Summer of night book summary5/6/2023 Then, at 13, she lost her beloved mother. This caused a precipitous drop in the family’s income and forced them to move to Britain, bouncing between Bowen’s aunts (echoes of “The Disinherited”). When Elizabeth was a young girl, her father suffered a breakdown spending many years in a mental hospital. Her father was a Dublin lawyer and her family spent the most of the year in Dublin, summering at the family house, Bowen’s Court. But first, a bit more about her life…Ĭhapter 2, Elizabeth Bowen by Victoria Glendinningīowen’s early life was quite tragic. As I’ve read “Summer Night” and “The Disinherited” this week, and read them carefully, this characteristic of her writing is very clear and a bit of a sucker punch. As this essay suggestions, she may not be read as often as she deserves because of the way that she “bears down so hard on intimacy.” This make sense to me. This is a nice summation of her life and contributions.Īpparently, “undervalued” is nearly always associated with her name. I ran into a New York Times Book Review of Neil Corcoran’s 2005 Bowen biography (which I don’t own, but I did download a sample to my kindle – does this violate my rules for the year? not sure, I need to write them down) at “‘Elizabeth Bowen’: A Fan’s Notes” by Susan D’Erasmo (originally, I not surprisingly, typed this as “Erasmus”). This picture effectively displays her contradictions. This was a woman born in 1899 who reportedly had affairs, not always with men, and who wrote about infidelity with a knowing sense of the tiny, uncomfortable elements of these illicit encounters. There is a real mixture here – very old fashioned, severe, really, clothing and pearls – combined with dark (presumably red) nail polish, a cigarette held with panache, and a look that oozes confidence and imperiousness. I think it is more her carriage, clothing, and accessories that signal her class. Interesting… I could just as easily see her face on a US Depression Era impoverished sharecropper, although it would probably be more gaunt and worn. She is often described as very much looking of her heritage – with “upper class” features, such as a long face.
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