Vidal Gore — Eighteen Seventy [146]

Not dwell so much upon the past. The present is too exciting, and the small time left me must be well used to re-make Emma’s fortune. At this instant I feel that nothing can stop us if I do not perish first of the heat. — Vidal Gore, Eighteen Seventy, 146

Note

This passage reflects a profound awareness of the narrator’s relationship with time and narrative. The phrase ‘the present is too exciting’ juxtaposes the worry about the past and the narrator’s longing for relevance, illustrating an inner conflict about nostalgia versus the urgency of the present. The existential phrasing ‘was ever any time mine?’ resonates with a sense of loss and identity.