Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Illustrations
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I The Language of the King James Bible
- Part II The History of the King James Bible
- Part III Literature and the King James Bible
- 8 Milton, anxiety, and the King James Bible
- 9 Bunyan’s biblical progresses
- 10 Romantic transformations of the King James Bible
- 11 Ruskin and his contemporaries reading the King James Bible
- 12 To the Lighthouse and biblical language
- 13 The King James Bible as ghost in Absalom, Absalom! and Beloved
- 14 The King James Bible and African American literature
- 15 Jean Rhys, Elizabeth Smart, and the “gifts” of the King James Bible
- Chronology of major English Bible translations to 1957
- Chronology of English Bible translations since 1957
- Select bibliography on the King James Bible
- Index of Bible quotations
- General index
15 - Jean Rhys, Elizabeth Smart, and the “gifts” of the King James Bible
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Illustrations
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I The Language of the King James Bible
- Part II The History of the King James Bible
- Part III Literature and the King James Bible
- 8 Milton, anxiety, and the King James Bible
- 9 Bunyan’s biblical progresses
- 10 Romantic transformations of the King James Bible
- 11 Ruskin and his contemporaries reading the King James Bible
- 12 To the Lighthouse and biblical language
- 13 The King James Bible as ghost in Absalom, Absalom! and Beloved
- 14 The King James Bible and African American literature
- 15 Jean Rhys, Elizabeth Smart, and the “gifts” of the King James Bible
- Chronology of major English Bible translations to 1957
- Chronology of English Bible translations since 1957
- Select bibliography on the King James Bible
- Index of Bible quotations
- General index
Summary
The girl’s Bible
My cousin showed me the Bible she had been given for Christmas. It came in its own little box – hinged and clasped like a jewellery casket. The small book was bound in white leather embossed with stars. The pages were tissue-thin, and every one was edged with gold. It was very beautiful and I wanted one for myself.
The week before my birthday I went with my mother to the “Scripture Union” shop. There were shelves full of Bibles but they were: “new,” “revised,” “common,” for the “plain man.” Their covers were made of card and paper. The pages seemed thick and ordinary. I wanted a “girl’s Bible” gleaming white and gold with transparent pages. At last we found one. It was entirely perfect from the white ribbons attached to the spine for bookmarks to the deep pink inside page upon which my mother wrote my name, my age, and all her love.
Such a lovely thing and so useful. I had always been afraid of the dark, but now each night I placed the sacred casket under my pillow and slept protected from all harm. If the darkness was particularly terrible I would hold the Bible to me and curl around it as its warmth spread out through every narrow vein.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The King James Bible after Four Hundred YearsLiterary, Linguistic, and Cultural Influences, pp. 318 - 335Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010