It’s always fun to find an otherwise erudite writer committing a line like this one: “The public image of ‘Emily Dickinson’ has been built up over the years, alternately embroidered by fantasies and barnacled with lies….” (Robert Douglas-Fairhurst in his review of Lyndall Gordon’s Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and her Family’s Feuds.)
Come to think of it, wouldn't it really be "embroidered <i>with</i> fantasies"?<br /><br />"Embroidered by fantasies" sounds like the fantasies did the embroidering. Would be interesting to see that. (And in which case, gimme one of whatever he's having…)