Archer was too intelligent to think that a young woman like Ellen Olenska would necessarily recoil from everything that reminded her of her past. She might believe herself wholly in revolt against it; but what had charmed her in it would still charm her even though it were against her will.
Edith WhartonโYes, the Gorgon has dried your tears,โ he said. โWell, she opened my eyes too; it's a delusion to say that she blinds people. What she does is just the contrary โ she fastens their eyelids open, so that they're never again in the blessed darkness.โ
Edith WhartonTrue originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision. That new, that personal, vision is attained only by looking long enough at the object represented to make it the writer's own; and the mind which would bring this secret gem to fruition must be able to nourish it with an accumulated wealth of knowledge and experience.
Edith Wharton