Notable Quotables #6

(Notable Quotables is a meme brought to you by the Bewitched Bookworms. Every Monday you’re invited to share a favorite quote or two from the books you’ve been reading. Wanna join the fun? Clicking the image takes you to this week’s post.)

The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the few times I’ve enjoyed both the book and the film adaption — although for different reasons. The film gets rid of a lot of the subplots that I think are marvelous. This quote is from one of those.

” ‘As for you, Maximelien, here is the secret of my conduct toward you: there is neither happiness or unhappiness in this world; there is only the comparison of one state with another. Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss. It is necessary to have wished for death, Maximilien, in order to know how good it is to live.

Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget that, until the day God deigns to reveal the future to man, the sum of all human wisdom will be contained in these two words: Wait and hope.’ “

I have no idea who Anatole Broyard is, but I like his method of recommending books:

“The thought of people reading in the sun, on the beach, tempts me to recommend dark books, written in the shadow of loneliness, despair, and death. Let these revelers feel a chill as they loll on their towels. Let Baudelaire’s ‘wing of madness’ pass over them like a scavenging seagull.”

Fabulous imagery.

What you’re favorite subplot in a novel? What’s your book recommendation process?