She prayed now, with desperate conviction but no faith, and she suspected it made no difference either way. When
Perhaps we are on an insula ex machina, an artificial place not in the real world at all -- a backdrop for the stories we must tell.
Oh, how he missed his sister. Out of everyone, the legions of the dead, the numberless infinities of souls who had gone before, it was the loss of Ursula that had left him with the sorest heart.
Nothing could be kept, he thought, everything ran through one’s fingers like sand or water. Or time. Perhaps nothing should be kept. A monkish thought that he dismissed.
Nor, says Nora, do we want commonplace tales of hausfrau Angst, of the woman heroically making over her life with a handsome new lover, a beautiful child, a happy ending. Instead, we shall have murder...
Mrs. Appleyard, in contrast, was thin and sallow and when her husband was out of the apartment Ursula could hear her singing mournfully to herself in a language that she couldn’t place. Something East...
Long lazy days like these will never come again in your life. You think they will but they won't.' -Sylvie
Kittens were in continual abundance on the farm, there was a kind of kitten currency in the neighborhood, they were bartered for all kinds of emotional regret or fulfillment by parents - a doll lost,...
Juliet felt slighted yet relieved. It was curious how you could hold two quite opposing feelings at the same time, an unsettling emotional discord. She felt an odd pang at the sight of him. She had be...
It's funny, isn't it, Miss Woolf whispered in Ursula's ear, how much German music we listen to. Great beauty transcends all. Perhaps after the war it will heal all too.
It was the enormity of war, she thought, it left you scrabbling for ways to think about it. Bridget
In the half-century of his life, a tick on the Doomsday clock, he had borne witness to the most unbelievable technological advances. He had started off listening to an old Bush radio in the corner of...
If it hadn’t been for this chance hospital encounter, accidental in all senses, Victor might never have courted a girl. He already felt well on his way to middle age, and his social life was still lim...
I'm always so glad,' Sylvie murmured, 'that I don't have to take a turn at being other people.''You're very good at being yourself,' Ursula said, aware that it didn't necessarily sound like a complime...
I have seen a large dog fox several times recently but it was a hot afternoon and no doubt, like most creatures, it was lying low in the shade. The fox has an unfortunate reputation. A crafty thief, o...
I am mad, I think. I am mad therefore I think. I am mad therefore I think I am.
Happiness, like life itself, was as fragile as a bird’s heartbeat, as fleeting as the bluebells in the wood, but while it lasted, Fox Corner was an Arcadian dream.
Fanning Court. God forbid. Teddy could no longer sit in the chair. He could no longer leave the bed, no longer do anything. He was approaching the end of his twilight, entering into the final darkness...
Everything changes and nothing remains still. PLATO, Cratylus
Dr. Kellet said, it’s a snake with its tail in its mouth. He nodded approvingly and said to Sylvie, It’s a symbol representing the circularity of the universe. Time is a construct, in reality everythi...