Tove Jansson

a novel

Fair play

rachel

Don't even talk to me about all the precision tools that you carry with you half your life, tools you get to know and love-and then someone comes along who doesn't get it, doesn't respect them, someone who handles your delicate instruments like they were can openers!

“ Do not forget my sign of recognition, a red carnation in my buttonhole! Au revoir!"

"I must continue, filled only with my knowledge, my insight. But I have not yet been able to use the face of death, not well enough. He is too palpable. Or is it a she? In any case, a challenge that fascinates me. And what do you know of death? What do you think about it? Have you ever even experienced a great loss?" "Wladyslaw," Mari said, "do you realize that it's three o'clock in the morning?" "It doesn't matter. One must use the nights. My friend,I sense that you have not thought much about the face of death. And do you know why? Because you do not live with all your strength, all the time, in your own triumph dashing ahead of ime, anticipating it and disdaining it. I am awake, always. Even in my brief dreams I continue to work, constantly. Nothing must be lost.”

Mari was hardly listening. A daring thought was taking shape in her mind. She began to anticipate a solitude of her own, peaceful and full of possibility. She felt something close to exhilaration, of a kind that people can permit themselves when they are blessed with love.

Fair play quotes

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