How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Paragraph)
Quote #1
How was he to explain that he wished to possess his grief all by himself, without tainting it by any foreign substance and without sharing it with any other soul? Her death appeared to him as a most rare, almost unheard-of occurrence; nothing, it seemed to him, could be purer than such a death… (6).
The word "pure" is an important one in "The Return of Chorb." Chorb’s love for his wife had a certain chasteness to it, as reflected by their sans-sex wedding night. Even the way he describes his wife – as "light" and "laughing" – reflects his delicate impression of her.
Quote #2
…caused by the impact of an electric stream, the same stream which, when poured into glass receptacles, yields the purest and brightest light (6).
This line sets us up for all the light imagery in "The Return of Chorb." After this, every gleam or luster evokes the memory of Chorb’s wife’s death – and, in turn, her ghost.
Quote #3
He thought that if he managed to gather all the little things they noticed together – if he re-created thus the near past – her image would grow immortal and replace her forever (9).
This is where the Orpheus connection comes in – while Chorb is attempting something different than Orpheus, they are both in a way trying to overcome death.
Quote #4
Ever since that spring day when, on the white highway a dozen kilometers from Nice, she had touched, laughing, the live wire of a storm-felled pole, Chorb's entire world ceased to sound like a world: it retreated at once, and even the dead body that he carried in his arms to the nearest village struck him as something alien and needless (7).
Ooh, more Orpheus stuff. Since Orpheus was famous as a musician, it’s fitting that Chorb’s world ceased to "sound" at his wife’s death.
Quote #5
Behind the curtain the casement was open and one could make out, in the velvety depths, a corner of the opera house, the black shoulder of a stone Orpheus outlined against the blue of the night, and a row of light along the dim façade which slanted off into darkness. Down there, far away, diminutive dark silhouettes swarmed as they emerged from bright doorways onto the semicircular layers of illuminated porch steps, to which glided up cars with shimmering headlights and smooth glistening tops (33).
Just look at the language in this passage and tell us you don’t get goosebumps. As a reader, we’re getting set up for the very next paragraph in the text…