Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen ( ; 7 June 1899 – 22 February 1973) was an

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the State rel ...

novelist and short story writer notable for her books about " the Big House" of Irish landed Protestants as well as her fiction about life in wartime London. In

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...

, she was nominated for the

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

by Russian-American linguist

Roman Jakobson Roman Osipovich Jakobson (, ; 18 July 1982) was a Russian linguist and literary theorist. A pioneer of structural linguistics, Jakobson was one of the most celebrated and influential linguists of the twentieth century. With Nikolai Trubetzk ...

Life

Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen was born on 7 June 1899 at 15 Herbert Place in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, daughter of barrister Henry Charles Cole Bowen (1862–1930), who succeeded his father as head of their Irish gentry family traced back to the late 1500s, of Welsh origin, and Florence Isabella Pomeroy (died 1912), daughter of Henry FitzGeorge Pomeroy Colley, of Mount Temple,

Clontarf, Dublin Clontarf () is an affluent coastal suburb on the Northside (Dublin), Northside of Dublin in the city's List of Dublin postal districts, Dublin 3 postal district. Historically, there were two centres of population, one on the coast towards the c ...

, grandson of the 4th

Viscount Harberton Viscount Harberton, of Carbury, County Kildare, Carbery in the County Kildare, County of Kildare is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 5 July 1791 for Arthur Pomeroy, 1st Viscount Harberton, Arthur Pomeroy, 1st Baron Harberton, wh ...

. Florence Bowen's mother was granddaughter of the 4th

Viscount Powerscourt Viscount Powerscourt ( ) is a title that has been created three times in the Peerage of Ireland, each time for members of the Wingfield family. It was created first in 1618 for the Chief Governor of Ireland, Richard Wingfield. However, this creat ...

. Elizabeth Bowen was baptised in the nearby St Stephen's Church on Upper Mount Street. Her parents later brought her to her father's family home, Bowen's Court at Farahy, near Kildorrery,

County Cork County Cork () is the largest and the southernmost Counties of Ireland, county of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, named after the city of Cork (city), Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster ...

, where she spent her summers. Among her enduring childhood friends were the artists Mainie Jellett and Sylvia Cooke-Collis. When her father became mentally ill in 1907, she and her mother moved to England, eventually settling in Hythe. After her mother died in September 1912, Bowen was brought up by her aunts; her father remarried in 1918. She was educated at

Downe House School Downe House School is a private girls' boarding and day school in Cold Ash near Newbury, Berkshire, for girls aged 11–18. Entrance is selective, and the school has an enrollment of 559. The '' Good Schools Guide'' described Downe House ...

under the headship of Olive Willis. After some time at art school in London she decided that her talent lay in writing. She mixed with the

Bloomsbury Group The Bloomsbury Group was a group of associated British writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the early 20th century. Among the people involved in the group were Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster, Vanessa Bell, a ...

, becoming good friends with

Rose Macaulay Dame Emilie Rose Macaulay, (1 August 1881 – 30 October 1958) was an English writer, most noted for her award-winning novel ''The Towers of Trebizond'', about a small Anglo-Catholic group crossing Turkey by camel. The story is seen as a spiri ...

, who helped her seek a publisher for her first book, a collection of short stories titled ''Encounters'' (1923). In 1923, she married Alan Cameron, an educational administrator who subsequently worked for the BBC. The marriage has been described as "a sexless but contented union." The marriage was reportedly never consummated. She had various extra-marital relationships, including one with Charles Ritchie, a Canadian diplomat seven years her junior, which lasted over thirty years. She also had an affair with the Irish writer

Seán Ó Faoláin Seán Proinsias Ó Faoláin (27 February 1900 – 20 April 1991) was one of the most influential figures in 20th-century Irish culture. A short-story writer of international repute, he was also a leading commentator and critic. Biography Ó ...

and a relationship with the American poet May Sarton. Bowen and her husband first lived near

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, where they socialised with

Maurice Bowra Sir Cecil Maurice Bowra, (; 8 April 1898 – 4 July 1971) was an English classical scholar, literary critic and academic, known for his wit. He was Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, from 1938 to 1970, and served as vice-chancellor of the Univer ...

John Buchan John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, British Army officer, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. As a ...

, and Susan Buchan, and where she wrote her early novels, including '' The Last September'' (1929). Following the publication of ''To the North'' (1932), they moved to 2 Clarence Terrace,

Regent's Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, Borough of Camden (and historical ...

, London, where she wrote '' The House in Paris'' (1936) and '' The Death of the Heart'' (1938). In 1937, she became a member of the Irish Academy of Letters. In 1930, Bowen became the first (and only) woman to inherit Bowen's Court, but remained based in England, making frequent visits to Ireland. During World War II, she worked for the British Ministry of Information, reporting on Irish opinion, particularly on the issue of neutrality. Bowen's political views tended towards Burkean conservatism. During and after the war she wrote about life in wartime London, ''The Demon Lover and Other Stories'' (1945) and '' The Heat of the Day'' (1948), works which earned acclaim for their depiction of that period. In Ninety-nine Novels,

Anthony Burgess John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993) who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his Utopian and dystopian fiction, dy ...

wrote of ''The Heat of the Day'' that “No novel has better caught the atmosphere of London during the second world war." Bowen was awarded the

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in 1948. Her husband retired in 1952 and they settled in Bowen's Court, where he died a few months later. Many writers visited her at Bowen's Court from 1930 onward, including

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

Eudora Welty Eudora Alice Welty (April 13, 1909 – July 23, 2001) was an American short-story writer, novelist and photographer who wrote about the American South. Her novel '' The Optimist's Daughter'' won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty received numerou ...

Carson McCullers Carson McCullers (February 19, 1917 – September 29, 1967) was an American novelist, short-story writer, playwright, essayist, and poet. Her first novel, ''The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter'' (1940), explores the spiritual isolation of misfits ...

Iris Murdoch Dame Jean Iris Murdoch ( ; 15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her fi ...

, and the historian Veronica Wedgwood. For years, Bowen struggled to keep the house, lecturing in the United States to earn money. In 1957, her portrait was painted at Bowen's Court by her friend, painter Patrick Hennessy. She travelled to Italy in 1958 to research and prepare ''A Time in Rome'' (1960), but by the following year, Bowen was forced to sell her beloved Bowen's Court, which was demolished in 1960. In the following months, she wrote the narrative of the documentary titled ''Ireland the Tear and the Smile'' for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

which was aimed at American audiences and presented by

Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' from 1962 to 1981. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trust ...

. After spending some years without a permanent home, Bowen finally settled at "Carbery", Church Hill, Hythe, in 1965. Her final novel, '' Eva Trout, or Changing Scenes'' (1968), won the

James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Un ...

in 1969 and was shortlisted for the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

in 1970. Subsequently, she was a judge (alongside her friend

Cyril Connolly Cyril Vernon Connolly CBE (10 September 1903 – 26 November 1974) was an English literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine ''Horizon (British magazine), Horizon'' (1940–49) and wrote ''Enemies of Pro ...

) that awarded the 1972 Man Booker Prize to

John Berger John Peter Berger ( ; 5 November 1926 – 2 January 2017) was an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. His novel '' G.'' won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism '' Ways of Seeing'', written as an accompaniment to t ...

for '' G''. She spent Christmas 1972 at

Kinsale Kinsale ( ; ) is a historic port and fishing town in County Cork, Ireland. Located approximately south of Cork (city), Cork City on the southeast coast near the Old Head of Kinsale, it sits at the mouth of the River Bandon, and has a populatio ...

, County Cork, with her friends, Major Stephen Vernon and his wife Lady Ursula (daughter of the

Duke of Westminster Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they ...

), but was hospitalised upon her return. Here she was visited by Connolly, Lady Ursula Vernon,

Isaiah Berlin Sir Isaiah Berlin (6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997) was a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, and historian of ideas. Although he became increasingly averse to writing for publication, his improvised lectures and talks ...

, Rosamund Lehmann, Charles Ritchie, and her literary agent Spencer Curtis Brown. In 1972, Bowen developed lung cancer. She died in

University College Hospital University College Hospital (UCH) is a teaching hospital in the Fitzrovia area of the London Borough of Camden, England. The hospital, which was founded as the North London Hospital in 1834, is closely associated with University College Lo ...

on 22 February 1973, age 73. She is buried with her husband in St Colman's churchyard in Farahy, close to the gates of Bowen's Court. There is a memorial plaque to the author bearing the words of John Sparrow at the entrance to St Colman's Church, where a commemoration of her life is held annually.

Legacy

In 1977,

Victoria Glendinning Victoria Glendinning (''née'' Seebohm; born 23 April 1937) is a British biographer, critic, broadcaster and novelist. She is an honorary vice-president of English PEN and vice-president of the Royal Society of Literature. She won the James Tait B ...

published the first biography of Elizabeth Bowen. In 2009, Glendinning published ''Love's Civil War,'' a compilation of letters Bowen wrote to Charles Ritche during their relationship, and excerpts from Ritchie's diary. In 2012,

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

marked Bowen's Regent's Park home at Clarence Terrace with a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...

. Another blue plaque was unveiled 19 October 2014 to mark Bowen's residence at the Coach House, The Croft,

Headington Headington is an eastern suburb of Oxford, in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is at the top of Headington Hill overlooking the city in the Thames valley below, and bordering Marston, Oxford, Marston to the north-west, Cowley, Oxfordshire ...

, from 1925 to 1935.

Fiction

Bowen was interested in "life with the lid on and what happens when the lid comes off", in the innocence of orderly life, and in the eventual, irrepressible forces that transform experience. Bowen also examined the betrayal and secrets that lie beneath a veneer of respectability. The style of her works is highly wrought and owes much to literary modernism. She was an admirer of film and influenced by the filmmaking techniques of her day. The locations in which Bowen's works are set often bear heavily on the psychology of the characters and on the plots. Bowen's war novel '' The Heat of the Day'' (1949) is considered one of the quintessential depictions of London's atmosphere during the bombing raids of World War II. She was also a notable writer of ghost stories. Supernatural fiction writer Robert Aickman considered Elizabeth Bowen to be "the most distinguished living practitioner" of ghost stories. He included her tale "The Demon Lover" in his anthology ''The Second Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories''.

Selected works

Novels

*''The Hotel'' (1927) *'' The Last September'' (1929) *''Friends and Relations'' (1931) *''To the North'' (1932) *'' The House in Paris'' (1935) *'' The Death of the Heart'' (1938) *'' The Heat of the Day'' (1949) *''A World of Love'' (1955) *''The Little Girls'' (1964) *'' Eva Trout'' (1968)

Short story collections

* ''Encounters'' (1923) * ''Ann Lee's and Other Stories'' (1926) * ''Joining Charles and Other Stories'' (1929) * ''The Cat Jumps and Other Stories'' (1934) * ''Look at All Those Roses'' (1941) * ''The Demon Lover and Other Stories'' (1945) * ''Ivy Gripped the Steps and Other Stories'' (1946, USA) * ''Stories by Elizabeth Bowen'' (1959) * ''A Day in the Dark and Other Stories'' (1965) * ''The Good Tiger'' (1965, children's book) - illustrated by M. Nebel (1965 edition) and

Quentin Blake Sir Quentin Saxby Blake (born 16 December 1932) is an English cartoonist, caricaturist, illustrator and children's writer. He has illustrated over 300 books, including 18 written by Roald Dahl, which are among his most popular works. For his l ...

(1970 edition) * ''Elizabeth Bowen's Irish Stories'' (1978) * ''The Collected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen'' (1980) * ''The Bazaar and Other Stories'' (2008) - edited by Allan Hepburn * ''Collected Stories'' (2019)

Non-fiction

* ''Bowen's Court'' (1942, 1964) * ''Seven Winters: Memories of a Dublin Childhood'' (1942) * ''English Novelists'' (1942) * ''Anthony Trollope: A New Judgement'' (1946) * ''Why Do I Write?: An Exchange of Views between Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene and V.S. Pritchett'' (1948) * ''Collected Impressions'' (1950) * ''The Shelbourne'' (1951) * ''A Time in Rome'' (1960) * ''Afterthought: Pieces About Writing'' (1962) * ''Pictures and Conversations'' (1975), edited by Spencer Curtis Brown * ''The Mulberry Tree: Writings of Elizabeth Bowen'' (1999), edited by Hermione Lee * ''"Notes on Éire": Espionage Reports to Winston Churchill by Elizabeth Bowen, 1940–1942'' (2008), edited by Jack Lane and Brendan Clifford * ''People, Places, Things: Essays by Elizabeth Bowen'' (2008) - edited by Allan Hepburn * ''Love's Civil War: Elizabeth Bowen and Charles Ritchie: Letters and Diaries, 1941–1973'' (2009), edited by Victoria Glendinning and Judith Robertson * ''Listening In: Broadcasts, Speeches, and Interviews by Elizabeth Bowen'' (2010), edited by Allan Hepburn * ''Elizabeth Bowen's Selected Irish Writings'' (2011), edited by Éibhear Walshe * ''The Weight of a World of Feeling: Reviews and Essays by Elizabeth Bowen'' (2016), edited by Allan Hepburn

Short stories

Critical studies of Bowen

* Jocelyn Brooke: ''Elizabeth Bowen'' (1952) * William Heath: ''Elizabeth Bowen: An Introduction to Her Novels'' (1961) * Edwin J. Kenney: ''Elizabeth Bowen'' (1975) *

: ''Elizabeth Bowen: Portrait of a Writer'' (1977) * Hermione Lee: ''Elizabeth Bowen: An Estimation'' (1981) * Patricia Craig: ''Elizabeth Bowen'' (1986) *

Harold Bloom Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world". Af ...

(editor): ''Elizabeth Bowen'' (1987) * Allan E. Austin: ''Elizabeth Bowen '' (1989) * Phyllis Lassner: ''Elizabeth Bowen'' (1990) * Phyllis Lassner: ''Elizabeth Bowen: A Study of the Short Fiction'' (1991) * Heather Bryant Jordan: ''How Will the Heart Endure?: Elizabeth Bowen and the Landscape of War'' (1992) * Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle: ''Elizabeth Bowen and the Dissolution of the Novel: Still Lives'' (1994) * Renée C. Hoogland: ''Elizabeth Bowen: A Reputation in Writing'' (1994) * John Halperin: ''Eminent Georgians: The Lives of King George V, Elizabeth Bowen, St. John Philby, and Lady Astor'' (1995) * Éibhear Walshe (editor): ''Elizabeth Bowen Remembered: The Farahy Addresses'' (1998) * John D. Coates: ''Social Discontinuity in the Novels of Elizabeth Bowen: The Conservative Quest'' (1998) * Lis Christensen: ''Elizabeth Bowen: The Later Fiction'' (2001) * Maud Ellmann: ''Elizabeth Bowen: The Shadow Across the Page'' (2003) * Neil Corcoran: ''Elizabeth Bowen: The Enforced Return'' (2004) * Éibhear Walshe (editor): ''Elizabeth Bowen: Visions and Revisions'' (2008) * Susan Osborn (editor): ''Elizabeth Bowen: New Critical Perspectives'' (2009) * Lara Feigel: ''The Love-charm of Bombs Restless Lives in the Second World War'' (2013) * Jessica Gildersleeve: ''Elizabeth Bowen and the Writing of Trauma: The Ethics of Survival'' (2014) * Nels Pearson: ''Irish Cosmopolitanism: Location and Dislocation in James Joyce, Elizabeth Bowen, and Samuel Beckett'' (2015) * Jessica Gildersleeve and Patricia Juliana Smith (editors): ''Elizabeth Bowen: Theory, Thought and Things'' (2019) * Julia Parry: ''The Shadowy Third'' (2021)

Critical essays on Bowen

* Coughlan, P. (2018) ‘Elizabeth Bowen’, in Ingman, H. and Ó Gallchoir, C. (eds) A History of Modern Irish Women's Literature, 1st edn., Cambridge University Press, pp. 204–226. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10468/14892 * Coughlan, P. (2021) ‘“We get all sealed up”: an essay in five deaths’, Irish University Review, 51(1), pp. 9–23. https://doi.org/10.3366/iur.2021.0492. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10468/14882 * The Bellman (

): "Meet Elizabeth Bowen" in '' The Bell'' Vol. 4 (September 1942) * David Daiches: "The Novels of Elizabeth Bowen" in ''The English Journal'' Vol. 38, No. 6 (1949) * Elizabeth Hardwick: "Elizabeth Bowen's Fiction" in ''Partisan Review'' Vol. 16 (1949) * Bruce Harkness: "The Fiction of Elizabeth Bowen" in ''The English Journal'' Vol. 44, No. 9 (1955) * Gary T. Davenport: "Elizabeth Bowen and the Big House" in ''Southern Humanities Review'' Vol. 8 (1974) * Martha McGowan: "The Enclosed Garden in Elizabeth Bowen's ''A World of Love''" in ''Éire-Ireland'' Vol. 16, Issue 1 (Spring 1981) *

: "A Reading and Remembrance of Elizabeth Bowen" in ''London Review of Books'' (4–17 March 1982) * Antoinette Quinn: "Elizabeth Bowen's Irish Stories: 1939-45" in ''Studies in Anglo-Irish Literature'' (1982) * Harriet S. Chessman: "Women and Language in the Fiction of Elizabeth Bowen" in ''Twentieth Century Literature'' Vol. 29, No. 1 (1983) * Brad Hooper: "Elizabeth Bowen's 'The Happy Autumn Fields': A Dream or Not?" in ''Studies in Short Fiction'' Vol. 21 (1984) * Margaret Scanlan: "Rumors of War: Elizabeth Bowen's ''The Last September'' and J. G. Farrell's ''Troubles''" in ''Éire-Ireland'' Vol. 20, Issue 2 (Summer 1985) * Phyllis Lassner: "The Past is a Burning Pattern: Elizabeth Bowen's ''The Last September''" in ''Éire-Ireland'' Vol. 21, Issue 1 (Spring 1986) * John Coates: "Elizabeth Bowen's ''The Last September'': The Loss of the Past and the Modern Consciousness" in ''Durham University Journal'', Vol. LXXXII, No. 2 (1990) * Roy F. Foster: "The Irishness of Elizabeth Bowen" in ''Paddy & Mr Punch: Connections in Irish and English History'' (1993) * John Halperin: "The Good Tiger: Elizabeth Bowen" in ''Eminent Georgians: The Lives of King George V, Elizabeth Bowen, St. John Philby, and Nancy Astor'' (1995) * Julian Moynahan: "Elizabeth Bowen" in ''Anglo-Irish: The Literary Imagination in a Hyphenated Culture'' (Princeton University Press, 1995) *

Declan Kiberd Declan Kiberd (born 24 May 1951) is an Irish writer and scholar with an interest in modern Irish literature, both in the English and Irish languages, which he often approaches through the lens of postcolonial theory. He is also interested in th ...

: "Elizabeth Bowen: The Dandy in Revolt" in Éibhear Walshe: ''Sex, Nation and Dissent in Irish Writing'' (1997) * Carmen Concilio: "Things that Do Speak in Elizabeth Bowen's The Last September" in ''Moments of Moment: Aspects of the Literary Epiphany'' edited by Wim Tigges (1999) * Neil Corcoran: "Discovery of a Lack: History and Ellipsis in Elizabeth Bowen's ''The Last September''" in ''Irish University Review'' Vol. 31, No. 2 (2001) * Elizabeth Cullingford: "'Something Else': Gendering Onliness in Elizabeth Bowen's Early Fiction" in ''MFS Modern Fiction Studies'' Vol. 53, No. 2 (2007) * Elizabeth C. Inglesby: "'Expressive Objects': Elizabeth Bowen's Narrative Materializes" in ''MFS Modern Fiction Studies'' Vol. 53, No. 2 (2007) * Brook Miller: "The Impersonal Personal: Value, Voice, and Agency in Elizabeth Bowen's Literary and Social Criticism" in ''Modern Fiction Studies'', Vol. 53, No. 2 (Summer 2007) * Sinéad Mooney: "Unstable Compounds: Bowen's Beckettian Affinities" in ''Modern Fiction Studies'', Vol. 53, No. 2 (Summer 2007) * Victoria Stewart: "'That Eternal Now': Memory and Subjectivity in Elizabeth Bowen's ''Seven Winters''" in ''MFS Modern Fiction Studies'' Vol. 53, No. 2 (2007) * Keri Walsh: "Elizabeth Bowen, Surrealist" in ''Éire-Ireland'' Vol. 42, No. 3-4 (2007) * Heather Bryant Jordan: "A Bequest of Her Own: The Reinvention of Elizabeth Bowen" in ''New Hibernia Review'' Vol. 12, No. 2 (2008) * Céline Magot: "Elizabeth Bowen's London in ''The Heat of the Day'': An Impression of the City in the Territory of War" in ''Literary London'' (2008) * Éibhear Walshe: "No abiding city." ''The Dublin Review'' No. 36 (2009) * Jessica Gildersleeve: "An Unnameable Thing: Spectral Shadows in Elizabeth Bowen's ''The Hotel'' and ''The Last September''" in ''Perforations'' * John D. Coates: "The Misfortunes of Eva Trout" in ''Essays in Criticism'' 48.1 (1998) * Karen Schaller: "Feeling Political: Elizabeth Bowen in the 1940s" in Tew, P and White, G (Eds), ''The 1940s: A Decade of Modern Fiction'' (Bloomsbury Academic Press), pp 139–162' * Karen Schaller: "'I know it to be synthetic but it affects me strongly': 'Dead Mabelle' and Bowen's Emotion Pictures" in ''Textual Practice'' 27.1 (2013) * Patricia J. Smith: "'Everything to Dread from the Dispossessed': Changing Scenes and the End of the Modernist Heroine in Elizabeth Bowen's ''Eva Trout''" in ''Hecate'' 35.1/2 (2009) * James F. Wurtz: "Elizabeth Bowen, Modernism, and the Spectre of Anglo-Ireland" in ''Estudios Irlandeses'' No. 5 (2010) * Patrick W. Moran: "Elizabeth Bowen's Toys and the Imperatives of Play" in ''Éire-Ireland'' Vol. 46, Issue 1&2 (Spring/Summer 2011) * Kathryn Johnson:"'Phantasmagoric Hinterlands': Adolescence and Anglo-Ireland in Elizabeth Bowen's ''The House in Paris'' and ''The Death of the Heart''" in ''Irish Women Writers: New Critical Perspectives'', ed. Elke d'Hoker, et al. (2011) * Tina O'Toole: "Unregenerate Spirits: The Counter-Cultural Experiments of George Egerton and Elizabeth Bowen" in ''Irish Women Writers: New Critical Perspectives'', ed. Elke d'Hoker, et al. (2011) * Lauren Elkin: "Light's Language: Sensation and Subjectivity in Elizabeth Bowen's Early Novels." Réfléchir (sur) la sensation, ed. Marina Poisson (2014) *

Gerry Smyth Gerry Smyth (born 14 September 1961) is an academic, musician, actor and playwright born in Dublin, Ireland. He works in the Department of English at Liverpool John Moores University, where he is Professor of Irish Cultural History. His early pub ...

, "A Spy in the House of Love: Elizabeth Bowen's '' The Heat of the Day'' (1949)" in ''The Judas Kiss: Treason and Betrayal in Six Modern Irish Novels'' (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015), 115-34

Television and film adaptations

* ''The House in Paris'' (BBC, 1959) starring Pamela Brown,

Trader Faulkner Ronald "Trader" Faulkner (7 September 1927 – 14 April 2021) was an Australian actor, raconteur and flamenco dancer, best known for his work in the UK on the stage and television. Early life Faulkner was born in Manly, Australia, the son of ...

, Clare Austin and Vivienne Bennett * '' The Death of the Heart'' (1987) starring

Patricia Hodge Patricia Ann Hodge (born 29 September 1946) is an English actress. She is known on-screen for playing Phyllida Erskine-Brown in '' Rumpole of the Bailey'' (1978–1992), Jemima Shore in '' Jemima Shore Investigates'' (1983), Penny in '' Miranda ...

Nigel Havers Nigel Allan Havers (born 6 November 1951) is an English actor and presenter. His film roles include Lord Andrew Lindsay in the 1981 British film ''Chariots of Fire'', which earned him a BAFTA nomination; as Dr. Rawlins in the 1987 Steven Spielb ...

Robert Hardy Timothy Sydney Robert Hardy (29 October 1925 – 3 August 2017) was an English actor who had a long career in theatre, film and television. He began his career as a classical actor and later earned widespread recognition for roles such as Siegf ...

Phyllis Calvert Phyllis Hannah Murray-Hill (née Bickle; 18 February 1915 – 8 October 2002), known professionally as Phyllis Calvert, was an English film, stage and television actress. She was one of the leading stars of the Gainsborough melodramas of the 1 ...

Wendy Hiller Dame Wendy Margaret Hiller (15 August 1912 – 14 May 2003) was an English film and stage actress who enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly 60 years. Writer Joel Hirschorn, in his 1984 compilation ''Rating the Movie Stars'', describ ...

and

Miranda Richardson Miranda Jane Richardson (born 3 March 1958) is an English actress who has worked in film, television and theatre. After graduating from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Richardson began her career in 1979 and made her West End theatre, West ...

* '' The Heat of the Day'' (Granada Television, 1989) starring

Michael Gambon Sir Michael John Gambon (; 19 October 1940 – 27 September 2023) was an Irish-English actor. Gambon started his acting career with Laurence Olivier as one of the original members of the Royal National Theatre. Over his six-decade-long career ...

Michael York Michael York (born Michael Hugh Johnson; 27 March 1942) is an English film, television, and stage actor. After performing on stage with the Royal National Theatre, he had a breakthrough in films by playing Tybalt in Franco Zeffirelli's ''Romeo ...

Peggy Ashcroft Dame Edith Margaret Emily "Peggy" Ashcroft (22 December 1907 – 14 June 1991) was an English actress whose career spanned more than 60 years. Born to a comfortable middle-class family, Ashcroft was determined from an early age to become ...

and

Imelda Staunton Dame Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton (born 9 January 1956) is an English actress and singer. After training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Staunton began her career in repertory theatre in 1976 and appeared in various theatre pr ...

* '' The Last September'' (1999) starring

Maggie Smith Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (28 December 1934 – 27 September 2024) was a British actress. Known for her wit in both comedic and dramatic roles, she had List of Maggie Smith performances, an extensive career on stage and screen for over seve ...

, Fiona Shaw,

Jane Birkin Jane Mallory Birkin ( ; 14 December 1946 – 16 July 2023) was a British and French actress, singer, and designer. She had a prolific career as an actress, mostly in French cinema. A native of London, Birkin began her career as an actress, ...

Lambert Wilson Lambert Nicolas Wilson (; né Willson, 3 August 1958) is a French actor and theatre director. He is a seven-time Cesar Award nominee, four for César Award for Best Actor, Best Actor and three for César Award for Best Supporting Actor, Best Sup ...

David Tennant David John Tennant (; born 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. He is best known for portraying the Tenth Doctor, tenth and Fourteenth Doctor, fourteenth incarnations of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in the science fiction series ''Docto ...

, Richard Roxburgh and Keeley Hawes

References

External links

1956 recording: Elizabeth Bowen discusses the importance of character to novels
(Video, 11 mins)
Elizabeth Bowen
at Irish Writers Online – *
Elizabeth Bowen Collection
at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center, known as the Humanities Research Center until 1983, is an archive, library, and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe ...

, University of Texas at Austin
Elizabeth Bowen
in ''Encyclopædia Britannica''

(1957) at Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland –
Blue plaque to Elizabeth Bowen in Headington, Oxford

"Notes on Writing a Novel"
at Narrative Magazine – essay by Bowen * *
Elizabeth Bowen
at the

Internet Speculative Fiction Database The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) is a database of bibliographic information on genres considered speculative fiction, including science fiction and related genres such as fantasy, alternate history, and horror fiction. The ISFDB ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bowen, Elizabeth 1899 births 1973 deaths 20th-century Anglo-Irish people Bisexual women writers Bisexual novelists British LGBTQ novelists Irish LGBTQ novelists Writers from Dublin (city) People from Hythe, Kent People educated at Downe House School Irish Anglicans Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Deaths from lung cancer in England Ghost story writers James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients 20th-century British women writers Irish women novelists 20th-century Irish novelists Irish women short story writers 20th-century Irish short story writers British women novelists 20th-century British novelists British short story writers British women short story writers 20th-century British short story writers British horror writers Irish horror writers People with speech disorders British women horror writers Irish women horror writers 20th-century British LGBTQ people Irish people with disabilities British writers with disabilities