Soliloquies Epigraph Masks are arrested expressions and admirable echoes of feelings once faithful, discreet, and superlative. Living things in contact with the air must acquire a cuticle, and it is not urged against cuticles that they are not hearts. I would not say that substance exists for the sake of appearance or faces for the sake of masks, or the passions for the sake of poetry and virtue.
Nothing arises in nature for the sake of anything else.
All these phrases and products are equally involved in the round of existence. At Woodslee, after a brilliant career in England, he spends his winter of decline. Here he meets Brigit, a passionate divorcee, and Alexis, a pianist and composer, who have embarked on a disastrous love affair. In this smaller world is mirrored the larger, filled with paradox, hidden drama, and uncertainties. It is a world full of inner strains and anxieties, told with the understanding, intensity, and penetration for which Joyce Carol Oates has gained her high repute in the world of letters.