"I armed her against the censures of the world; showed her that books were sweet, unreproaching companions to the miserable, and if they could not bring us to enjoy life, they would at least teach us to endure it."
I needn't have had the benefit of over a book a day read that week to almost burst into tears at the beauty of this line, which so perfectly speaks to why I can't stop buying books. What an extraordinary one this is, with its amusingly-enacted tale shot through with that stark sense of sadness under it all. The twenty-ninth chapter is one of the most extraordinary things I think I've ever read, and as perfect an apologia for the lingering role of religion (even to this day) there may have ever been. It is exquisite.