Theirs was that substantial affection which arises (if any arises at all) when the two who are thrown together begin first by knowing the rougher sides of each other’s character, and not the best till further on, the romance growing up in the interstices of a mass of hard prosaic reality. This good-fellowship—camaraderie—usually occurring through similarity of pursuits, is unfortunately seldom superadded to love between the sexes, because men and women associate, not in their labours, but in their pleasures merely. Where, however, happy circumstance permits its development, the compounded feeling proves itself to be the only love which is strong as death—that love which many waters cannot quench, nor the floods drown, beside which the passion usually called by the name is evanescent as steam.
Thomas Hardy · Far from the Madding Crowd
Love & longing
“Theirs was that substantial affection which arises (if any…”
- Author
- Thomas Hardy
- Work
- Far from the Madding Crowd
- Year
- 1874
- Chapter / part
- Chapter LVI
- Length
- 126 words
- Source
- Project Gutenberg eBook #107
Public domain. This passage is in the public domain. Thomas Hardy died in 1928, more than 70 years ago, and the work was first published in 1874. You can copy, print, read aloud or sell it without asking permission; a credit is kind but not required. The text is copied word for word from the Project Gutenberg edition linked here.
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