Lit Tag

Sophia at Chic & Charming tagged me in yet another tag going around, but this one has a literary twist to it so I'm only too happy to oblige!

Rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence
4. Post the next three sentences
5. Tag 5 people, acknowledge who tagged you.

I'm currently reading three different books, but the one nearest at hand is entitled Infinite Variety about the Marchesa Luisa Casati. (After reading a mention of her in Simon Doonan's Eccentric Glamour, I had to learn more! So glad I did!) Her gothic style and rich-girl goes BoHo ways are right up my alley!

Apart from being completely eccentric, sexy, glamorous, a muse to many artists, and rich as Croesus, she lived in a ruin of a palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice for a time, when she was known to walk her pet cheetas through the Piazza San Marco in the middle of the night wearing nothing more than a fur coat. One of her beauty secrets, along with a healthy dose of kohl around the eyes, was to use belladonna eyedrops - a method (now known to be extremely dangerous) for dilating the pupils and making the eyes look larger.

Can you tell I'm captivated?  

Here is from page 123 of Infinite Variety by Scot D. Ryersson & Michael Orlando Yaccarino: 

"Returning to the dining room, hung with black velvet and lit by innumerable black candles flicering from the chamber's silver chandeliers, the Marchesa invited Sorel to perform a selection of recitations. throughout the presentation, Luisa stood as rigidly as a statue in the far corner of the room, eerily illuminated by the candlelight, while, as Sorel noted, "drops continued to fall from her shoulders and gilded sides." The guests departed beneath cloud-ridden skies and punding rain. This disappointing baptismal fete for the Palais Rose would prove to be a harbinger of darker misfortunes to come."

I'm tagging:

Wendy Brandes
The Luxe Chronicles
Lola is Beauty
She's a Betty
Almost Girl 

The Marchesa Luisa Casati with a Greyhound by Giovanni Boldoni, 1908 

Comments

[WendyB]

Mwah ha ha ha! I already have this one done but not posted. This week!

[Catie]

Woot! I am going to all the Cinema Supper shows this summer! I did not know about the period dress thing. How cool is that?

[Kamela]

Wow! I have to read this book. Marchesa sounded like quite the woman. I'm glad you got tagged!! I'm still loving Poetic & Chic, keep up the hard work! Hope you're having a great summer! Cheers, Modern Girl Style!