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J.L. Carr Biography

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“If I’d stayed there, would I always have been happy? No, I suppose not. People move away, grow older, die, and the bright belief that there will be another marvelous thing around each corner fades. It is now or never; we must snatch at happiness as it flies.”

Book:A Month in the Country

Source: A Month in the Country

“We can ask and ask but we can't have again what once seemed ours forever—the way things looked, that church alone in the fields, a bed on a belfry floor, a remembered voice, the touch of a hand, a loved face. They've gone and you can only wait for the pain to pass. All this happened so long ago. And I never returned, never wrote, never met anyone who might have given me news of Oxgody. So, in memory, it stays as I left it, a sealed room furnished by the past, airless, still, ink long dry on a put-down pen. But this was something I knew nothing of as I closed the gate and set off across the meadow.”

Gone Regret Sad Metaphor The Past Ending Last Lines A Month In The Country J L Carr Unrecoverable

Book:A Month in the Country

Source: A Month in the Country

“By nature we are creatures of hope, always ready to be deceived again, caught by the marvel that might be wrapped in the grubbiest brown paper parcel.”

Hope Metaphor A Month In The Country J L Carr

Book:A Month in the Country

Source: A Month in the Country

“There was so much time that marvelous summer. Day after day, mist rose from the meadow as the sky lightened and hedges, barns and woods took shape until, at last, the long curving back of the hills lifted away from the Plain. It was a sort of stage-magic.”

Nature Summer Nostalgia Sunrise Countryside Country Life Natural Beauty

Book:A Month in the Country

Source: A Month in the Country

“Summertime! And summertime in my early twenties! And in love! No, better than that - secretly in love, coddling it up in myself. It's an odd feeling, coming rarely more than once in most of our lifetimes. In books, as often as not, they represent it as a sort of anguish but it wasn't so for me. Later perhaps, but not then.”

Love Past Romance Memories Regret Summer Nostalgia Unrequited Love Young Love Reminiscing

Book:A Month in the Country

Source: A Month in the Country

“That was the missed moment. I should have put out a hand and taken her arm and said, "Here I am. Ask me. Now. The real question! Tell me. While I'm here. Ask me before it's too late.”

Regret What If Should Have Been Missed Opportunities Missed Chances A Month In The Country J L Carr

Book:A Month in the Country

Source: A Month in the Country

“In rural England, people live wrapped tight in a cocoon; only their eyes move to make sure nobody gets more than themselves. Popular education has not touched them; they communicate as their fathers did by a flick of the eyeballs, passing down grudges either improve upon or, at very least, in mint condition, from generation to generation.”

Country Humor Humour England English English Literature Rural

Book:How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cup

Source: How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cup

“It is now or never; we must snatch at happiness as it flies.”

Book:A Month in the Country

Source: A Month in the Country

“And then, God help me, on my first morning, in the first few minutes of my first morning, I felt that this alien northern countryside was friendly, that I’d turned a corner and that this summer of 1920, which was to smoulder on until the first leaves fell, was to be a propitious season of living, a blessed time. I told myself that I didn’t care how long the job took me – what was left of July, August, September, even October. I was going to be happy, live simply, spend as little as paraffin, bread, vegetables and a bit of bully-beef now and then might cost me.”

Book:A Month in the Country

Source: A Month in the Country