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Lady Juliet d’Orsey
The third child of the Marquis and Marchioness of St. Aubyn’s, who own St. Aubyn’s abbey in London. She is the sister of Juliet, Clive, Michael, and Temple d’Orsey. Barbara first meets Robert Ross at the hospital in London where she and Captain Taffler are visiting Jamie Villiers and Robert is visiting Harris. Barbara is serially attracted to athletic, heroic men and jumps between romantic affairs with several different soldiers throughout the story. Before the war, she is envious of her brother Clive’s close friendship with Jamie, and eventually steals him away from another women when he comes home as a decorated hero. After Jamie returns to war and his entire body is burned in a fire, Barbara acts cold and disinterested in him during her hospital visits. She moves onto relationships with Taffler and Major Terry, and begins an affair with Robert when he comes to stay at St. Aubyn’s, which is converted into a convalescence hospital during World War I. As with Jamie, she ceases to care for Robert after he is disfigured by a fire.
Lady Barbara d’Orsey Quotes in The Wars
The The Wars quotes below are all either spoken by Lady Barbara d’Orsey or refer to Lady Barbara d’Orsey. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 2, Chapter 12
Quotes
And what I hate these days is the people who weren’t there and they look back and say we became inured. Your heart froze over—yes. But to say we got used to it! God—that makes me so angry! No. Everything was sharp. Immediate. Men and women like Robert and Barbara—Harris and Taffler…you met and you saw so clearly and cut so sharply into one another’s lives. So there wasn’t any rubbish. You lived without the rubbish of intrigue and the long drawn-out propriety of romance and you simply touched the other person with your life.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Wars LitChart as a printable PDF.
Lady Barbara d’Orsey Quotes in The Wars
The The Wars quotes below are all either spoken by Lady Barbara d’Orsey or refer to Lady Barbara d’Orsey. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 2, Chapter 12
Quotes
And what I hate these days is the people who weren’t there and they look back and say we became inured. Your heart froze over—yes. But to say we got used to it! God—that makes me so angry! No. Everything was sharp. Immediate. Men and women like Robert and Barbara—Harris and Taffler…you met and you saw so clearly and cut so sharply into one another’s lives. So there wasn’t any rubbish. You lived without the rubbish of intrigue and the long drawn-out propriety of romance and you simply touched the other person with your life.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
