Litterära Lyme Regis

Lyme Regis på Dorsetkusten har så starka litterära kopplingar att uttrycket Literary Lyme har myntats. I Jane Austens Övertalning händer dramatiska saker på piren The Cobb. Men framförallt är det nog Den franska löjtnantens kvinna de flesta känner till, där den mystiskt sorgsna kvinnan brukar stå längst ut på piren med blicken i fjärran oavsett väder.

An easterly is the most disagreeable wind in Lyme Bay – Lyme Bay being that largest bite from the underside of England’s outstretched southwestern leg – and a person of curiosity could at once have deduced several strong probabilities about the pair who began to walk down the quay at Lyme Regis, the small but ancient eponym of the inbite, one incisively sharp and blustery morning in the late March of 1867.
Kap 1 - The French Lieutenant’s Woman, John Fowles

Primitive yet complex, elephantine but delicate; as full of subtle curves and volumes as a Henry Moore or a Michelangelo; and pure, clean, salt, a paragon of mass. I exaggerate? Perhaps, but I can be put to the test, for the Cobb has changed very little since the year of which I write; though the town of Lyme has, and the test is not fair if you look back towards land.

Kap 1 - The French Lieutenant’s Woman, John Fowles

Medan jag laser vidare i The French Lieutenant’s Woman lämnar jag er med ytterligare en bild från Lyme Regis och The Cobb.