Words to Live By: Women Drinking Edition
Presented without comment, here is a collection of quotes about women and drinking.
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| Above: Woman Drinking (c.1690) by Arie de Vois |
One could hardly be overstocked with good wine and it was not going to go off for about fifty years. Phryne could drink a lot of wine in fifty years and intended to do so.
-from Queen of the Flowers: Phryne Fisher #14 by Kerry Greenwood
I was new to champagne, but as soon as I tasted it, spark after gold spark, I thought, well, there’s magic in this water, no wonder Mia said to wish on it.
- from Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
'Oh, have some more brandy, Alison, and try to pay attention. This is a serious matter,' Phryne said crossly.
- from Murder in the Dark: Phryne Fisher #16 by Kerry Greenwood
Alice orders a glass of beer. It arrives quickly, dark and thick and workmanlike. She smacks her lips and Peter nearly calls the whole thing off then and there. He had imagined her drinking…what? Delicate things. Tea. Champagne. Rain filtered through a garret roof. She is a lady of a certain era, and ladies of that certain era do not drink porter.
- from 'The Flame after the Candle' in The Future is Blue: Stories by Catherynne M. Valente
We thought it was very nice of Father to give his hardworking daughters a glass of sherry every evening, and we used to look forward to the ceremony. In fact Pandora said that the blackest time of day in her new little suburban house was sherry-time with no sherry. She felt she would never get used to doing without it.
- from Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton
Phryne perched on a chair to allow Mr. Butler to distribute glasses of his gin cocktail, a drink which 'promotes ease and eloquence, Miss Fisher, while avoiding any sense of excess.' Phryne had asked which ingredient took away any extravagance int he drink and he had replied with a definitively straight face, "That would be the lemon juice, Miss Fisher." Whereupon Phryne had given up, reflecting that every religion has its mysteries.
- from The Castlemaine Murders: Phryne Fisher #13 by Kerry Greenwood
‘There’s nothing like this, Mrs Markham!’ said he, 'I always maintain that there’s nothing to compare with your home-brewed ale.’
‘I’m glad you like it, sir. I always look after the brewing myself, as well as the cheese and butter--I like to have things well done, while we’re about it.’
- from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
Phryne allowed him to fill a minuscule glass with her liqueur of choice, green chartreuse, and expressed proper congratulations.
- from Murder on a Midsummer Night: Phryne Fisher #17 by Kerry Greenwood
& white wine drunk during smoothing on thick white marshmellowy frosting singing thin in my veins - oh the absolute free willingness unleashed which wine brings.
- from The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
I say fie to those oenophilic spoilsports who insist that wine goes with neither eggs nor salads. Wine is essential with anything! Particularly omelettes for lunch.
- Julia Child
Amy Eleni, now contemplatively smoking a cigarette in a silvered holder, has seized Mami and they're both sitting behind glasses of Bacardi and Coke,
(Mami smiles a small and unforgiving smile if I ever refer to the mixture as "Cuba Libre")
their backs to the seats, which are filling with sprawled legs and talk.
- from The Opposite House by Helen Oyeyemi
The pina colada is, in my opinion, the perfect beverage. Cold, sweet, and orgasmically artificial. However, I only drink them here and only by myself, as it is far too intimate to consume one's true beverage of choice in front of others.
- from Maeve Fly by CJ Leede
Cognac always had a good effect on Phryne's thought processes. The superlative Armagnac rather unhinged them. Unhinged might be a good place to be, Phryne thought. Rational deduction wasn't doing her any good.
- from Death by Water: Phryne Fisher #15 by Kerry Greenwood
Read this next
Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol by Mallory O'Meara
Best of Girly Drinks by Mallory O'Meara
