Elizabeth Bowen (1) (1899–1973)
Author of The Death of the Heart
For other authors named Elizabeth Bowen, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Elizabeth Bowen, distinguished Anglo-Irish novelist, was born in Dublin in 1899, traveled extensively, lived in London, and inherited the family estate-Bowen's Court, in County Cork. Her account of the house, Bowen's Court (1942), with a detailed fictionalized history of the family in Ireland show more through three centuries, has charm, warmth, and insight. Seven Winters is a fragment of autobiography published in England in 1942. The "Afterthoughts" of the original edition are critical essays in which she discusses and analyzes, among others, such literary figures as Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, Katherine Mansfield, Anthony Trollope, and Eudora Welty. Bowen's stories, mostly about people of the British upper middle class, portray relationships that are never simple, except, perhaps, on the surface. Her concern with time and memory is a major theme. Beautifully and delicately written, her stories, with their oblique psychological revelations, are symbolic, subtle, and terrifying. A Time in Rome (1960) is her brilliant evocation of that city and its layered past. In 1948, Bowen was made a Commander of the British Empire. Bowen died in 1973. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Elizabeth Bowen
Love's Civil War: Elizabeth Bowen and Charles Ritchie: Letters and Diaries 1941-1973 (2008) — Author — 70 copies
Why Do I Write?: An Exchange of Views Between Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene and V.S.Pritchett (English Literature… (1948) 6 copies
Mysterious Kor 3 copies
The Demon Lover [short story] 3 copies
Sunday Afternoon 2 copies
The Faber book of modern stories 2 copies
Telling [short story] 2 copies
Las mujeres observadas 1 copy
Pink May 1 copy
Contos Fantásticos 1 copy
Die ferne Stadt Kor. Erzählungen. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt von Annette Charpentier, Katrine von Hutten und… (1985) 1 copy
Bowen Elizabeth 1 copy
Maria 1 copy
Reduced 1 copy
anything 1 copy
Spookverhalen 1 copy
Associated Works
The House of the Nightmare and Other Eerie Tales (1750) — Contributor; Author, some editions — 46 copies
Out of the Best Books: An Anthology of Literature, Vol. 1: The Individual and Human Values (1964) — Contributor — 40 copies
Ladies of Horror: Two Centuries of Supernatural Stories by the Gentle Sex (1971) — Contributor — 24 copies
Het neusje van de zalm een feestelijke bloemlezing uit Querido's 'vlaggetjesreeks' (1986) — Contributor — 5 copies
The Best British Short Stories of 1933 — Contributor, some editions — 2 copies
Horizon 21 (September 1941) — Contributor — 2 copies
Uncle Silas ... With an introduction by Elizabeth Bowen — Introduction, some editions — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Bowen, Elizabeth
- Legal name
- Cameron, Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen
- Other names
- Bowen, Bitha
Bowen, Elizabeth - Birthdate
- 1899-06-07
- Date of death
- 1973-02-22
- Burial location
- St Colman's Church, Farahy, County Cork, Ireland
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- Ireland
- Birthplace
- Dublin, Ireland
- Place of death
- London, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Dublin, Ireland
Farahy, Ireland
Hythe, England, UK
Regent's Park, London, England, UK
Headington, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK - Education
- Downe House School, Kent, England, UK
- Occupations
- novelist
short story writer - Relationships
- Ritchie, Charles (lover)
- Awards and honors
- Order of the British Empire (Commander, 1948)
Companion of Literature (1965)
Doctor of Letters, Trinity College, Dublin
Doctor of Letters, Oxford University (1956)
Lacy Martin Donnelly Fellow (1956) - Short biography
- Elizabeth Bowen was born in Dublin in 1899, the only child of an Irish lawyer and landowner. Her book Bowen's Court (1942) is the history of her family and their house in County Cork. Throughout her life, she divided her time between London and Bowen's Court, which she inherited. She had friends among the Bloomsbury Group, and was close to Rose Macaulay, who helped her find a publisher for her first book, a collection of short stories called Encounters (1923). During World War II, Elizabeth Bowen lived in London and worked for the British Ministry of Information. She received acclaim for her novels and short story collections, was awarded the CBE (Companion of the Order of the British Empire) in 1948, and was made a Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1965. She died in 1973.
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Reviews
Couldn't read more than about 10 pages of this. Some of the most atrocious writing I've ever read in my life.
This book is beautifully written and a has very simple plot. It is more of characterization of a family living in a dilapidated estate in Ireland than a story. Descriptions of the land and its people are wonderfully done. Unfortunately, it was sometimes difficult to read through due to too many double negatives. Enjoyable but doesn't stand out.
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Statistics
- Works
- 72
- Also by
- 74
- Members
- 7,962
- Popularity
- #3,048
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 167
- ISBNs
- 264
- Languages
- 8
- Favorited
- 16
- Touchstones
- 529
The first word people have used to describe for me Elizabeth Bowen's writing is often "difficult". I now see they are wrong. Where some minds find difficulty, those of us with clearer vision see rare intelligence. Bowen was a younger member of the Bloomsbury Group, often defined as a generational link between Virginia Woolf and Muriel Spark. She toys with the fragmented modernism of the former, while sinking her teeth into the detached British realism of the latter. It is the frisson of this combination that gives her work its unique voice.
The House in Paris takes place over one day, as 11-year-old Henrietta and 9-year-old Leopold pass through the home of Miss Naomi Fisher and her ailing mother. The children do not know each other; the orphaned Henrietta is en route to visit her grandmother, and needs a place to stop, while Leopold is to meet his mother for the first time today, after having been raised by family friends in Italy. Both children's unusual circumstances are joined by their respective mothers' friendships with Miss Fisher. In the repressive atmosphere of the house, secrets unfold amongst these four unnerved characters and their ultimate guest.
Bowen's style is perhaps best described as "detached", somewhere on that mid-20th century spectrum of writers whom I adore so, whose characters are financially "comfortable" but often on a downward trajectory, and whose speech - clipped yet romantic - invites the reader to fill in the silences. If you have tasted the sweet delights of Murdoch and Durrell, of Penelope Fitzgerald and Barbara Pym, seek comfort here. If your preferences lean in the other direction, Bowen may not be for you! Says one of the characters: "I cannot live in a love affair, I am busy and grasping. I am not English; you know I am nervous the whole time. I could not endure being conscious of anyone. Naomi is like furniture or the dark. I should pity myself if I did not marry her."
"The Present" takes up about half of this short novel, but the meat of Bowen's story is in the central section, "The Past". The true details of Naomi Fisher's youth, of Leopold's provenance, of Madame Fisher in her prime, are interspersed in the details of a love affair as delicate as a hothouse flower. Bowen tears at the fragile stitches of these characters, revealing flesh that is bruised and sore. The content of the book - and, in truth, sometimes its individual moments - could be found in a lesser soft romance novel of the period. But Bowen's prose refuses to be cowed. She slips between tenses, surprises us with changes in narrative voice and tone, and generally keeps the atmosphere on the thinnest ice.
Unsettling, but beautiful.… (more)