Kathleen
It's 1912, and Oxford student Kenneth Forbes has a problem: he must deliver the first chapter of a serial story to his literary society, the Scorpions, by midnight. Staring at a blank page, he finds unexpected inspiration in a tattered letter discovered in a secondhand book - a letter from a girl named Kathleen, addressed to no one in particular. The Scorpions, a whimsical fellowship of young writers and dreamers, become enchanted by this mysterious Kathleen. What begins as a writing exercise transforms into something stranger: a collective fantasy that blurs the line between fiction and obsession. As the boys build Kathleen into their story, they begin to wonder if she might be real - and if so, whether their imagined girl could ever love boys who've made her up. Morley crafts a tender, witty portrait of youthful imagination at work: the way we invent people to fill our loneliness, the danger of loving what we've created more than reality, and the particular madness of being young, literary, and far too clever for one's own good.
Editions
X-Ray
“When you sell a man a book you don’t sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue”
— Christopher Morley
“The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets.””
— Christopher Morley
“There are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning, and yearning. A man should be learning as he goes; and he should be earning bread for himself and others; and he should be yearning, too: yearning to know the unknowable.””
— Christopher Morley
“I think reading a good book makes one modest. When you see the marvelous insight into human nature which a truly great book shows, it is bound to make you feel small--like looking at the Big Dipper on a clear night, or seeing the winter sunrise when you go out to collect the morning eggs. And anything that makes you feel small is mighty good for you.””
— Christopher Morley
“Summer was over, and we were no longer young, but there were great things before us.””
— Christopher Morley
“A good book ought to have something simple about it. And, like Eve, it ought to come from somewhere near the third rib: there ought to be a heart beating in it. A story that's all forehead doesn't amount to much.””
— Christopher Morley
“What absurd victims of contrary desires we are! If a man is settled in one place he yearns to wander; when he wanders he yearns to have a home. And yet how bestial is content”
— Christopher Morley
“Calling us men doesn't make us men. No creature on earth has a right to think himself a human being if he doesn't know at least one good book.””
— Christopher Morley
“Oh, silly woman! Leave your stove, your pots and pans and chores, even if only for one day! Come out and see the sun in the sky and the river in the distance!””
— Christopher Morley
Link to this book
Add a free, dofollow link to Lex on your blog, forum, syllabus, or reading list.
<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/kathleen-5c33e5b0-0f2a-41f1-8d25-b7fbd77020ab"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read Kathleen by Christopher Morley free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/kathleen-5c33e5b0-0f2a-41f1-8d25-b7fbd77020ab)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/kathleen-5c33e5b0-0f2a-41f1-8d25-b7fbd77020ab][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read Kathleen by Christopher Morley free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/kathleen-5c33e5b0-0f2a-41f1-8d25-b7fbd77020abCite this book
Reading this edition for a paper or guide? Copy a citation.
Morley, Christopher. Kathleen. Lex, lex-books.com/book/kathleen-5c33e5b0-0f2a-41f1-8d25-b7fbd77020ab.Morley, C. (n.d.). Kathleen. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/kathleen-5c33e5b0-0f2a-41f1-8d25-b7fbd77020abMorley, Christopher. Kathleen. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/kathleen-5c33e5b0-0f2a-41f1-8d25-b7fbd77020ab.











