Collected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen: Introduction by John Banville

By Elizabeth Bowen

Book Overview

A beautiful hardcover edition of the collected short stories of "one of the best short story writers who ever lived" (Newsweek)--with an introduction by the Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea.

Widely known for her extraordinary novels, including The Heat of the Day, The House in Paris, and The Death of the Heart, Elizabeth Bowen established herself in the front rank of twentieth-century writers equally through her short fiction.

This collection includes seventy-nine magnificent stories written over the course of four decades, including such beloved classics as "Mysterious K r," "The Demon Lover," "Summer Night," "Ivy Gripped the Steps," and "The Happy Autumn Fields." Whether placing her reader in a remote Irish castle or a seaside Italian villa or bomb-scarred London during the Blitz, Bowen was famous for scene setting of almost hallucinatory vividness, but her ability to evoke inner landscapes of spellbinding intensity was even more remarkable. Frustrated lovers, acutely observed children, and even vengeful ghosts inhabit her tales with an urgency and emotional complexity that make it clear that the drama of human consciousness was her central subject. These stories are enduring testimony to Bowen's reputation as a creator of finely chiseled narratives--rich in imagination, psychological insight, and craft--that transcend their time and place.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1101908181
• ISBN13: 9781101908181
• Release Date: August 1970
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 920 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 5.0" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

have a glass of sherry, come rest in the lounge

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!