Thursday, 12 September 2024

One of the Greatest Readers Alive

    ‘I am one of the greatest readers alive,’ said Herrick. ‘I have read all European modern literature, the enormous bulk of it. And I have read as much mediaeval literature as any man living. And I know my Greek and Latin. They were taught to us well when I was a boy.’
   ‘But you need not imply how they are taught now,’ said Bumpus.
Ivy Compton-Burnett, Pastors and Masters (London: Hesperus Press, 2009; 1925), p. 95.