Merrick by Anne RiceMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I read the last two chapters on Saturday so I could finish the book on Saturday. My last reading session was 48 minutes. I finished reading this book for the second time in my life on Saturday, April 29, 2023 at 8:03 p.m.
View all my reviews
I got this from the Savers by the old house for $3.99 on June 13, 2020 at 4:40 p.m.
3-307 = 304 pages
DUE: 11/22 @ 11:59 PM
145-304=159
3pg
This text is from my Google Keep note collection. It was created September 29, 2017.
* I don't know why, but I am always comforted by David's voice.
I tried chicory coffee, and I liked it. It was bitter, but had that NOLA flavor! :D
“The clock had stopped ticking and I’d turned to look at it, uncertain where it was. On the mantle, yes, and its hands had been frozen, and the window-panes had given that muffled rattle that they do when the wind nudges them, and the house had wrapped me securely in its own atmosphere of warmth and secrets, of safety and sanctity, of dreaminess and communal might” (27).
“‘My very presence, with all its signals of power, can erode your own tolerance for living, Merrick; it can eat away your faith in a moral order, it can hurt your willingness to die an ordinary death’” (30).
“He might have been made by God to be painted by Andrea del Sarto, so deliberately perfect did he seem” (62).
Louis! 😍
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Saint John the Baptist (about 1523) by Andrea del Sarto
“He looked rather splendid in his sorrow. Again he made me think of the paintings of Andrea del Sarto. There was something lush in his beauty, for all the sharp and clear well drawn lines of his eyes and mouth” (69).
“I, nevertheless, perceive certain things about him as he lies by the hour listening to the brilliant and stormy music of Beethoven, Brahms, Bach, Chopin, Verdi, and Tchaikovsky, and the other composers he loves” (78).
“Entering the flat, I turned on all the electric lights in every room, a detail which was our custom by this time, and one upon which I depended heavily for some sense of normality, no matter that it was a mere illusion, but then, perhaps normality is always an illusion. Who am I to say?” (87).
This quote is from my Google Keep note collection. It was created September 10, 2017.
“I heard the rattle of the priest’s rosary, and then came the fragrance of fresh-brewed coffee mingled with the sweetness of newly falling rain.
It was an overwhelming and soothing moment—the close moist air of the New Orleans springtime, the sweetness of the rain coming down all around us, and the soft murmur of thunder far off to the right. I could smell the candle wax and the flowers of the shrine” (96).
“The priest raised his hands to give the blessing in Latin, In Nomine Patris, et filie, et spiritu sanctum, Amen” (98).
“I wanted to be alone with this book! I wanted to read every syllable of it” (104).
♥️
‘This is the way to do it,’ she told us both.
I wanna try this recipe! I'll make a separate post with this quote and possibly make a video on it. I tried it and it was delicious! I have decided to just take a picture of my cup and post it within this blog post. I did in fact follow the recipe. It is great with sugar!
☕️ Yummy!
“I looked at a painting by Monet—one I’d come to neglect of late due to familiarity—a painting full of sunshine and greenery, of a woman at work on her needlepoint by a window under the limbs of delicate indoor trees” (140).
Madame Monet Embroidering (1875) by Claude Monet
“‘Don't condemn yourself so much for contacting her,’ he said with an uncommon self-confidence. He seemed earnest and, as always, forever young.
‘Why not?’ I asked. ‘I had thought you were a specialist in guilt?’
He laughed politely at this, and then again made a silent chuckle. He shook his head” (142).
This quote is from my Google Keep note collection. It was created October 3, 2017.
“It was the love of Louis which had at times crippled Lestat, and enslaved Armand. Louis need have no consciousness of his own beauty, of his own obvious and natural charm” (142).
;)
“Indeed, Merrick remained convinced all her young years, as I knew her, that reading was the key to all things” (148).
“He [Oncle Vervain] said you give up your dreams the longer you live, until you've got nothing.’
I [David Talbot] think I winced at those choice and truthful words” (164-165).
I agree with David on this one.
This quote is from my Google Keep note collection. It was created October 9, 2017.
“For two days afterwards, while imbibing ridiculous quantities of the delicious full-bodied Macallan Scotch, of which she had laid in several bottles, I tried to control Merrick, to prevent the journey from taking place. But it was quite useless. I was getting drunk over and over again, and Merrick was determined. If I did not give Talamasca authority and support, she would take off on her own” (175).
This paragraph was omitted from the audiobook. Maybe it has to do with the redundancy of the content within the paragraph.
“I saw faces about me which reminded me immediately of the ancient countenances of Central America preserved in Maya, and possibly Olmec, art” (179).
I know what David means here. You can just see the Mayan ancestors in some native or people who are from certain parts in that region.
* There is a horrible rip in the book’s page on 176. I need to tape it down. :( 😞
* I just had thought that Merrick and David remind me of that Australian television show called, “Bloom,” that came out back in 2019. In this flashback that David is telling Louis in the Rue Royale Merrick is around 25/26 years old and David was in his late sixties. It’s like how it is in Bloom because it’s like it is with Gwen and Ray, except for the berry thing and they’re not married to each other.
“‘The spirit who haunted this fellow,’ said Aaron, ‘was a tall woman with brown hair and green eyes. Now that does not square with our pictures of Cold Sandra or Honey in the Sunshine, does it?’
I answered no, that it did not” (208).
So, does this confirm that Merrick did kill her mother and older sister?
“‘I’ll spend the next few evenings with Lestat,’ Louis said quietly. ‘I want to read to him. He doesn’t respond but he doesn’t stop me” (212).
Awww! 🥹
“‘Oh, but I can't,’ he said, his dark brows knotting” (228).
This quote is from my Google Keep note collection. It was created October 27, 2017.
“...his brows were knitted...He was gazing off, mesmerized and comforted, and his eyes were glazed and his face was softened and unchallenging” (261).
This quote is from my Google Keep note collection. It was created November 6, 2017.
“I could never allow such a contact, let alone the possession of such a potent object by seers as powerful as Merrick” (262).
This sentence was omitted from the audiobook.
“...rise from her rocking chair and fly into his arms.
Every particle of my being was on alert for danger, and my heart was breaking in two. The room was dreamy and sweet with its vigilant candles.
And they loved each other, this pair of beings, Louis and Merrick, there was no denying it. I watched silently as Louis kissed Merrick repeatedly, as he ran his long white fingers through her hair. I watched as he kissed her long throat.
He drew back and let out a long sigh.
…
She came towards me, the red silk rustling as she walked. I caught her perfume. She put her arms around me and I felt the warmth of her naked breasts beneath the thin cloth.
‘Go now, David, please,’ she said, her voice full of gentle emotion, her face compassionate as she looked into my eyes.
Never in all my years of knowing her, wanting her, missing her—had anything hurt so much as this simple request.
‘Go.’ I repeated the word in a small voice. ‘Leave you both together? Go?
I looked into her eyes for a long moment. How she seemed to suffer, how she seemed to implore (beg) me.
…
I saw the terrible dismay in his expression.
…
I saw him swallow hard and then he nodded. It seemed there was much he wanted to say to me, and his eyes were sad and eloquent (expressive) of a deeper pain. At last he murmured in answer:
…
I turned to her. Her eyes were on Louis. She was as distant from me in these moments as she has ever been. I kissed her tenderly. She scarcely looked at me, returning my kisses as if she must remind herself to do it, as smitten (in love with) with Louis as he was with her.
‘Goodbye for now, my precious,’ I whispered, and I went out of the house.
...
I left the house behind me and walked fast, and alone, uptown” (272-274).
This quote is from my Google Keep note collection. It was created November 10, 2017.
“...and that some night Lestat's soul would return to his body, because I needed him. I needed him desperately. I felt alone with all my years and all my lessons, with all my experiences and all my pain.
...
It was grief and regret—terrible, harrowing (upsetting) regret.
...
No, it was grief because they loved each other, those two, and I'd brought them together, and now they would have whatever might have belonged to Merrick and me.
...
I stood in the spring heat and in the soft dust, breathing in the scent of the mold and the red bricks around me, and peering towards the unwashed windows, beyond which the streets, now much neglected, gave forth its few persistent and sorrowful lights.
...
I was unable to touch her, my hands hovering above her shoulders, and suddenly I gave in to the embrace with all my heart.
...
I cried out even as I held her tight enough to harm her, held her close to me as if no one could ever pry her loose. I didn't care if mortals heard me. I didn't care if all the world knew” (275-277).
This quote is from my Google Keep note collection. It was created November 11, 2017.
“‘Harder, yes, take it from me,’ came Lestat’s low insistent command. He spoke in French now. ‘Harder, more of it, take it, take all that I have to give’” (286).
;) Finally! Some loustat! <3
“Louis stared at Lestat for some few minutes, his face blank, as it always becomes when he is in a state of high emotion, and then his features softened, his brows knitted, and there came the dreaded tears to his eyes.
...
His eyes were shut tight, and he brought up his hand to hide his face from us. He was weeping” (296).
This quote is from my Google Keep note collection. It was created November 17, 2017.
“He was silent for some moments, and I thought for a split second that I saw a shadow fall over his face. Then he gave me a warm smile and gestured for me to worry no more” (298).
This quote is from my Google Keep note collection. It was created November 18, 2017.
“Lestat looked both stymied and infuriated. I could all but see the little wheels turning in his brain. There crept into his expression something utterly hostile and mischievous which I had certainly seen in years past” (304).
This quote is from my Google Keep note collection. It was created November 20, 2017.
