Elizabeth Bowen
1954
Around 160 pages
Like Wyndham Lewis, Elizabeth Bowen is largely forgotten by today's audiences. But unlike in the case of Wyndham Lewis, her obscurity is tragic and not the result of the cosmos protecting us from unreadable prose.
Jane is a young woman living at a decaying Irish manor with her parents, sister, and Cousin Antonia, an eccentric older relative. Jane discovers love letters in the attic from Guy, a soldier who died in World War I, addressed to her mother. In an almost gothic way, Jane's uncovering of the past unleashes the ghost of Guy among her relatives, who choose to ignore/romanticize the past.
You can tell that Bowen enjoyed writing ghost stories, as she puts an almost supernatural spin on this story about characters haunted by the past. I appreciated that the relationships between the female characters were given center stage.
It's a shame more people aren't Bowenbabies (I'm trying out different fanbase names).
RATING: ****-
Interesting Facts:
Interesting Facts:
Supernatural fiction writer Robert Aickman considered Elizabeth Bowen to be "the most distinguished living practitioner" of ghost stories.
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