STEFAN HERTMANS "De bekeerlinge"

Stefan Hertmans vertelt in zijn boek "De Bekeerlinge" over zijn bezoek aan de Joodse wijk in Caïro :

"...Ik stap door, en plots zie ik ze : de Ben Ezra-synagoge van Fustat,

 toentertijd bekend als Al-Shamiyin. 

De plek is legendarisch. 

Volgens de overlevering zou hier, 

bij de waterput achter het gebouw, 

de dochter van de farao de boreling Mozes in zijn mandje gevonden hebben; 

hier zou Mozes ook zijn opgegroeid.

 Net voor de synagoge ligt de oeroude kerk van Abu Serga,

 waar Jozef en Maria tijdens de door Herodes bevolen kindermoord heen zouden zijn gevlucht,

 en waar ze drie maanden zouden zijn gebleven..."

(foto van deze kerk genomen in augustus 1989). 

GRAHAM GREENE " Our Man in Havana"

• GRAHAM GREENE TELLS ABOUT FRENCH HISTORY IN "OUR MAN IN HAVANA" (1958)

"...but the main source of the French intelligence at the time of Dreyfus was a charwoman who collected  the scraps out of the waste-paper baskets at the German Embassy.." (p.29)";;;I said I sympathized with the French officers in 1940 who looked after their families ; they didn't anyway put their careers first. " (p.217)

• GRAHAM GREENE HAD A PRESENTIMENT OF THE CUBAN CRISIS IN 1962 :"...Havana could be a key-spot. The Communists always go where there's trouble..." (p.47)"...They've become very active in Cuba - apparently with the help of the police. Our man in Havana has had a difficult time. His best agent, as you know, was killed, accidentallly of course, on his way to take aerial photographs of the constructions..." (p.146)"...Is there anything in Cuba important enough to interest a Secret Service ?  Of course we are only a small country, but we lie very close to the American coast. If a country is surrounded, as Russia is, it will try to punch a hole through from inside..."   (p.150). 

Napoleon als Italiaans bendeleider

SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE,

" DE ROMANOVS"

pag.340 :

"Napoleon Bonaparte, 

die zich tot eerste consul voor het leven had laten benoemen,

 combineerde het rationalisme van de Verlichting

en

de vrijheden van de Franse Revolutie 

met

het monarchistische conservatisme 

van een geboren autocraat 

en

de grenzeloze ambities van een Italiaanse bendeleider". 

"I cannot live without books" part II

EMILY BRÖNTE, "Wuthering Heights"

p.146 : 

"Catherine, what have you done ? 

Am I nothing to you, any more ? 

Do you love that wretch, Heathcliff ?"

 (...)

I don't want you, Edgar;

I'm past wanting you..

.Return to your books...

I'm glad you possess a consolation,

 for all you had in me is gone". 

p.343 :

"No books, 

I exclaimed.

 How do you contrive to live here without them ?

 If I may take the liberty to enquire 

- Though provided with a large library,,

I'm frequently very dull at the Grange

 - take my books away, 

and I should be desperate". 

"I cannot live without books"

ALDOUS HUXLEY, Brave New World (1932),

p.183 :

"Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness.

That's why I have te keep these books locked up in the safe.

They're smut. People would be shocked if ..."

p.50 :

"Accompanied by a campaign against the Past;

by the closing of museums, the blowing up of historical monuments 

(luckily most of them had 

already been destroyed during the Nine Years' War);

by the suppression of all books published before A.F.150".

p.93 :

"The spectacle of two young women

 giving the breast to their babies

made her blush and turn away her face.

She had never seen anything so indecent in her life".