BrokenTune

So, it appears that I have chosen yet another work-commute audiobook that features a douchebag of a husband - Colonel Delamare.

‘Is this bitch then permanently installed in the drawing-room?’ said the Colonel, secretly pleased to find a reason for being in a bad mood as a distraction. ‘To the kennel, Ophelia! Out, you stupid beast!’

Had anyone then observed Madame Delmare closely, he might have guessed the painful secret of her whole life in this trivial, commonplace incident. A barely perceptible shudder went through her body, and her hands, which unthinkingly supported the favourite animal’s head, gripped its rough, hairy neck more firmly as if to hold and preserve it. M. Delmare, pulling his riding crop out of his jacket pocket, then advanced threateningly on poor Ophelia, who, closing her eyes and letting out yells of pain and fear in advance, lay down at his feet. Madame Delmare became even paler than usual; her breast heaved convulsively, and turning her big blue eyes towards her husband, she said, with an indefinable look of fear:

‘Have mercy, Monsieur, don’t kill her.’

These few words made the Colonel start. A feeling of sorrow gave way to his inclination to anger.

‘Madame, that’s a reproach that I understand very well and that you haven’t spared me since the day I killed your spaniel at the hunt in a moment of anger,’ he said. ‘Is that such a great loss? A dog that always rushed ahead and attacked the game! It would have worn out anyone’s patience. Besides, it’s only since his death that you’ve been so fond of him; before that you didn’t pay any attention to him, but now that it’s an

opportunity for you to blame me . . .’

However, from what I can tell from the various prefaces that Sand wrote for the book over the years, it appears that she was given a lot grief over writing this book, and she stood up to her critics in a truly badass fashion.

I think I'm going to enjoy this one.