Great book and really worth taking a look at and reviewing . Thank you

This book was my introduction to the writing of Elizabeth Bowen. Her work has been described as a combination of Jane Austen and Henry James, and I think that sums her writing up pretty accurately.

The Heat of the Day tells the story of Stella Rodney and the people she is connected with, by blood, by love, by fate, or all three. The story is set in London during World War II, with a friend telling her that Robert, her lover, is giving information to the Germans.

The novel describes Stella's experiences in the succeeding months as she visits with her son, home on leave from the war; goes with Robert to his family home in the South of England; and travels to the home in Ireland which her son has inherited from an uncle. Throughout all this Stella is processing the information she received, and eventually acts on it. The outcome is not so much the point of the story as is the description of what Stella feels and remembers about her experiences, in the present and in the past.

Bowen's language is elegant and poetic. Her descriptions of physical events, in nature or in the world of man-made objects, endow these events and objects with a life we know is there yet never notice. Her penetrating observation of the effect of physical objects and events manifests itself in another way as her awareness of the motives and causes of human behavior, the subatomic flickers that speak volumes in human interactions. Each of the characters the reader encounters is developed with astonishing subtlety, complexity and depth. The women and the men alike emerge as full human beings.

In The Heat of the Day, as in many of her other novels, the reader becomes aware of the subtle forces in operation in the most commonplace of human experiences.

I recommend this book highly; it truly combines the depth and elegance of James's prose with the wit and penetrating observation of Jane Austen. Elizabeth Bowen is a writer worth learning about.

"The Last September" is set on the plantation of Anglo-Irish gentry against the background of the "The Troubles" in Ireland in 1929. In the midst of the hostilities of war, Lois Farquar, an 18-year-old orphan, and her family and friends go about their leisured lives. The real world around them enters their lives in the form of British troops they befriend, and the Irish people who live on their lands. They fill their leisure time with tennis, parties, and falling in love. Love is not a simple, sentimental affair for a Bowen character. Bowen knows that love is as complex as nature and human motives.

The story traces Lois's growing awareness of herself as an adult, and her efforts to find out what she wants to do with her life. As is almost always the case in an Elizabeth Bowen novel, what happens is not as important as what the author observes about what happens and who it's happening to. Bowen is a master of language and of characterization. In this beautifully written novel she creates a gallery of finely articulated, minutely observed and exquisitely individual characters, who seem as real as the people you know in your own life.

"The Last September" is one of Bowen's most cohesive novels. The reality of the Troubles provides the solid ground that supports the very personal events in the lives of the characters. I strongly recommend this book, which is best read after "The Heat of the Day" and "The Death of the Heart", at the very least. It is one of Elizabeth's Bowen's finest works.

As a grown up reader, I must say that this book is truly enchanting. I enjoyed the reading, and the artwork was fantastic. Children of all ages will enjoy this work. The lessons on friendship taught by the author are exactly what children today need, and adults would not be hurt by the refresher course. Yes, it is a children's story, but aren't we all children at heart anyway?

This finely wrought book is moving, believable and deep-probing. Its amazingly sharp insight goes hand in hand with a command of language that reminds the reader of Forster.

The House in Paris is my first encounter with Bowen's work and definitely won't be the last. She is a beautiful writer with occasional unidiomatic lapses which are compensated for in stunning paragraphs elsewhere. The scenes and characters come alive; the best way I can describe it is that they are "intensely lived." Bowen is never on autopilot. In particular, I found the scenes where Karen visits her aunt & uncle in Ireland and the scene in which Henrietta meets Mme. Fisher very evocative and enthralling despite the lack of anything much happening. Bowen also has a surehanded dramatic technique when needed.

I did find some weaknesses, which is why I give the novel 4 stars (but then the "degree of difficulty" is high). I don't ever find the romance between Karen and Max to be accessible; Bowen's portrayal is intentionally inscrutable. Though only nine, Leopold seems to think and speak like an adult. In general, I don't agree with Bowen's much praised portrayal of either child.

All in all, a very worthwhile, often intense novel.

The House in Paris is about making choices.

It starts by introducing the reader to 11 year old Henrietta who passes through the House in Paris while on her way to visit her Grandmother in Mentone. We are later introduced to Leopold. He is a nine year old boy, going to visit his mother in the House in Paris, whom he has never met. The house belongs to Madame Fisher and her daughter Naomi.

The story then goes backwards, we find out how Leopold came to be. His mother had a tryst with Max while being engaged to someone else. Leopold's Father Max was Naomi's Fiance, whom he would have married had he not killed himself. I will not give the ending away, but the threads of the story come together and everyone has a connection to the house. Bowen's descriptive style of writing is evident throughout the chapters. I can guarantee readers that they won't want to put this book down. You wish the story wouldn't end.

EVA TROUT is perhaps the weakest of Bowen's novels and is certainly not the place to start your appreciation of her work. One of Bowen's characteristic devices is to describe not the terrible event, but the day after the terrible event, as people realize that they are nonetheless going to have to pick up the pieces and continue with their lives. EVA TROUT takes this device--which may strike you as a trick but is actually one of Bowen's great insights into life as it is lived--to the greatest extreme. Except for the ending, almost every major event in this book happens between the end of one chapter and the start of the next.

If you admire Bowen as I do, it's interesting to read her at her most Bowenesque. If you do not already admire Bowen, please don't start here--I've put off too many people by recommeding this book. Start instead with her short stories, some of which are widely anthologized.

I think that Eva trout is Elizabeth Bowen's strongest work. It completes the feeling started in the book Death of the Heart. Who could not relate to Eva and her childish heart. Much like Portia in Death of the Heart, Eva remains unchanged as the world around her closes her in, and forces others to "grow-up", thus killing all that they believed in when children. Eva so closes herself off from the world, that she has never cried, but one can feel the verge of tears from page one on. I wont ruin the book for you by saying anything else, but i STRONGLY suggest that you read this book.

This book is currently in print and available from The Collins Press (1999). It provides wonderful information on the genealogy and history of the Bowen family, who were minor landlords in the north County Cork area. The description of the last garden party at Mitchelstown Castle on 5th August 1914 (the day after England declared war on Germany) is particularly evocative, especially as the occasion set the scene for the demise of the landed ascendancy in mid-Munster. Although not ranked amongst Bowen's best works, it is nonetheless a well written blend of history, folklore and personal narrative.

elizabeth bowen's stories are well crafted. reading them (for me... i was born in 1974) is like peeking into the drawing room of a time long gone and now crystallised on the page. i gave the book 4 stars instead of five, because while some of the stories are real gems, others fell flat to me. this was my first experience with her work, and 760 odd pages of short stories was a lot of stories!

i would recommend, unless you just want to read a few stories at a time, (the book is broken up into decades and then pre and post war sections)or you are already a huge fan, to start out with a smaller collection of her work. then again, why not pay a few extra dollars and get them all at once?

i escpecially recommend the stories of the twenties and thirties, they really are delightful... the ghosts and murderessess inhabiting some of them are intriguing, there's a flavour to her work you simply don't find in newer fiction. reading her work was like entering another time zone, quite interesting stuff!

Friends and Relations is written in three parts. The first part being the sudden marriage of the two Studdart girls, Laurel the youngest who has managed to find Edward Tilney. The book begins at their wedding and the speculation that Janet was to have been the one who Edward married. The wedding scenes are wonderfully written - gentle, humourous. Janet then goes off to find herself a husband and although this is early in the 1920's and men are scarce she succeeds well finding Rodney Meggatt almost immediately and marrying soon after. However there are complications - Rodney's uncle (for whom Rodney is the heir) once had an affair with Edward's mother, Lady Elfrida. The complication of manners and what is right must be gone through in excruciating detail. In the meantime there is the presence of precocious social climber, 15 year old Theodora.

The second part brings us back to the story ten years later and the relative happiness and contentness of the two familys - the Tilneys and the Meggatts - and the problem when Edward finally realises that his mother, Lady Elfrida, and Rodney's uncle Considine meet again. Having to face up to his own demons which are finally revealed in the third part of the book.

I find Bowen a really nice to read although at times somewhat obscure. There is quite an Austen-esque style about her writing at times and she is lightly comic. However I did find it hard to relate to the characters who seem so far removed from my reality. Making such a fuss about one's mother meeting the man she had an affair with years ago and so on. There was a great deal of lack of emotion at what should have been passionate, emotional moments too.

Its a short little book, but a nice read on a wet afternoon.