Quote by Henry James, The Ambassadors, 19
He had dropped upon a seat halfway down the nave and, again in the museum mood, was trying with head thrown back and eyes aloft, to reconstitute a past, to reduce it in fact to the convenient terms of Victor Hugo, whom, a few days before, giving the rein for once in a way to the joy of life, he had purchased in seventy bound volumes, a miracle of cheapness, parted with, he was assured by the shopman, at the price of the red-and-gold alone. He looked, doubtless, while he played his eternal nippers over Gothic glooms, sufficiently rapt in reverence; but what his thought had finally bumped against was the question of where, among packed accumulations, so multiform a wedge would be able to enter..
Summary
In this quote, a character is depicted sitting in a museum, nostalgically reflecting on the past while surrounded by artifacts and historical collections. He contemplates how to condense and simplify history, comparing it to the ease of summarizing it in the works of Victor Hugo, a famous author. However, amidst the grandeur and abundance of the museum, he contemplates how such a diverse and multifaceted history could be represented, emphasizing the challenge of distilling it down to its essential elements. The quote highlights the complex nature of history and the difficulty of capturing its entirety.
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