Front door Quote by Penelope Lively
““Belbroughton Road, Linton Road, Bardwell Road. The houses there are quite normal. They are ordinary sizes and have ordinary chimneys and roofs and gardens with laburnum and flowering cherry. Park Town. As you go south they are growing. Getting higher and odder. By the time you get to Norham Gardens they have tottered over the edge into madness: these are not houses but flights of fancy. They are three storeys high and disguise themselves as churches. They have ecclesiastical porches instead of front doors and round norman windows or pointed gothic ones, neatly grouped in threes with flaring brick to set them off. They reek of hymns and the Empire, Mafeking and the Khyber Pass, Mr Gladstone and Our Dear Queen. They have nineteen rooms and half a dozen chimneys and iron fire-escapes. A bomb couldn't blow them up and the privet in their gardens has survived two World Wars.””
About This Quote
Source Novel: A Tale of Two Cities by Penelope Lively, 1995
The description contrasts ordinary houses with increasingly bizarre, fantastical architecture, reflecting societal change and imagination.
In simple terms: Ordinary homes become wild, imaginative structures.
Key Takeaway
Notice how environments can mirror cultural shifts.
Themes
architecture
imagination
societal change
nostalgia
urban development
Mood
evocative
thought‑provoking
Type
literary
descriptive
When to use this quote
- city planning
- creative writing
- historical tours
- architecture criticism
- visual arts
Key Concepts
literature
symbolism
urban studies
Questions to Reflect On
- How do physical spaces influence our perception of history?
- What does the shift from normal to mad suggest about progress?
A Different Perspective
Interpretation may be subjective; not all readers see the same symbolism.
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