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Wednesday 27 March [1935]

Yesterday we went to the Tower, which is an impressive murderous bloody grey raven haunted military barrack prison dungeon place; like the prison of English splendour; the reformatory at the back of history; where we shot & tortured & imprisoned. Prisoners scratched their names, very beautifully, on the walls. [...]

And we watched the Scots Guards drill; & an officer doing a kind of tiger pace up & down—a wax faced barbers block officer trained to a certain impassive balancing. The sergeant major barked & swore. All in a hoarse bark: the men stamped & wheeled like—machines: then the officer also barked: all precise inhuman, showing off—a degrading, a stupifying sight, but in keeping with the grey wall the cobbles the executioner's block.

virginia woolf, diary

Tötungsdelikt zum Nachteil eines 49-jährigen.

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amtsdeutsch kann mich immer noch erstaunen.

garten- & landschaftsbau

Thuraday 4 October [1934]

Scene with M.'s cook & the policeman. Is there no law to defend me from omelettes like that?

A violent rain storm on the pond. The pond is covered with little white thorns; springing up & down: the pond is bristling with leaping white thorns: like the thorns on a small porcupine; bristles; then black waves: cross it: black shudders; & the little water thorns are white: a helter skelter rain, & the elms tossing it up & down: the pond overflowing on one side. Lily leaves tugging: the red flower swimming about; one leaf flapping. Then completely smooth for a moment. Then prickled: thorns like glass; but leaping up & down incessantly. A rapid smirch of shadow. Now light from the sun: green & red: shining: the pond a sage green: the grass brilliant green: red berries on the hedges: the cows very white: purple over Asheham.

virginia woolf, diary

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Tuesday 17 April [1934]

An idea about Sh[akespea]re

That the play demands coming to the surface—hence insists upon a reality wh. the novel need not have, but perhaps should have. Contact with the surface. Coming to the top. This is working out my theory of the different levels in writing, & how to combine them: for I begin to think the combination necessary. This particular relation with the surface is imposed on the dramatist of necessity: how far did it influence Shre? Idea that one cd work out a theory of fiction &c on these lines: how many levels attempted. whether kept to or not.

virginia woolf, diary

schweden: 30. februar 1712

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