How we cite our quotes: Possession: A Romance. London: Vintage Books, 1991.
Quote #10
The ring of living beauty drawn about our shores was a very thin and fragile one. It had existed all those centuries solely in consequence of the indifference, the blissful ignorance of man. These rock-basins, fringed by corallines, filled with still water almost as pellucid as the upper air itself, thronged with beautiful sensitive forms of life—they exist no longer, they are all profaned and emptied, and vulgarized. An army of 'collectors' has passed over them, and ravaged every corner of them. (13.17)
This excerpt from Mortimer Cropper's biography of Randolph Henry Ash prompts us to consider the consequences of Ash's trendy interest in marine biology. At the same time, it also echoes and amplifies one of Possession's most important themes—the relationship between knowledge, purity, corruption, and death and destruction.