“This boy," he said, indicating the paintings with one sweep of his arms, "was romantic. He thought that it was beauty that bound everything together. And for him it was true. Life had been beautiful for him. He was very young. He knew very little of life. He saw beauty but he did not feel any true passion. How could he? He did not know. He had not really encountered the force of beauty's opposite.""Are you more cynical now, then?" she asked him."Cynical," he frowned, "No, not that. I know that there is an ugly side of life-and not just human life. I know that everything is not simply beautiful. I am not a romantic as this boy was. But I am not a cynic either. There is something enduring in all of life, Anne, something tough. Something. Something terribly weak yet incredibly powerful...”

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About Mary Balogh

Welsh-Canadian novelist, historical romance

Mary Balogh is a Welsh-Canadian novelist, born and raised in Swansea, known for her historical romance. She moved to Canada in 1967 to begin a teaching career, later settling in Kipling, Saskatchewan, where she became a school principal. Her debut novel was published in 1985. Balogh writes historical fiction set in the Regency era, or more broadly in the Georgian period, and her work is rooted in that setting’s social codes, relationships, and changing manners.

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