Eva Trout has a 'capacity for making trouble, attracting trouble, strewing trouble around her' that is endless. Eva Trout was Elizabeth Bowen's last completed novel, and in it her elegant style, her gift for social comedy and her intense sensibility combine to create one of her most formidable - and moving - heroines.
'Bowen's stories are novels that have been split open like rocks and reveal the glitter of the naked crystals which have formed them' Vogue SELECTED AND WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY TESSA HADLEY A girl shares her secret den. A couple stroll through a ruined city. A man walks into a ladies' hat shop. A teacher dreams of killing her pupil. Spanning the 1920s to the post-war years, this new selection brings Elizabeth Bowen's finest short stories together for the first time. Elegant and subtle, they showcase Bowen's ability to evoke ineffable emotions - grief, nostalgia, self-consciousness, dread - and combine remarkable psychological insight with vivid settings, from the countryside of Bowen's native Ireland to the streets of her London home after the Blitz. Encompassing characters from many walks of life and a vast array of moods, these are intricate journeys of domesticity and discovery, of the homely and uncanny, of the mind and body.
In 1914 they had been eleven years old; Fifty years later, Dinah, beautiful as ever, advertises in the national newspapers to find the other two - Clare, now established with a successful business, and Sheila, a married woman, glossy, chic and correct. What are the revelations - and the dangers - in summoning up childhood?
The biography explores the life of Elizabeth Bowen, born in Dublin in 1899 to an Irish lawyer and landowner. It highlights her education at Downe House School and her literary contributions, including "Bowen's Court," which chronicles her family's history in County Cork, and "Seven Winters," reflecting on her Dublin childhood. Her marriage to Alan Cameron, a BBC appointee, and her travels between London and her inherited home, Bowen's Court, are also significant aspects of her life story.
Features seventy-nine stories such as: love stories, ghost stories, stories of childhood, of English middle-class life in the twenties and thirties, and of London during the Blitz.
Elizabeth Bowen’s deceptively simple novel opens with the weddings of two quietly conventional sisters: Laurel to Edward, and Janet to Rodney. Ten years later, one intense week is all it takes to unravel the couples’ peaceful lives as a long-concealed secret explodes to the surface. The repercussions ripple through four different families connected by the two marriages, hinging on the comic interventions of such vivid characters as Edward’s mother, the glamorous and scandal-ridden Lady Elfrida; Rodney’s notorious rake of an uncle; and a stridently awkward teenager, Theodora, who is keen to insert herself into the drama. Humor and pain abound in Friends and Relations, as Bowen weaves the barest hints of menace and the subtlest nuances of emotion into this devastating tale of the tangled web of human relationships.
The narrative explores the rich history of the Shelbourne Hotel, weaving together stories that reflect the broader tapestry of Irish life. Elizabeth Bowen captures the essence of Dublin through vivid anecdotes and historical insights, highlighting the hotel's significance as a cultural and social hub. The account reveals how the landmark has been a witness to key events and figures in Irish history, making it a compelling read for those interested in Ireland's heritage.
Bowen's Court describes the history of one Anglo-Irish family in County Cork from the Cromwellian settlement until 1959, when Elizabeth Bowen was forced to sell the family house she loved.
It's the balmy days of the 1920s and where could be more pleasant for a holiday than a hotel on the Italian Riviera? Filled with prosperous English visitors, the Hotel offers a closed world of wealth and comfort. With great wit and insight Elizabeth Bowen's first novel lays bare the intricacies and eccentricities of polite society. schovat popis
Henrietta finds that her visit coincides with that of Leopold, an intense child who has come to Paris to be introduced to the mother he has never known. In the course of a single day, the mystery surrounding Leopold, his parents, Henrietta's agitated hostess and the dying matriarch in bed upstairs, come to light slowly and tantalisingly.