“…a sense of defeat the years have brought back to him, after what seemed for a while to be triumphs.”

Rabbit at Rest (1990)

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John Updike240

American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, an… 1932–2009

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Context: We see the world as it is now, after these defeats of the League, and we can compare it with what it was six or seven years ago. The comparison is certainly depressing; the contrast is terrible. And we have not yet reached a time when we can estimate the full material losses and human suffering which have been the direct result of the ambitions of one set of powers and the weakness of the others. Nor is there any purpose in attempting to do so. Let us, rather, examine where we now stand and what steps we ought to take in order to strengthen the international system and thrust back again the forces of reaction.
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“…a sense of defeat the years have brought back to him, after what seemed for a while to be triumphs.”

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