HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Elizabeth Alone by William Trevor
Loading...

Elizabeth Alone (original 1973; edition 1996)

by William Trevor (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1251218,183 (4.03)5
Elizabeth Aloneby William Trevor - a powerful and moving novel from one of the world's finest writers After nineteen years of marriage, three children and a brief but passionate affair followed by a quick divorce, Elizabeth Aidallbery has to go to hospital for an emergency operation. From her hospital bed she has the leisure to take stock of her life, and frankly it doesn't look very edifying- there's the 17 year old daughter who's run off to a commune with her boyfriend; an old hopeless suitor who continues to press his claims; and of course the memory of the havoc she caused by the affair. No doubt she could put her life back in order. But need that involve all those people who cause her so much heartache? Readers of Love and Summer and Felicia's Journeywill be delighted by Elizabeth Alone. It will also be enjoyed by readers of Colm Toibin and William Boyd. 'A finely observed, gently sensitive comedy, delightful to read' Daily Telegraph 'Trevor is a master of both language and storytelling' Hilary Mantel William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, in 1928, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He has lived in England for many years. The author of numerous acclaimed collections of short stories and novels, he has won many awards including the Whitbread Book of the Year, The James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence. He has been shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize- in 1976 with his novel The Children of Dynmouth, in 1991 with Reading Turgenevand in 2002 with The Story of Lucy Gault. He recently received the prestigious David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement.… (more)
Member:burritapal
Title:Elizabeth Alone
Authors:William Trevor (Author)
Info:Penguin Books (1996), 272 pages
Collections:Your library, Currently reading
Rating:
Tags:to-read

Work Information

Elizabeth Alone by William Trevor (1973)

None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 5 mentions

Trevor's prose, as usual, does not fail to disappoint; his language is one of melancholy, longing, and of a quiet despair. In this novel, though, there is a gleam of hope beneath the dusty debris of the everyday, perhaps precisely because, in the lives of the women featured in this novel, the everyday has been disrupted. Each of the four primary female characters (Elizabeth of the title being the central character) is in the hospital, one trying to see through a successful pregnancy after many failures and the other three having hysterectomies. Each, lying in bed and surrounded by strangers, is forced to look at herself through strangers' eyes, to regard herself and the people in her life in a new light. And in each woman's life, a significant rupture occurs during this time of forced contemplation. Trevor thus puts to us the question: what if we were forced to deal with each crisis, removed from the comfort of the everyday, removed from our everyday perfeceptions not only of others but of our very on selves? It is a fascinating question and one that Trevor probes deeply and gently, exposing each nerve fiber laid raw by these circumstances. In the stripped-down setting of a four-bed hospital room, Trevor asks us to realize what it truly is to reflect on the difficulties, troubles, and disasters of daily life-- when we are stripped bare of the defenses that we are so accustomed to using to buffer raw emotions. Elizabeth Alone is a quiet, yet powerful, work. ( )
1 vote ijustgetbored | Dec 30, 2007 |
no reviews | add a review

» Add other authors

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
William Trevorprimary authorall editionscalculated
Marsh, JamesCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
To Jane
First words
At forty-one Elizabeth Aidallbery had a way of dwelling on her past, and when memories were doubtful there were photographs to help her.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

Elizabeth Aloneby William Trevor - a powerful and moving novel from one of the world's finest writers After nineteen years of marriage, three children and a brief but passionate affair followed by a quick divorce, Elizabeth Aidallbery has to go to hospital for an emergency operation. From her hospital bed she has the leisure to take stock of her life, and frankly it doesn't look very edifying- there's the 17 year old daughter who's run off to a commune with her boyfriend; an old hopeless suitor who continues to press his claims; and of course the memory of the havoc she caused by the affair. No doubt she could put her life back in order. But need that involve all those people who cause her so much heartache? Readers of Love and Summer and Felicia's Journeywill be delighted by Elizabeth Alone. It will also be enjoyed by readers of Colm Toibin and William Boyd. 'A finely observed, gently sensitive comedy, delightful to read' Daily Telegraph 'Trevor is a master of both language and storytelling' Hilary Mantel William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, in 1928, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He has lived in England for many years. The author of numerous acclaimed collections of short stories and novels, he has won many awards including the Whitbread Book of the Year, The James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence. He has been shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize- in 1976 with his novel The Children of Dynmouth, in 1991 with Reading Turgenevand in 2002 with The Story of Lucy Gault. He recently received the prestigious David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (4.03)
0.5
1
1.5
2 2
2.5
3 2
3.5
4 6
4.5 1
5 6

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 204,509,929 books! | Top bar: Always visible