Cousin Rosamund is a more difficult read than the first two books in the Aubrey Trilogy (also known as The Saga of the Century), in ways I might tell about later. But this passage in which the Aubreys’ friend Nancy shares her expectant-mother thoughts sweetened the mood:
“You see, the thing isn’t a bit reasonable,” Nancy went on. “Oswald keeps on telling me how it happens, ovulation and all that, but it doesn’t explain anything. It’s not logical that two little things without any sense can get together and make a third thing, that suddenly gets sense and thinks and feels for itself and gets born and has a will of its own, and is a person. How can there be a person, suddenly, when there wasn’t before?”
“It’s a mystery,” agreed Aunt Milly.
“Yes, put it like that, it’s against nature,” said Aunt Lily.
“And think of it happening all the time,” Nancy went on. “And all these people that come into the world in this extraordinary way clinging on the earth, which is just a star like any other, and nobody knows how the stars come to exist. It’s all so odd that anything should be here.”
“I never thought of it before, but it would be more natural if there wasn’t anything at all,” said Aunt Milly.
“Yes, it’s all so unnatural that there must be a meaning to it,” said Nancy, glowing. “They always say so in church but you only half-believe it, but having a baby, it’s more extraordinary than anything they tell you in church. I don’t know what it all means,” she proclaimed, “but I feel that I might know any minute now.”
-Rebecca West in Cousin Rosamund
Gladsome Lights 
Oh, Gretchen, what is the painting?
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I evidently found it here: https://www.artinconnu.com/ but before I had the sense to include the artist’s name as well in the file. 😦 At the time I saved it I must have been thinking I would only use it in my screensaver. Now I will search a bit to see if I can discover more.
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You find the most beautiful images to accompany your posts!
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The Fountain Overflows has arrived in the mail, ordered from Abe Books. I am including it my 2020 Reading challenge. Will I want to go on reading the entire trilogy?
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I know I wanted to, the first time I completed The Fountain Overflows. Back then, I didn’t have at hand the sequel, so while I waited, I read Fountain again; I just did not want to leave the company of that family.
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having only just finished ‘the fountain overfiows’ the answer is YES. you are definitely going to want to read the entire series. which reminds me that i need to get over to amazon toute suite to order the second book!
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What a beautiful passage! This is particularly meaningful to me right now because I’ve spent time this morning in sadness over the abortion position of one of our political parties and its candidate. How can we have taken a miracle, a mystery, and turned it into murder?
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