“Carrington” quotes

Plot – In 1915 England, painter Dora Carrington meets writer Lytton Strachey. Their unique love story begins against the background of a coming world war. He is a homosexual conscientious objector with a beard who makes jokes and behaves like Oscar Wilde; she is a young energetic androgynous type who is insensible to the attention of males, like that of her boyfriend Mark Gertler, a Jewish painter who for four years has been trying in vain to seduce her. Then Dora declares her feelings to Lytton to the anger of Mark who goes so far as to assault the writer. Dora and Lytton live together and, when young former officer Ralph Partridge enters their lives, a new and provocative menage-a-trois begins, with Dora marrying Ralph to keep him tied to Lytton, who oversees their honeymoon in Venice. When Dora is seduced by the romantic sensibility of Ralph's friend Gerald Brenan, back from the war in Spain, the two become lovers. Then Lytton finally starts earning money with his books and counts Roger Senhouse among his conquests. While Ralph falls in love with a young woman, Frances, Dora accentuates her dichotomy between devotion to Lytton and her sexual evolution, which soon includes a handsome captain, Beacus Penrose, who takes her on a cruise on his boat. However, in 1932 Lytton falls ill: stomach cancer causes his death. In vain Ralph, now married to Frances, tries to protect Dora from depression. Left alone, unable to live without Lytton, Dora commits suicide.