As the only child of an Anglo-Irish landowner, with Max. Less impressively, Bowen characterizes Max Bowen inherited Bowen's Court in 1930 and, as long as a French Jew, treating his rootlessness unsympatheti-as she was financially able, spent part of each year writ-cally, and she ridicules his nervous fiancee, Naomi, ing and entertaining at her Irish country estate. During because her eyes "start out of her head." In this history, 1921, she had feared Bowen's Court would be burned "fate . . . creeps like a rat." down by Irish rebels; her nightmares prompted by Bowen's two finest novels, The Death of the Heart that fear are recorded in her novel, The Last Septem-(1938) and The Heat of the Day (1949), depict charac-ber (1929). Bowen often retreated to Bowen's Court ters who respond to contemporary moral problems. to write in solitude. Her love for the great house and The Death of the Heart explores the cultural and psy-her sense of being rooted there may be seen in the chological aftermath of World War I through the overly family history she wrote, Bowen's Court (1942). sensitive perceptions of an adolescent orphan, Portia, Bowen's first novel, The Hotel (1927) succeeds as who has come to live in London with her brother, Tho-a satirical comedy of a young woman, Sydney, attracted mas, and her sister-in-law, Anna. The Heat of the Day too suddenly to the sexuality of an older man. In the explores the psychological and moral problems of loy-character of Mrs. Kerr, Bowen creates the first of many alty in the context of the trying years of World War II. overly protective aunts and mothers who break off Her lyrical, allusive descriptions of Regent's Park the young heroines' precipitous love affairs. are an unmatched achievement in British fiction. While The Last September (1929), set during the Irish walking in Regent's Park, Anna, in The Death of the civil war, depicts the conflicting loyalties and hostili-Heart, gradually thaws her frozen feelings and begins, ties felt by the Anglo-Irish gentry for their Irish ten-painfully, to allow compassion a role in her life. In The ants and their English guests. Lois, the heroine, loves Heat of the Day, the Londoners in wartime Regent's the Irish great house which closely resembles Bowen's Park take refuge from and, paradoxically, wrestle with Court, but she also loves an English soldier stationed their moral choices. Bowen's visual and psychological in Ireland. In a lightly comic style, Bowen depicts the images make the locale emblematic of changes suffered nineteen-year-old Lois's inexperience: "She could not by individuals caught in a particular historical moment. remember, though she had read so many books, who Written as if history did not matter, A World of spoke first after a kiss had been, not exchanged but— Love (1955) juxtaposes the passionate dreams of the administered." Her aunt, Lady Naylor, discourages adolescent Jane with the unsatisfied dreams of the Lois's lover by suggesting, first, that Lois is too young, adults around her in a shabby Irish great house. The and, then, that the young man is too far below her Little Girls (1964) depicts three old women excavat-class. Suddenly shifting to tragedy, Bowen has the ing their own childhood secrets. Eva Trout (1968) is English soldier killed and has Lady Naylor's great a broad social comedy dominated by the wealthy, house burned by the Irish rebels. clumsy, troublemaking Eva, who is killed by her Bowen's third novel, Friends and Relations (1931), adopted child. These last three novels won public ac-is a competent light comedy. Her sharply focused comic claim, but they are not as finely written as The Death vision produced Elfrida's entrance: "Down the long of the Heart and The Heat of the Day. shop, narrow and cumbered like the past, with its dull Bowen's development as a fiction writer is reflected mirrors, she came very tall, distraite, balancing ner-in her short stories. Encounters (1923) and Ann Lee's vously in her speed like a ship just launched." To the (1926) offer mannered observations that are, as Bowen North (1932) is a better novel, because Bowen makes herself acknowledged, "a blend of precocity and na-her readers believe the naive, humorless character of ivete." In her stories of wartime London, collected in Emmeline, slow to make connections. When Markie The Demon Lover (1945), she skillfully captures the almost apologizes for not wanting to marry her, saying, eeriness, the trauma, and the intensity she experienced "Sorry . . . But you knew I was always out for what I during the blitz. The melodramatic turns of plot that could get," Emmeline does begin to see, but, neverthe-sometimes mar her novels succeed in the tighter shape less, she compliantly continues their relationship. In of her short stories. an unconvincing and melodramatic conclusion, In her novels, Bowen sometimes failed to create Emmeline drives with reckless speed, as if trying to credible plots, which proceed inevitably from actions escape the past, though Markie is her passenger in the taken by her characters. It does not seem possible that car; as they crash, her final word to him is "Sorry." Stella, the sensible, self-controlled heroine of The Heat In her next novel, The House in Paris (1935), of the Day, would carry on an affair for months with-Bowen explores the divided personality of Karen, who out knowing much about her lover, without suspect-becomes a deceiver in order to carry on an illicit affair ing that he feels no patriotic loyalty, and without hav-

DOI link for As the only child of an Anglo-Irish landowner, with Max. Less impressively, Bowen characterizes Max Bowen inherited Bowen's Court in 1930 and, as long as a French Jew, treating his rootlessness unsympatheti-as she was financially able, spent part of each year writ-cally, and she ridicules his nervous fiancee, Naomi, ing and entertaining at her Irish country estate. During because her eyes "start out of her head." In this history, 1921, she had feared Bowen's Court would be burned "fate . . . creeps like a rat." down by Irish rebels; her nightmares prompted by Bowen's two finest novels, The Death of the Heart that fear are recorded in her novel, The Last Septem-(1938) and The Heat of the Day (1949), depict charac-ber (1929). Bowen often retreated to Bowen's Court ters who respond to contemporary moral problems. to write in solitude. Her love for the great house and The Death of the Heart explores the cultural and psy-her sense of being rooted there may be seen in the chological aftermath of World War I through the overly family history she wrote, Bowen's Court (1942). sensitive perceptions of an adolescent orphan, Portia, Bowen's first novel, The Hotel (1927) succeeds as who has come to live in London with her brother, Tho-a satirical comedy of a young woman, Sydney, attracted mas, and her sister-in-law, Anna. The Heat of the Day too suddenly to the sexuality of an older man. In the explores the psychological and moral problems of loy-character of Mrs. Kerr, Bowen creates the first of many alty in the context of the trying years of World War II. overly protective aunts and mothers who break off Her lyrical, allusive descriptions of Regent's Park the young heroines' precipitous love affairs. are an unmatched achievement in British fiction. While The Last September (1929), set during the Irish walking in Regent's Park, Anna, in The Death of the civil war, depicts the conflicting loyalties and hostili-Heart, gradually thaws her frozen feelings and begins, ties felt by the Anglo-Irish gentry for their Irish ten-painfully, to allow compassion a role in her life. In The ants and their English guests. Lois, the heroine, loves Heat of the Day, the Londoners in wartime Regent's the Irish great house which closely resembles Bowen's Park take refuge from and, paradoxically, wrestle with Court, but she also loves an English soldier stationed their moral choices. Bowen's visual and psychological in Ireland. In a lightly comic style, Bowen depicts the images make the locale emblematic of changes suffered nineteen-year-old Lois's inexperience: "She could not by individuals caught in a particular historical moment. remember, though she had read so many books, who Written as if history did not matter, A World of spoke first after a kiss had been, not exchanged but— Love (1955) juxtaposes the passionate dreams of the administered." Her aunt, Lady Naylor, discourages adolescent Jane with the unsatisfied dreams of the Lois's lover by suggesting, first, that Lois is too young, adults around her in a shabby Irish great house. The and, then, that the young man is too far below her Little Girls (1964) depicts three old women excavat-class. Suddenly shifting to tragedy, Bowen has the ing their own childhood secrets. Eva Trout (1968) is English soldier killed and has Lady Naylor's great a broad social comedy dominated by the wealthy, house burned by the Irish rebels. clumsy, troublemaking Eva, who is killed by her Bowen's third novel, Friends and Relations (1931), adopted child. These last three novels won public ac-is a competent light comedy. Her sharply focused comic claim, but they are not as finely written as The Death vision produced Elfrida's entrance: "Down the long of the Heart and The Heat of the Day. shop, narrow and cumbered like the past, with its dull Bowen's development as a fiction writer is reflected mirrors, she came very tall, distraite, balancing ner-in her short stories. Encounters (1923) and Ann Lee's vously in her speed like a ship just launched." To the (1926) offer mannered observations that are, as Bowen North (1932) is a better novel, because Bowen makes herself acknowledged, "a blend of precocity and na-her readers believe the naive, humorless character of ivete." In her stories of wartime London, collected in Emmeline, slow to make connections. When Markie The Demon Lover (1945), she skillfully captures the almost apologizes for not wanting to marry her, saying, eeriness, the trauma, and the intensity she experienced "Sorry . . . But you knew I was always out for what I during the blitz. The melodramatic turns of plot that could get," Emmeline does begin to see, but, neverthe-sometimes mar her novels succeed in the tighter shape less, she compliantly continues their relationship. In of her short stories. an unconvincing and melodramatic conclusion, In her novels, Bowen sometimes failed to create Emmeline drives with reckless speed, as if trying to credible plots, which proceed inevitably from actions escape the past, though Markie is her passenger in the taken by her characters. It does not seem possible that car; as they crash, her final word to him is "Sorry." Stella, the sensible, self-controlled heroine of The Heat In her next novel, The House in Paris (1935), of the Day, would carry on an affair for months with-Bowen explores the divided personality of Karen, who out knowing much about her lover, without suspect-becomes a deceiver in order to carry on an illicit affair ing that he feels no patriotic loyalty, and without hav-

As the only child of an Anglo-Irish landowner, with Max. Less impressively, Bowen characterizes Max Bowen inherited Bowen's Court in 1930 and, as long as a French Jew, treating his rootlessness unsympatheti-as she was financially able, spent part of each year writ-cally, and she ridicules his nervous fiancee, Naomi, ing and entertaining at her Irish country estate. During because her eyes "start out of her head." In this history, 1921, she had feared Bowen's Court would be burned "fate . . . creeps like a rat." down by Irish rebels; her nightmares prompted by Bowen's two finest novels, The Death of the Heart that fear are recorded in her novel, The Last Septem-(1938) and The Heat of the Day (1949), depict charac-ber (1929). Bowen often retreated to Bowen's Court ters who respond to contemporary moral problems. to write in solitude. Her love for the great house and The Death of the Heart explores the cultural and psy-her sense of being rooted there may be seen in the chological aftermath of World War I through the overly family history she wrote, Bowen's Court (1942). sensitive perceptions of an adolescent orphan, Portia, Bowen's first novel, The Hotel (1927) succeeds as who has come to live in London with her brother, Tho-a satirical comedy of a young woman, Sydney, attracted mas, and her sister-in-law, Anna. The Heat of the Day too suddenly to the sexuality of an older man. In the explores the psychological and moral problems of loy-character of Mrs. Kerr, Bowen creates the first of many alty in the context of the trying years of World War II. overly protective aunts and mothers who break off Her lyrical, allusive descriptions of Regent's Park the young heroines' precipitous love affairs. are an unmatched achievement in British fiction. While The Last September (1929), set during the Irish walking in Regent's Park, Anna, in The Death of the civil war, depicts the conflicting loyalties and hostili-Heart, gradually thaws her frozen feelings and begins, ties felt by the Anglo-Irish gentry for their Irish ten-painfully, to allow compassion a role in her life. In The ants and their English guests. Lois, the heroine, loves Heat of the Day, the Londoners in wartime Regent's the Irish great house which closely resembles Bowen's Park take refuge from and, paradoxically, wrestle with Court, but she also loves an English soldier stationed their moral choices. Bowen's visual and psychological in Ireland. In a lightly comic style, Bowen depicts the images make the locale emblematic of changes suffered nineteen-year-old Lois's inexperience: "She could not by individuals caught in a particular historical moment. remember, though she had read so many books, who Written as if history did not matter, A World of spoke first after a kiss had been, not exchanged but— Love (1955) juxtaposes the passionate dreams of the administered." Her aunt, Lady Naylor, discourages adolescent Jane with the unsatisfied dreams of the Lois's lover by suggesting, first, that Lois is too young, adults around her in a shabby Irish great house. The and, then, that the young man is too far below her Little Girls (1964) depicts three old women excavat-class. Suddenly shifting to tragedy, Bowen has the ing their own childhood secrets. Eva Trout (1968) is English soldier killed and has Lady Naylor's great a broad social comedy dominated by the wealthy, house burned by the Irish rebels. clumsy, troublemaking Eva, who is killed by her Bowen's third novel, Friends and Relations (1931), adopted child. These last three novels won public ac-is a competent light comedy. Her sharply focused comic claim, but they are not as finely written as The Death vision produced Elfrida's entrance: "Down the long of the Heart and The Heat of the Day. shop, narrow and cumbered like the past, with its dull Bowen's development as a fiction writer is reflected mirrors, she came very tall, distraite, balancing ner-in her short stories. Encounters (1923) and Ann Lee's vously in her speed like a ship just launched." To the (1926) offer mannered observations that are, as Bowen North (1932) is a better novel, because Bowen makes herself acknowledged, "a blend of precocity and na-her readers believe the naive, humorless character of ivete." In her stories of wartime London, collected in Emmeline, slow to make connections. When Markie The Demon Lover (1945), she skillfully captures the almost apologizes for not wanting to marry her, saying, eeriness, the trauma, and the intensity she experienced "Sorry . . . But you knew I was always out for what I during the blitz. The melodramatic turns of plot that could get," Emmeline does begin to see, but, neverthe-sometimes mar her novels succeed in the tighter shape less, she compliantly continues their relationship. In of her short stories. an unconvincing and melodramatic conclusion, In her novels, Bowen sometimes failed to create Emmeline drives with reckless speed, as if trying to credible plots, which proceed inevitably from actions escape the past, though Markie is her passenger in the taken by her characters. It does not seem possible that car; as they crash, her final word to him is "Sorry." Stella, the sensible, self-controlled heroine of The Heat In her next novel, The House in Paris (1935), of the Day, would carry on an affair for months with-Bowen explores the divided personality of Karen, who out knowing much about her lover, without suspect-becomes a deceiver in order to carry on an illicit affair ing that he feels no patriotic loyalty, and without hav-