough Derg

Description

Bobby expresses his confusion at the extravagant embodied devotion and extreme austerity of the pilgrimage to Lough Derg and that it exposes a side of Jenny that he has never seen before.

Creator

Sean O'Faolain, 1900-1991

Source

The Lovers of the Lake', in The Collected Stories of Sean O'Faolain, Vol. 2, pp. 18-43, here p. 22-23

Publisher

Constable and Company, London

Date

1981

Rights

Citation for the purposes of criticism

Format

Edited edition

Language

English

Type

Collection of short stories

Identifier

DD_0235

Coverage

54.616218, -7.876212

Text Item Type Metadata

Text

“’Poor Jenny! I wish you’d talked like this to me before. It is, after all, as you say, your own affair. But what I can’t get over is that this thing you’re doing is so utterly extravagant. To go off to an island, in the middle of a lake, in the mountains, with a lot of Crawthumpers of every age and sex, and no sex, and peel off your stockings and your shoes, and go limping about on your bare feet on a lot of sharp stones, and kneel in the mud, psalming and beating your breast like a criminal, and drink nothing for three days but salt water…it’s not like you. It’s a side of you I’ve never known before. The only possible explanation for it must be that something is happening in you that I’ve never seen happen before.’”

Original Format

Short stories

Tags