Pink Carnation Quotation Collection
Happy Monday! As part of my ongoing effort to update the website, I’m gathering Pink quotes for a book-by-book Pink Quotation Compedium, which will find a permanent home on the Diversions page.
This is proving a more complex project than I had envisioned. So, once again, I appeal to you for aid. Each Monday, I’ll be collecting favorite quotes from a different Pink book.
Which are your favorite lines from The Secret History of the Pink Carnation?
Just post your favorites below, along with the people who said them, and page numbers.
One person will be chosen at random to receive one of the Pink comic prints as a thank you. The recipient of the Pink comic print will be announced on Sunday, March 6.
Black Tulip coming up next Monday!
I work at a public library and my boss mentioned a book that she thought I might enjoy knowing my love of historical fiction. She mentioned this scene and thus piqued my interest.
Thwap! Everyone within earshot jumped at the sound of Miss Gwen’s reticule connecting with Bonaparte’s arm. “Sir! Take that hand out of your jacket! It is rude and it ruins your posture. A man of your diminutive stature needs to stand up straight.”
I just love Miss Gwen!!
“As the door closed behind him, Richard heard his mother call out gleefully, “Almack’s at nine! Don’t forget to wear knee breeches!’
“The banging of the door drowned out Richard’s heartfelt groan. Knee breeches. Bloody hell. It had been so long since he had last been dragged by the ear through the dreaded doors of Almack’s Assembly Rooms that he had completely forgotten about knee breeches.”
I love it when the whole family shows up in Paris to ‘help’ Richard!
“Just when he thought nothing worse could happen, just as he was about to tackle the catastrophe at hand, another disaster erupted.
Miles leaped up from his chair next to Geoff and hooted, “Richard’s in love!”
All activity in the room drew to an abrupt close. Geoff’s teacup halted guiltily in between the table and his mouth. Henrietta dropped her biscuit. His mother stopped straightening the pictures on the walls. His father looked up from his cravat.
“In love!” Lady Uppington opened her mouth in a delighted O. “Oh, Richard!”
“Miles, blast you! I am not in–urgh!” Richard emitted a strangled noise.
His mother tugged at his arm. “Darling, how wonderful! Who is she?”
Richard shrugged away. “But I just said–argh!”
Miles nodded sagely, a great, big, infuriating grin spreading across his face. “Yes. Clearly a victim of Cupid’s amorous dar– oof! You know, throwing that cushion at me just proves my point. What do you say, Henrietta?”
“Henrietta,” Richard pronounced chillingly, “is not going to say anything at all. Not if she doesn’t want to be bodily lifted onto the next packet to Dover.”
Henrietta’s mouth snapped shut.”
“Within ten minutes, by means of ambiguous half-statements and strategically raised eyebrows, Amy had managed to ascertain that Henrietta knew of Richard’s dual identity.”
I communicate with my friends like all the time!
Lets see….
“I cannot tell tell you,”Amy confessed frankly, “how good it is to finally have a genuinely interesting conversation with someone! Nobody at home talks about anything but sheep or embroidery. No, really. I’m not exaggerating. And whenever I come across someone who has actually done something interesting, they change the subject and talk about the weather!”
Amy’s face was so disgruntled that Richard had to laugh “Surely you must allow the weather some consequence?” he teased. “Look at the impact it has had upon us.”
“How can I be a chaperone when I have a chaperone?” protested Henrietta. Tapping her foot in impatience Lady Uppington whispered something in Henrietta’s ear. “Oh right!” Henrietta waggled her eyebrows meaningfully at her mother.
Chap. 31
“Where is she? Where is the little witch?” An extremely irte Georges Marston burst lopsidedly through the door of the dining room where the Balcourts were partaking of supper. His angry blue eyes lit on Amy. “You!” he bellowed, limping down the length of the table.
“Sir!” Miss Gwen’s voice stopped Marston dead in his tracks. “What is the meaning of this intrusion?”
“Her.” Marston pointed at Amy, all but frothing at the mouth. “Her.”
“She,” Miss Gewn corrected primly.
“Yes, her!” Marston’s lip curled in a manner that made Amy wish to find some pressing reason to adjourn to another room. Preferably with the door locked behind her. Her arms ached with the memory of Marston’s painful grip. Shewouldn’t let him touch her again. She’d break her wineglass over his head and ward him off with the fragments. She’d break his other toe — no, that would require an unpleasant proximity.
Miss Gwen sighed. “No, Mr. Marston. Not her, she. Did your fathers family teach you no English grammar? Or has life in the army whittled away at your verbal skills until you are capable of nothing save the occasional incorrect monosyllable? Following the implied verb “to be,” the noun must always be in the nominative, rather than the accusative.”
“Accusative,” repeated Marston, with a nasty look in his eye tht Amy feared had little to do with grammar. “I’ll show you accusative! I accuse her!” One beefy finger pointed straight at Amy.
Amy shot up in her place. “And I accuse you of behavior unbecoming to a gentleman, and I demand you leave my house at once!”
Sorry, I didn’t include the page number for my excerpt. It’s pg. 316.
One of my favourites is the hilarious proposal scene with everyone watching and commenting especially,
“Wait we want to see your technique.” Miles jeered. “Ow!” Miss Gwen had applied her parasol to Miles’s arm with immediate effect. p. 403.
and Colin and Eloise’s banter
“At least I’m not impersonating Jane Eyre.”
“Well you’re no Mr Rochester!” p. 192.
I don’t know if i can pick a favorite line, quote…
“not the knee breeches” p27
“he had no desire to find him self on the pointy end of miss Gwen’s parasol for improper advances” p105
all the lines in the book are good but its the way things are written that give me the giggles..
“after all, if i was going to be thrown out of the house like a disobedient Victorian scullery maid, i might as well go out with style.” P91
Oh yes and the whole scene with Gwen giving Napoleon a lecture its my absolute favorite. That is my favorite comic page. Priceless
“could you kindly contrive to breathe in a more decorous fashion?” “i have known sheepdogs with more genteel respiratory habits” -Miss Gwen pg. 166
“i know it was always your dream, Amy, but, if you don’t mind terribly, I’d like to stay on as the Pink Carnation.” -Jane Wooliston pg. 404
“No, Mr. Marston. Not her, she. Did your father’s family teach you no English grammar? Or has life in the army whittled away at your verbal skills until you are capable of nothing save the occasionaly incorrect monosyllable? Following the implied verb ‘to be,’ the noun must always be in the nominative, rather than in the accusative.”
“Accusative,” repeated Marston, with a nasty look in his eye that Amy feared had little to do with grammar. “I’ll show you accusative! I accuse her!”
pp. 291-292, Miss Gwen
“Richard’s mind — and stomach — churned. Who could it be? Whoever it was, it would give Richard great satisfaction to drive a fist into his jaw. It couldn’t be Marson, not unless Amy had a hidden streak of perversion. Who in the hell else did she even know in France? Did she have a beloved back in England? Was that the answer? And what was she doing kissing the Purple Gentian when — oh. Oh no. The terrible truth hit Richard like a whack from a falling column.
He was jealous of his own damn self.
When, he thought furiously, in all the annals of the world, had there ever been a situation so ludicrous? At least King Arthur and Menelaus and all those other chaps had been cuckolded by genuine rivals. It was positively embarrassing to be thwarted in courtship by his own bleeding self. What sort of idiot got in the way of his own courtship?
Lord Richard Selwick, the Purple Gentian, that was who.”
pgs. 333-334 (Richard, sorta. As in they’re his thoughts.)
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