Elizabeth Bowen

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?

Two of Bowens most memorable characters are in attendance: Lady Elfrida, a creature of privilege, and Theodora Thirdman, a gawky teenager with zero self-awareness. The sunset of prosperity is upon this complacent, moneyed class, but Bowens precise and beautiful prose pins real pain and comedy upon its inhabitants.

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, Henriettas agitated hostess and the dying matriarch in bed upstairs, come to light slowly and tantalisingly.

Eva Trout has a capacity for making trouble, attracting trouble, strewing trouble around her that is endless. Eva Trout was Elizabeth Bowens 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.

Elizabeth Bowens account of a time spent in Rome is no ordinary guidebook but an evocation of a city - its history, its architecture and, above all, its atmosphere.

Elizabeth Bowen es la más brillante sucesora del grupo de Bloomsbury. En su literatura se encuentra el nexo que vincula a Virginia Woolf con Iris Murdoch y Muriel Spark. Publicada en 1938, y conside

Elizabeth Bowen es la más brillante sucesora del grupo de Bloomsbury. En su literatura se encuentra el nexo que vincula a Virginia Woolf con Iris Murdoch y Muriel Spark.Publicada en 1938, y considerada una de las 100 mejores novelas del siglo XX por la revista Time, "La muerte del corazon" es la obra mas perfecta de Elizabeth Bowen, una autora que ha sido comparada con escritores de la talla de Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster y Henry James. Ambientada en el Londres de entreguerras, la novela narra la historia de Portia Quayne, una huerfana de dieciseis años, que, tras la muerte de su madre, es acogida por su medio hermano Thomas y por la mujer de este, Anna, que llevan una vida lujosa aunque emocionalmente esteril. Portia, quien hace gala de una extraordinaria capacidad de observacion, se siente perdida en este nuevo mundo de vana falsedad y ostentacion y, en su necesidad de hallar una referencia afectiva, poco a poco se ira enamorando de Eddie, un joven irreflexivo y alocado que mantiene una extraña relacion con Anna.

Una novela sobre el tiempo, la identidad y la libertad, que explora los lazos de unión entre lo personal y lo político. Un noir que podría haber firmado Graham Greene pero también Virginia Woolf. Elizabeth Bowen esta considerada una de las mejores escritoras en lengua inglesa del siglo XX y la figura clave que pone en contacto la literatura de Virginia Woolf con la generacion de escritoras de ideas de los sesenta y setenta (Murdoch, Spark o Byatt). El fragor del dia (1948), inedita en castellano, es quiza una de las mas vibrantes novelas sobre el Londres asediado por las bombas y la pobreza durante el Blitz. Novela de personajes, de atmosferas, tremendamente vivida, narra la historia de Stella Rodney, que ha decidido no abandonar Londres cuando todos los demas se han marchado huyendo de una muerte posible. Para Stella, la sensacion imperante de catastrofe se vuelve personal cuando descubre que el hombre a quien ama, Robert Kelway, es sospechoso de vender secretos a los alemanes y que el hombre que lo persigue, Harrison, quiere que sea ella quien pague el precio por su silencio. Atrapada entre dos corrientes, Stella ve su mundo derrumbarse.

Dos niños, extraños entre sí, se encuentran en una casa en París: Leopold espera a su madre, a la que nunca ha visto; Henrietta espera un tren. En una habitación del piso de arriba, una anciana yace moribunda y su melancolica y frustrada hija, desesperanzada, revolotea a su alrededor, sometida en todo momento al control emocional de su madre. En esta obra maestra de la sugerencia, Elizabeth Bowen se recrea al narrar los temores de los niños y las razones de su presencia en esa casa, los secretos decisivos de los adultos y su vinculacion fatidica a un pasado que determina su presente. Una obra en la que se aprecia la suspicacia infantil ante los adultos y la falsa inocencia adulta ante los niños. Una novela inolvidable en la que la autora da rienda suelta a su perspicacia psicologica, a su prosa brillante y concisa y a su maestria para crear atmosferas. "Aqui se palpa en toda su intensidad lo que el topico designa como 'el pulso de la vida, gracias a la multitud de detalles que sustentan esta novela y a la sutil atmosfera opresiva que sabe crear Elisabeth Bowen". Peter Ackroyd, Sunday Times

Being in love was like China: you knew it was there, and no one needed to tell you it existed. But you could not lay your finger on it.A poignant coming-of-age tale set in pre-war London, The Death of the Heart is often classed as one of the best modern novels of all time.First published in 1938, The Death of the Heart follows the story of sixteen-year-old orphan, Portia Quayne, who moves to London to live with her cold and emotionally repressed half-brother, Thomas, and his wife. Somewhat naive and pining for love, Portia soon becomes infatuated with the charming yet shallow Eddie, a friend of her sister-in-laws. Devastatingly, Portias illusions about love and family begin to disintegrate when her trust is shattered by Eddies manipulation and her brothers indifference. Portias inner world one which used to be characterised by vulnerability, longing and optimism becomes jaded by her environments emotional hypocrisy. Elegant, layered and brimming with emotional insight, Bowens novel is a masterful study of the loss of innocence. This audiobook edition is skilfully narrated by Lucy Scott.Elizabeth Bowen (1899 1973) was an English-Irish novelist, essayist and short story writer. Much of her work bridges the modernist and postmodernist eras, and centres on life during the war in London. Today she remains a major figure in twentieth century literature.

Two sisters, two weddings, just months apart. These marriages produce a tangle of friends, relations and lovers that starts to unravel ten years later, during one intense week. Two of Bowens most memorable characters are in attendance: Lady Elfrida, a creature of privilege, and Theodora Thirdman, a gawky teenager with zero self-awareness. The sunset of prosperity is upon this complacent, moneyed class, but Bowens precise and beautiful prose pins real pain and comedy upon its inhabitants.

Its 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. It also provides the stage for the display of social niceties, for passionate but unspoken love affairs and for the comedy of the shared bathroom. With great wit and insight Elizabeth Bowens first novel lays bare the intricacies and eccentricities of polite society.

A packet of letters, found in an attic, leads young Jane into the world of love. The attic is in Montefort, a corroding country house in County Cork, which harbours a collection of people held there by ties of kinship or habit, and haunted by the memory of its former owner. During a hot and dry summer, Jane pursues her romantic imaginings, while not far off the rich, promiscuous Lady Latterly waits to play her part in Janes awakening.

One of the best novels about a young woman that Ive ever read Greta GerwigWhen sixteen-year-old Portia is orphaned, she is plunged into the sophisticated and politely treacherous world of her wealthy half-brothers home. There she encounters the attractive cad Eddie. To him, Portia is at once child and woman, and he fears her gushing love. To her, Eddie is the only reason to be alive. But when Eddie follows Portia to a sea-side resort, the flash of a cigarette lighter in a darkened cinema illuminates a stunning romantic betrayal - and sets in motion one of the most moving and desperate flights of the heart in modern literature.One of the last centurys greatest woman writersGuardianThis is a stunning portrait of the human heart, a raw account of romantic betrayal and the pains of growing upSunday Times **One of the 50 best books of the past 100 years**

Bowens stories are novels that have been split open like rocks and reveal the glitter of the naked crystals which have formed themVogueSELECTED AND WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY TESSA HADLEYA 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 Bowens finest short stories together for the first time. Elegant and subtle, they showcase Bowens ability to evoke ineffable emotions - grief, nostalgia, self-consciousness, dread - and combine remarkable psychological insight with vivid settings, from the countryside of Bowens 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.