The Sheila Variations

Matthew Arnold?

To Marguerite?

Nope.

Nope.

Okay I'm wrong, but like in horseshoes and hand grenades I should get some credit for being close.

Who order'd that their longing's fire
Should be, as soon as kindled, cool'd?
Who renders vain their deep desire?
A God, a God their severance ruled;
And bade betwixt their shores to be
The unplumb'd, salt, estranging sea.

Not only do I give you credit, but I want to shake your hand. WELL DONE, YOU.

So obviously - the author of this novel was crediting Matthew Arnold in the last sentence of the book, eh?

By the way: the poem that you just posted pretty much tells the whole plot of the book this quote is from.

Veddy interesting ...

As you can see below I didn't post the entire poem, the first time so I rectify that failing now.

To Marguerite

YES: in the sea of life enisled,
With echoing straits between us thrown.
Dotting the shoreless watery wild,
We mortal millions live alone.
The islands feel the enclasping flow,
And then their endless bounds they know.

But when the moon their hollows lights,
And they are swept by balms of spring,
And in their glens, on starry nights,
The nightingales divinely sing;
And lovely notes, from shore to shore,
Across the sounds and channels pour;

O then a longing like despair
Is to their farthest caverns sent!
For surely once, they feel, we were
Parts of a single continent.
Now round us spreads the watery plain?
O might our marges meet again!

Who order'd that their longing's fire
Should be, as soon as kindled, cool'd?
Who renders vain their deep desire?
A God, a God their severance ruled;
And bade betwixt their shores to be
The unplumb'd, salt, estranging sea.

But now, having posted the entire thing I am still flummoxed by the title of the book. I will take a stab at the plot line though. It's a tale of a passionate lusty romance between two people who work different shifts at a desalinization plant?

Uhm ... of what book do you speak?

Racking my brains ... desalination plant?

The book this quote is from is indeed a lusty romance. But it's tragic, too. I think it's time for me to provide some clues to some of these.

So my bent and warped and obscure sense of humor slips on a banana peel (I also like slapstick). A desalizination plant makes sea water into potable water. I was going for this really arcane joke about...oh hell never mind. Jokes really do lose a lot when you have to explain them at length replete with ellipses....

Oh - Jesus. I thought you might be referring to the book version of Silkwood or something.

Even though I know they worked with radioactive material.

:)

Clue:

This is a work of historical fiction. A bestseller. The writing is terrific. The writing of the book is very distanced, as though it is almost a research paper on the mores of the historical time in the book ... There are footnotes, etc.

However - this book is, indeed, a fiery sexy romance.

This isn't Possession by A. S. Byatt, is it? If so I am abashed. I was--well--possessed by that book.

Steve-

Nope, not Possession - although you're very much on the right track. Lots of similarities between the two.

I LOVED Possession. :)

I know I know...but I googled so I'll refrain from answering :-)

Er - what else.

It was made into a movie. But that's not a surprise. The format they found to present the prose of the book (in the movie) was striking - a really good and original idea. Because the book reads almost like a treatise, with the distance of: "This is how it was back then" - the director of the film found a similar distancing-technique when making the movie.

That probably sounds like total gibberish.

The French Lieutenant's Woman (one of my all-time favorites, of course, of course...)

LDH:

Yes! Phew ... that was a rough one. I didn't know what my next clue would be.

French Lieutenant's Woman.