Stardust

by

Neil Gaiman

The daughter of Bridget and Tommy, Victoria is considered the most beautiful girl in Wall. Basically all of the boys—and many married men—in town have crushes on her, including Tristran and the widower Mr. Monday. When Tristran asks her for a kiss and for her hand in marriage, Victoria promises him anything he wants—if he brings her back the star that she just saw fall in Faerie. When, months later, Tristran returns with the star, Victoria reveals that when she made her promise, she’d actually just accepted Mr. Monday’s proposal. However, it’s important to her to stay true to her word, so she says that she’ll marry Tristran as she promised she would. She’s thrilled, however, when Tristran insists that she marry Mr. Monday. Their marriage helps to free Lady Una from her enslavement by fulfilling one of the terms of Madame Semele’s curse, as their wedding constitutes “two Mondays” coming together in less than a week.

Victoria Forester Quotes in Stardust

The Stardust quotes below are all either spoken by Victoria Forester or refer to Victoria Forester. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Youth, Aging, and Maturity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

“Mister Monday,” said Victoria Forester with disdain, “is five and forty years of age if he is a day.” She made a face to indicate just how old five-and-forty is, when you happen to be seventeen.

“Anyway,” said Cecilia Hempstock, Louisa’s cousin, “he has already been married. I would not wish to marry someone who had already been married. It would be,” she opined, “like having someone else break in one’s own pony.”

“Personally, I would imagine that to be the sole advantage of marrying a widower,” said Amelia Robinson. “That someone else would have removed the rough edges; broken him in, if you will. Also, I would imagine that by that age his lusts would long since have been sated, and abated, which would free one from a number of indignities.”

Related Characters: Victoria Forester (speaker), Louisa Thorn (speaker), Mr. Monday
Page Number: 39
Explanation and Analysis:

“For a kiss, and the pledge of your hand,” said Tristran, grandiloquently, “I would bring you that fallen star.”

He shivered. His coat was thin, and it was obvious he would not get his kiss, which he found puzzling. The manly heroes of the penny dreadfuls and shilling novels never had these problems getting kissed.

Related Characters: Tristran Thorn (speaker), The Star/Yvaine, Victoria Forester, Mr. Monday
Page Number: 47
Explanation and Analysis:

He thought of Victoria’s lips, and her grey eyes, and the sound of her laughter. He straightened his shoulders, placed the crystal snowdrop in the top buttonhole of his coat, now undone. And, too ignorant to be scared, too young to be awed, Tristran Thorn passed beyond the fields we know...

...and into Faerie.

Related Characters: Tristran Thorn, The Star/Yvaine, Victoria Forester, Dunstan Thorn, Mr. Monday
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

“So what damn-fool silly thing has this young lady got you a-doin’ of?”

Tristran put down his wooden cup of tea, and stood up, offended.

“What, he asked, in what he was certain were lofty and scornful tones, “would possibly make you imagine that my lady-love would have sent me on some foolish errand?”

The little man stared at up at him with eyes like beads of jet. “Because that’s the only reason a lad like you would be stupid enough to cross the border into Faerie. The only ones who ever come here from your lands are the minstrels, and the lovers, and the mad. And you don’t look like much of a minstrel, and you’re—pardon me saying so, lad, but it’s true—ordinary as cheese-crumbs. So it’s love, if you ask me.”

Related Characters: Tristran Thorn (speaker), The Little Hairy Man (speaker), The Star/Yvaine, Victoria Forester
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

“And this wise, sweet creature sent you here to torture me?” she said.

“Well, not exactly. You see, she promised me anything I desired—be it her hand in marriage or her lips to kiss—were I to bring her the star that we saw fall the night before last. I had thought,” he confessed, “that a fallen star would probably look like a diamond or a rock. I certainly wasn’t expecting a lady.”

“So, having found a lady, could you not have come to her aid, or left her alone? Why drag her into your foolishness?”

“Love,” he explained.

Related Characters: Tristran Thorn (speaker), The Star/Yvaine (speaker), Victoria Forester
Related Symbols: Silver Chains/the Power of Stormhold
Page Number: 109
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

“I am the most miserable person who ever lived,” he said to the Lord Primus, when they stopped to feed the horses feedbags of damp oats.

“You are young, and in love,” said Primus. “Every young man in your position is the most miserable young man who ever lived.”

Related Characters: Tristran Thorn (speaker), Primus (speaker), The Star/Yvaine, Victoria Forester
Page Number: 152
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

For he could no longer reconcile his old idea of giving the star to Victoria Forester with his current notion that the star was not a thing to be passed from hand to hand, but a true person in all respects and no kind of a thing at all.

Related Characters: Tristran Thorn, The Star/Yvaine, Victoria Forester
Related Symbols: Silver Chains/the Power of Stormhold
Page Number: 208
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“You said you would give me whatever I desire.”

“Yes.”

“Then...” He paused. “Then I desire that you should marry Mister Monday. I desire that you should be married as soon as possible—why, within this very week, if such a thing can be arranged. And I desire that you should be as happy together as ever a man and woman have ever been.”

She exhaled in one low shuddering breath of release. Then she looked at him. “Do you mean it?” she asked.

“Marry him with my blessing, and we’ll be quits and done,” said Tristran. “And the star will probably think so, too.”

Related Characters: Tristran Thorn (speaker), Victoria Forester (speaker), The Star/Yvaine, Mr. Monday
Page Number: 226
Explanation and Analysis:

“What have you done?” Spittle flecked the old woman’s lips.

“I have done nothing; nothing I did not do eighteen years ago. I was bound to you to be your slave until the day that the moon lost her daughter, if it occurred in a week when two Mondays came together. And my time with you is almost done.”

Related Characters: The Old Woman/Madame Semele (speaker), The Young Woman/the Bird/Lady Una (speaker), Tristran Thorn, The Star/Yvaine, Victoria Forester, Dunstan Thorn, Mr. Monday
Related Symbols: Silver Chains/the Power of Stormhold
Page Number: 229
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Stardust LitChart as a printable PDF.
Stardust PDF

Victoria Forester Quotes in Stardust

The Stardust quotes below are all either spoken by Victoria Forester or refer to Victoria Forester. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Youth, Aging, and Maturity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

“Mister Monday,” said Victoria Forester with disdain, “is five and forty years of age if he is a day.” She made a face to indicate just how old five-and-forty is, when you happen to be seventeen.

“Anyway,” said Cecilia Hempstock, Louisa’s cousin, “he has already been married. I would not wish to marry someone who had already been married. It would be,” she opined, “like having someone else break in one’s own pony.”

“Personally, I would imagine that to be the sole advantage of marrying a widower,” said Amelia Robinson. “That someone else would have removed the rough edges; broken him in, if you will. Also, I would imagine that by that age his lusts would long since have been sated, and abated, which would free one from a number of indignities.”

Related Characters: Victoria Forester (speaker), Louisa Thorn (speaker), Mr. Monday
Page Number: 39
Explanation and Analysis:

“For a kiss, and the pledge of your hand,” said Tristran, grandiloquently, “I would bring you that fallen star.”

He shivered. His coat was thin, and it was obvious he would not get his kiss, which he found puzzling. The manly heroes of the penny dreadfuls and shilling novels never had these problems getting kissed.

Related Characters: Tristran Thorn (speaker), The Star/Yvaine, Victoria Forester, Mr. Monday
Page Number: 47
Explanation and Analysis:

He thought of Victoria’s lips, and her grey eyes, and the sound of her laughter. He straightened his shoulders, placed the crystal snowdrop in the top buttonhole of his coat, now undone. And, too ignorant to be scared, too young to be awed, Tristran Thorn passed beyond the fields we know...

...and into Faerie.

Related Characters: Tristran Thorn, The Star/Yvaine, Victoria Forester, Dunstan Thorn, Mr. Monday
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

“So what damn-fool silly thing has this young lady got you a-doin’ of?”

Tristran put down his wooden cup of tea, and stood up, offended.

“What, he asked, in what he was certain were lofty and scornful tones, “would possibly make you imagine that my lady-love would have sent me on some foolish errand?”

The little man stared at up at him with eyes like beads of jet. “Because that’s the only reason a lad like you would be stupid enough to cross the border into Faerie. The only ones who ever come here from your lands are the minstrels, and the lovers, and the mad. And you don’t look like much of a minstrel, and you’re—pardon me saying so, lad, but it’s true—ordinary as cheese-crumbs. So it’s love, if you ask me.”

Related Characters: Tristran Thorn (speaker), The Little Hairy Man (speaker), The Star/Yvaine, Victoria Forester
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

“And this wise, sweet creature sent you here to torture me?” she said.

“Well, not exactly. You see, she promised me anything I desired—be it her hand in marriage or her lips to kiss—were I to bring her the star that we saw fall the night before last. I had thought,” he confessed, “that a fallen star would probably look like a diamond or a rock. I certainly wasn’t expecting a lady.”

“So, having found a lady, could you not have come to her aid, or left her alone? Why drag her into your foolishness?”

“Love,” he explained.

Related Characters: Tristran Thorn (speaker), The Star/Yvaine (speaker), Victoria Forester
Related Symbols: Silver Chains/the Power of Stormhold
Page Number: 109
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

“I am the most miserable person who ever lived,” he said to the Lord Primus, when they stopped to feed the horses feedbags of damp oats.

“You are young, and in love,” said Primus. “Every young man in your position is the most miserable young man who ever lived.”

Related Characters: Tristran Thorn (speaker), Primus (speaker), The Star/Yvaine, Victoria Forester
Page Number: 152
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

For he could no longer reconcile his old idea of giving the star to Victoria Forester with his current notion that the star was not a thing to be passed from hand to hand, but a true person in all respects and no kind of a thing at all.

Related Characters: Tristran Thorn, The Star/Yvaine, Victoria Forester
Related Symbols: Silver Chains/the Power of Stormhold
Page Number: 208
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“You said you would give me whatever I desire.”

“Yes.”

“Then...” He paused. “Then I desire that you should marry Mister Monday. I desire that you should be married as soon as possible—why, within this very week, if such a thing can be arranged. And I desire that you should be as happy together as ever a man and woman have ever been.”

She exhaled in one low shuddering breath of release. Then she looked at him. “Do you mean it?” she asked.

“Marry him with my blessing, and we’ll be quits and done,” said Tristran. “And the star will probably think so, too.”

Related Characters: Tristran Thorn (speaker), Victoria Forester (speaker), The Star/Yvaine, Mr. Monday
Page Number: 226
Explanation and Analysis:

“What have you done?” Spittle flecked the old woman’s lips.

“I have done nothing; nothing I did not do eighteen years ago. I was bound to you to be your slave until the day that the moon lost her daughter, if it occurred in a week when two Mondays came together. And my time with you is almost done.”

Related Characters: The Old Woman/Madame Semele (speaker), The Young Woman/the Bird/Lady Una (speaker), Tristran Thorn, The Star/Yvaine, Victoria Forester, Dunstan Thorn, Mr. Monday
Related Symbols: Silver Chains/the Power of Stormhold
Page Number: 229
Explanation and Analysis: