Friends and Relations

by Elizabeth Bowen

Two sisters, two weddings, just months apart. These marriages produce a tangle of friends, relations and lovers that starts to unravel ten years later, during one intense week. Two of Bowen’s most memorable characters are in attendance: Lady Elfrida, a creature of privilege, and Theodora Thirdman, a gawky teenager with zero self-awareness. The sunset of prosperity is upon this complacent, moneyed class, but Bowen’s precise and beautiful prose pins real pain and comedy upon its inhabitants.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Irish Literature, Novels, Modern Classics, Novella, 20th Century

159 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1931

About the author

Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen, CBE was an Anglo-Irish novelist and short story writer and short story writer notable for her books about the "big house" of Irish landed Protestants as well her fiction about life in wartime London.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
This is the first work by Elizabeth Bowen that I have read. Bowen was an interesting character herself, her marriage was companionship rather than passion and she had relationships with both men and women. She mixed with members of the Bloomsbury Group and several generations of writers. As a writer Bowen was interested in change and transformation in ordinary and orderly life, in "life with the lid on and what happens when the lid comes off". Bowen looks at what might be just below the veneer of respectability.
Friends and Relations is a well written novel that revolves around a group of families, the Tilneys, Meggatts, Thirdmans and Studdarts. Bowen examines the complex nature of human relationships. As a result not a great deal happens. The first part of the book charts the weddings of two sisters, Laurel and Janet Studdart. Laurel marries Edward Tilney and Janet marries Rodney Meggatt. A complicating factor is that in time past Edward’s mother Elfrida had an affair with Rodney’s father Considine. The novel then jumps ten years and there are children to both marriages. They all appear to have quietly contented lives, but Bowen explores the undercurrents, especially the ripples from the affair decades ago. It is clear that Bowen is also reflecting her own experience that passion isn’t necessary for a happy marriage and may even get in the way. There is a wry comedy present as well with all the entrances and exits, alongside gaps in the plots and shades of nuance. There is elegance and an understated examination of human emotions.
It is well written and a delight to read, although part of me does wonder whether I really care about the domestic and amatory exploits of the English upper classes. All these drawing rooms, well-kept gardens and country houses are maintained by servants who are barely perceptible in the novel and the sense of entitlement can be an irritant. However it is entertaining and I will make a point to read more by Bowen, especially her ghost stories

[Roman Clodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

He more or less plainly confessed to a dread of love in the more searching of its implications, to a more than moral distaste for the cruel inconvenience, the inconvenient cruelty of passion.

While this is probably my least favourite Bowen to date, it foregrounds some of the themes that populate her writing: the asymmetry of love, the complicated and frequently unspoken emotions that bind and separate people, the tension between unruly passion and something more socially and personally ordered. In Theodora, too, we have a figure of an adolescent thrown into an adult world, a character to whom Bowen is repeatedly drawn.

This feels like a less accomplished work than, say, The Heat of the Day: much of the beginning is very 'told' with minimal dialogue so that the drama is submerged. There are too many characters, too, and while they're sketched in with skill, they can become unwieldy. Following Theodora to school also feels like an unecessary interlude.

For all the niggles, when Bowen does get to the heart of this story a messy triangular relationship between two sisters and the man that one of them marries she treats it with both compassion and a coolly observant eye that never tips over into sentimentality.

So not a place to start with Bowen as it doesn't showcase her writing to best advantage but eminently worth reading: 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

[Mighty Aphrodite · Rating 4 out of 5]

La scena si apre sul matrimonio di Laurel ed Edward. La giornata appena iniziata non promette bene: una pioggia scrosciante rende ogni cosa tetra, umida e tutti si guardano intorno spaesati. Non sembra di buon auspicio per la coppia quel clima sfavorevole, ma poi – poco prima che la cerimonia inizi – torna a splendere il sole e ogni cosa sembra assumere finalmente i contorni sperati.

Sullo sfondo di questo matrimonio si erge la giovane Janet, sorella di Laurel. Osserva la coppia con il suo solito viso inespressivo, è difficile immaginare che cosa pensi, ma da pochi cenni accorti il lettore comprende il terribile triangolo che lega i novelli sposi a Janet, innamorata di Edward, ma da egli volutamente ignorata.

Tutti sembrano essere a conoscenza di questo sentimento, anche se nessuno si permette di pronunciare ad alta voce anche solo una parola a riguardo. Non si può fare a meno di compiangere Janet, che, dopo la partenza degli sposi, decide di fare un breve viaggio, come a volersi allontanare dall’atmosfera esageratamente festosa delle nozze appena avvenute, dai ricordi che la loro casa ancora conserva di quei giorni.

Al suo ritorno, però, Janet non sarà sola. Durante il suo soggiorno a casa di un’amica, ha conosciuto Rodney e lui si è a tal punto invaghito di lei da chiederle di sposarlo. La giovane – sembra senza nessun tentennamento – ha accettato. Certo, inizialmente, ci sono delle perplessità rispetto a questa unione: lo zio di Rodney, infatti, è lo stesso Considine che era stato – molti anni prima – l’amante della madre di Edward, Elfrida. La loro relazione aveva portato alla separazione dei suoi genitori e il giovane Edward di appena cinque anni era stato allontano dalla sua stessa casa per vivere insieme ad alcune zie paterne eternamente nubili.

Continua a leggere qui: https://parlaredilibri.wordpress.com/...

[Fiona MacDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am ashamed to say that I've only been able to rate this a 3 star (to start with), NOT because of the quality of the writing (which is truly wonderful) but because something happened half way through me reading this and I found myself utterly lost with all the different characters and their relationships. I think everything with the CV has made me so distracted when I'm reading at the moment that my brain can't cope with normal, social dramas like this book inhabits. Towards the end I didn't have a CLUE what was going on, and because of this I have to rate it lower. However, regarding the story itself (the part I understood) and the wonderful writing, it has to be raised to a 4. Elizabeth Bowen is a fantastic writer - I had no idea she was so funny! I will be tackling her other, more well known books which I will hopefully be able to keep up with!

[Troy Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars - I usually love Elizabeth Bowen but for some reason I just couldn’t really get into this novel. It is short (160 pages) but, to me, it felt like it was about 400 pages. Lovely prose but it just didn’t capture me. I love the beautiful front cover of the Penguin classic though.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is an underlying plot that is the vehicle for wonderfully written characterizations. I will freely admit, however, that seeing that plot ain't easy. Maybe others are more perceptive than I, but it wasn't until the last 30 or so pages before I understood where Bowen was taking the me. And then it was so obvious I wondered what clues I had missed on the journey!

The novel is broken into three parts: "Edward and Rodney"; "A Fine Week"; and "Wednesday". The first part introduces the characters via a couple of weddings when sisters Laurel and Janet are married in separate ceremonies to Edward and Rodney. The second part takes place 10 years later. The third takes place on the Wednesday following the second part.

I marked various places in the text as I was reading. One in particular I read several times: "And life after all," thought Edward, hearing tea approach, the gay dance of china on the silver tray, "is an affair of charm, not an affair of passion." My sticky on that page asks if this is true. I still don't have an answer, but I wonder if it depends on where you are on life's road. Or maybe not - these people are definitely from a different economic class than I am.

I was pleased that the prose is not as difficult as Bowen's Eva Trout, where I remark on the overabundance of commas. There were a few places, like the above, when I chose to reread a sentence or two, not because I had to parse the sentence to understand what Bowen was saying, but because the sentence had me thinking.

I am reading this with a group and we plan to read a couple more novels in the next very few months, followed by a biography of Bowen. I look forward to all of it. I'm glad Bowen makes me think, but this didn't bowl me over like Eva Trout did. This is a strong 4-stars.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of Elizabeth Bowen’s lesser known novels – published in 1931, it was her third, published after the more acclaimed, “The Last September.” It is also a very domestic novel; revolving around the lives, and marriages, of two sisters. We meet Laurel Studdart on the day of her marriage to Edward Tilney. Edward is somewhat self-obsessed and delicate. As a child, his mother, Lady Elfrida, was ‘ruined,’ by an affair with the glamorous, Considine.
Shortly afterwards, Considine’s nephew, and heir, Rodney Meggatt, marries Laurel’s sister, the capable Janet. This marriage causes Edward much disquiet and discomfort.

We follow the lives of these two sisters, through marriage and children. There is always the difficulty of having to keep certain relatives apart, which will certainly be understood by most readers. Also, there is the undercurrents of family lives. Lady Elfrida always hoped for Janet as a daughter in law, while Janet loved Edward. There is also an awkward young woman, Theodora Thirdman, who we also meet at Edward and Laurel’s wedding; something of a gossip and troublemaker, and who we meet throughout the novel.

Although very little happens in this novel, I found it brilliantly written. Bowen is never overly sentimental, and it is in the nuances, the things left unsaid, the look of a child as she sees her mother in a new light, in what people will accept, in order not to rock the boat, where she draws the reader in and urges us to understand, while assuring us that she knew we understood. I think she is a brilliant writer and I loved this short, and unassuming, but very powerful, novel.

[Mary Durrant · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a gorgeous novella elegantly written.
Nuances of drawing room comedy, the potentially explosive interplay of propriety and passion.
Elizabeth Bowen writes with compassion, the relationship between two very different sisters and their husbands.
Facing up to secrets and the past of shunned society.
I loved it, especially the gorgeous cover of taking afternoon tea!

[Cathie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing little book! Jamesian in its ability to portray the deep emotional complexity of even the most basic human interactions. Also perhaps Jamesian in the way in which external space is drawn into the inner world of the subjects being portrayed. I’m so glad I picked this up in Germany. A new favorite author! 😃

[Yoana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Happy I finished a Bowen novel after shamefully giving up on The Last September a couple of years ago; even if it took me over a month for 150 pages (in fairness, it was an excessively busy month for me). This one was every bit as difficult and elliptic as The Last September, but I stuck with it. The style is almost gleefully obstructive. I routinely had to read sentences and passages two, three and more times to glean their meaning. Sentences are often counterintuitively constructed, with confusing subordinate clauses that masquerade as part of the main sentence or vice versa, with punctuation purposefully omitted to make it harder to parse.

It's not just the grammar that makes it so devilishly hard to read. The whole book is stream of consciousness but of the most naturalistic type, where thought follows thought often without seeming connection, because the connection doesn't reach the "upper" level of the stream, it's understood to the person doing the thinking, so to speak, it runs as a background process. That background processes is thus missing from the narrative, which can make it frustratingly hard to understand the characters even though we're in their heads. The cultural gap doesn't help either; I mean I don't and have never thought as 1930s English middle class women did. When they omit something, I have no idea what they're likely to be taking as self-evident, self-censoring, or repressing.

Even though it's for the most part inscrutable, and full of half-references I had no hope of getting, the novel sounds modern and dynamic, not a whiff of mothballs about it. I guess the style of internal monologue (or of the subconscious intruding on mundane thoughts) works because the characters are believable and alive, and the disconnect between what they've been thinking and what they say is sometimes startling, which I suppose is often true of all of us. They are preoccupied with the management of life but also, in parallel, with their inner desires, with sex, love, freedom, the tension between a proper life and a life of passion. Edward and Laurel specifically are extremely anxious to cling to the former but each drawn, in a very different way, to the latter (he - to another woman; she - to her maiden life). Janet, as na object of passion, is as inscrutable to the reader as she is said to be to most of her family and friends, I think she is supposed to be something of an enigma so as to enhance the texture of Edward's fateful inability to remain innocent of his mother's sin. His mother, Lady Elfrida, the divorcée and a woman who's had an affair in the past, stands among them all as a reminder of their subconscious desires and of what's possible. Theodora, explicitly a lesbian, so fundamentally outside the sentimental and social order the rest must submit to, is the catalyst for the subconscious to manifest as conscious thought, and then, as action. The influence of psychoanalysis is very evident, as with many works from this time period.

I went back and forth between 2, 3 or 4 stars but ultimately I think it deserves a 4-star rating because it's such a finely crafted work, with a lot of insight into the competing facets of the human psyche. And the prose can be beautiful at places (when it's not onerously difficult to make sense of), as in this passage where Laurel, temporarily unable to take any more social theatre, daydreams about returning to an uncomplicated, even boring past:

Yes as Mrs Bowles’ story continued, gathering years of such talk on its vigorous dullness as on a running-thread, Laurel’s nostalgia for girlhood became acute. Her ’teens - their exposure to stingless boredom, their extravagant reverie, a home that gave her life colour, taking none of her life’s, the cool ball-dress slipping over her arms, her impatient stitching of summer dresses, their lyric wearing. Janet and Mother tacking roses on to her bodice (it would be a wonder if someone did not propose tonight), Mrs Bowles’ voice ran on. So the trees drowsed (a dull London sycamore crossed the window now) while Mrs Bowles talked and Laurel’s reel of pink cotton rolled away underneath the piano, Laurel had to go flat on her stomach Mr Bowles, on a visit, talked on Laurel getting up bumped her head on the underneath of the keyboard and thought suddenly of Edward. Mrs Bowles’ words like rather old dulled fish gently tipped from a barrow went on slipping and slipping. She loved Edward, delicious uncertainty perished that moment before this voice. She recalled her father’s affection, how he never listened to what she said, how at home, with mounting voices, they all talked for hours at cross purposes, with what ease one burst into angry tears. Quiet plumes of lilac, the band heard far down the Promenade, she relived the perpetual Cheltenham afternoon. At corners of white-walled residential roads, under lamps slung over the avenues, an immoderate pleasure had surprised her. To her share in all this she would, from her too pointed, too explicit relation with Edward, willingly have returned. Sheltering here and there in memories, as in doorways, from the storm of her present anguish - these weeks since Edward’s return from Batts had been unadmittedly frightful - she saw the land behind her shadowless in the unreal light of regret. She was racked, she was extravagant in her sense of loss. A break with her now so ghostly present she did not contemplate. It was a maiden rather than widowed daughter who, in Corunna Lodge, looked out of the staircase window, with only the vaguest sense of having been absent, at the ever-cheerful poplars.

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Today proved to be one of those weekdays, vacant, utterly without character, when some moral fort of a lifetime is abandoned calmly, almost idly, without the slightest assault from circumstance. So religions are changed, celibacy relinquished, marriages broken up, or there occurs a first large breach with personal honor ..."

Author Elizabeth Bowen is young (though hardly new), insightful, ambitious and completely in love with what words can do, in this dense little volume. The effort is valiant and kind of trainwreck-fascinating, to the lit enthusiast, but it ultimately comes apart at the seams.

The strategy here seems to be to use unusual multi-viewpoint storytelling, fairly experimental prose construction, and what can only be said are modern rhythms and pacing in the telling-- of the internal dynamics of an extended family/ social group in the upper layers of English society.

It's evil Mitfords, who go for the throat. Or cubist Henry James. Cruella De Vil's ladies who lunch ... all of these more or less, and the unfortunate outcome is, well .. too much all at once.

Bowen wants to set up a 3D chess game to delineate the social connections, the emotional strings-- but there is too much tangled architecture to make sense of the game. Or maybe too much game, simply put. Three stars, though, for the overall plan; Bowen is good, and they can't all come together perfectly.

[Cera · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know I enjoyed this novel because I kept reading it, eager to find out what would become of Janet and Laurel and Edward and Rodney, not to mention the horrible Theodora. It was very evocative, leaving me with lots of fully realised moments in space -- a walk across a lawn, a sitting room with sun coming in, a dark bedroom at night. Bowen's prose is somewhat experimental (at least to me), with odd turns of phrase, fragmented sentences, peculiar metaphors. It works; I was imaginatively transported, and I can imagine rereading it just to go back to those places, to feel like I was once again with those people.

But oh, I really want someone to explain this book to me, because I don't think I have the faintest notion of what Bowen was trying to do, at all. I'm sure she was saying something about marriage and love and family, but what? A quick websearch indicates that this has often been seen as the "ugly stepchild" of Bowen's novels, so it seems that I'm not the only one who finds it beautiful but confusing.

When I think of how little I understood Dodie Smith when I first read her 5-6 years ago, I suspect that in another few years this novel may come into focus for me.

[Anna Juliette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elizabeth Bowen is a god. Mix of Austen and Woolf, wonderful sentences, intricate plot layering. Ugh cannot recommend enough

[Kallie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite Bowen. Some of the love rapture a bit corny and the story itself meh to me. But her writing style and characterizations are always interesting.

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

A silly book about silly people and 20th century family drama.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

The novel concerns two sisters, two weddings – a few months apart, and the complicated web of friends and relations that unite the families. Ten years after these two weddings, tensions held politely at bay start to unravel over the course of one fraught week. Four families: the Studdarts, Tilneys, Meggatts and Thirdmans are connected by their relationships to the two couples who marry in the early part of the novel.

Laurel and Janet Studdart are the sisters, Laurel marries first, Edward Tilney – a fine upstanding young man. He is slightly anxious, worries about the scandal in his mother’s past, which blighted his childhood. Edward’s mother; Lady Elfrida had an adulterous relationship and left Edward’s father for a man who then didn’t marry her. Having gained her divorce, Lady Elfrida, glamourous, beautiful and dissolute – in not having remarried has retained the taint of scandal and impropriety which poor Edward remains ever conscious of.

Full review: https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2017/...

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable early work.

[Sweetmongoose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elizabeth Bowen’s writing is by turns luminescent, impenetrable, and marvelously precise. I love her insightful observations on small occurrences in the course of a human being’s day. I am fascinated by the structures of her novels – this one starts with 2 weddings (one for each sister) which take place some months apart and then moves in section 2 to 10 years later and the events of one intense week. The final section focuses on 1 day a few weeks later with a final chapter which pulls out for a long shot of the 2 sisters through the perceptions of their parents – with a snippet of time from a month or a little more after the previous action. Also, I enjoy the way she conveys a child’s nature through dialogue. While reading this book, I laughed out loud in some places – for example, when 2 children fail to be impressed by their great uncle’s storytelling regarding achievements in big game hunting. I did like this book, but less than others I have read by Bowen. Despite my laughter, it is not a comic book, but rather sad overall. As always, I am left with much to ponder about writing, structure, character, emotion, and plot. I will keep reading Bowen – her sentences make me read them aloud for their beauty.

[Justin Tanner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another book I didn't finish. 57 pages in and I couldn't go any further. I love Elizabeth Bowen - But sometimes her Henry James worship goes into overdrive: her sentences become cryptic to the point of indecipherability and she decides to refer to everyone as "she" or "him" or "they" for pages on end, leaving it to the reader to figure out who the heck she's talking about. (is it Laurel? is it Janet? is it Aunt Elfrida?)
There is a fun 15 year old girl named Theodora who prank-phone-calls her mother's friends and a nasty Aunt character whose acid tongue is a sheer delight - but I literally read whole pages without understanding a word; even after labored scrutiny, the plot simply wouldn't come into focus. Then on page 58 Bowen jumps ten years ahead and introduces a pack of screaming children and I threw the book across the room.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fabulous read! An interesting story about the relationships between two sisters and their husbands, which demonstrates the difficulties in maintaining open and honest relationships among people who are very different from one another. Written in Bowen's flowing style, the book carries the reader through the rise and fall of emotions stirred in the sisters as things seemingly go awry. I'd recommend this book to any readers who enjoy subtlety and intricacy in their fiction.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

The prose is elegant but except for Theodora (whom I found engagingly bratty) the character development was oh so bland. More than half-way through, I still had to forcibly remind myself which of the two young men Laurel was married to and which Janet was married to.
I usually love a good "tea-drinking" novel, but this wasn't it. Barbara Pym may be less "literary," but oh so much more enjoyable.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not my first stab at Elizabeth Bowen, but I fear it will be my last. There is something about her writing style that does not speak to me- I end up having to read the same sentences over and over. That being said, I love the time/place setting of England in the early 20th century, and her characters are always interesting.

[Ange · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've had to abandon Friends and Relations. After reading pages and pages and realising I had not the slightest idea of what was happening I decided it was not worth the effort. I may try again with a different Elizabeth Bowen.

[Sera · Rating 2 out of 5]

Baffling!

[Margot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Non molti giorni fa, ho letto un racconto di Elizabeth Bowen, contenuto in un’antologia di racconti di fantasmi - si chiamava Hand-in-glove, ed era scritto con una prosa elaborata, ornata del tipo che più mi piace. Così ho deciso, a stretto giro, di leggere anche un romanzo di Bowen, che all’inizio, più che leggere, leggiucchiavo, finché non mi sono ritrovata risucchiata dalla prosa meravigliosa di Bowen.

Forse il rating più giusto per Amici e amanti (in inglese Friends and relations) sarebbe stato quattro stelle, ma non ho potuto resistere nell’alzare la valutazione. La ragione è questa: c’è un punto, nella terza parte del romanzo, in cui mi sono accorta di un meccanismo interno della narrazione, abilmente nascosto dall’autrice ma lasciato poco sotto la superficie, di modo che sia visibile - a una lettura attenta o a una seconda lettura, non importa. Per due terzi del romanzo, Bowen ci convince, siccome stiamo leggendo di due sorelle, che le sorelle Studdart siano le protagoniste: Janet, più umbratile e ordinata, e Laurel, più esuberante e sbadata. In realtà, la vera protagonista del romanzo è Theodora Thirdman, il cui lesbismo è vagamente accennato, sebbene in un paio di punti, come la visita di Willa Thirdman a casa della figlia (quando parla con la coinquilina/“amica” di Theodora, Marise), la cosa risulti abbastanza evidente a chiunque.
Laurel e Janet vivono di passioni opposte e sono entrambe esempi di esistenza eterosessuale all’interno del matrimonio. Theodora, dal carattere così marcatamente queer, è il mezzo ideale tra le due, così aliena alla loro vita ma sempre impigliata nelle loro vicende sentimentali. Sulle loro teste c’è la presenza di Lady Elfrida, la suocera divorziata di Laurel, il cui divorzio è un esempio di rifiuto, avendole attraversate, delle rigide coordinate del matrimonio borghese.
Certo, il punto di vista narrativo è abbastanza distanziato da tutte e tre le donne, senza prediligerne una in particolare, sebbene in alcuni tratti Bowen ci porti attraverso la loro psiche con quelli che Virginia Woolf avrebbe chiamato «moments of being».
La centralità di Theodora, nell’economia di un romanzo dove nulla è lasciato al caso e dove tutto è funzionale, è rivelata dal capitolo dove Bowen ci racconta l’arrivo di Theodora nel suo collegio femminile, dove conosce Marise. Questa scena sarebbe stata inutile, da stralciare dal romanzo se Theodora fosse stata soltanto un personaggio secondario.
Informandomi un po’ sugli altri romanzi di Bowen, in tal senso, ho scoperto che in effetti le eroine più tipiche dei suoi romanzi sono in genere giovani donne che diventano adulte - Theodora, molto più delle sorelle Studdart, è rappresentativa di questa categoria. La sua queerness, poi, è un dispositivo di crisi sia narrativo sia tematico.

Tuttavia, mi preme dire ancora qualche parola riguardo a un certo aspetto del romanzo, e cioè il suo potenziale gotico; in tal senso, sono rimasta stupita dalla profonda somiglianza tra il racconto Hand-in-glove e Amici e amanti: in entrambi si ha a che fare con due sorelle e con una parente più anziana dalla presenza ingombrante all’interno di una big house; in entrambi i casi il destini sociale delle giovani donne è debitore verso eventi passati ed è infestato dalle potenzialità. Sotto certi punti di vista, Hand-in-glove sembra il tentativo di Bowen di sottoporre la vicenda del romanzo a un congegno letterario marcatamente gotico, dove però ad aver maggior risalto è il tipo di Laurel (Ethel Trevor, nel racconto) anziché quello di Janet (Elsie Trevor). Comparando i due testi, emerge una certa dimensione hauntologica, di realtà possibili che non si attuano e che trovano il loro unico sbocco nel non detto dei dialoghi. In Amici e amanti, la vita di Janet è infestata (haunted) dalla possibilità di un’altra vita, mai realizzatasi. Le possibilità infestano come spettri il romanzo a tal punto che lo snodo principale nella terza parte, Mercoledì, è un vero e proprio non-evento (definito così anche nella narrazione): il non-evento adombra crisi emotive, personali e interpersonali così forti che potrebbero sconquassare il microcosmo del romanzo. Nella modalità gotica, ciò che interessa è la trasgressione dei limiti sociali - in un romanzo come Amici e amanti, dove il fulcro tematico è dato dall’analisi intergenerazionale di limiti e costruzioni sociali considerati naturali, una certa adiacenza con la loro trasgressione - e, quindi, con il gotico - è più che naturale. A riprova del fatto che le etichette di genere, al di là di specifiche modalità letterarie, servono di più ad orientare potenziali lettori che a comprendere la verità poetica di un romanzo.

Detto questo, non vedo l’ora di leggere altro di Elizabeth Bowen, che mi ha proprio stregata.

[Ms. Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read and re-read this novel for the last 30 years, at intervals of about three years. You can see how much I love it, and although I almost know it by heart, I'm sure I'll read it yet again for the sheer pleasure of Bowen's complex, subtle prose and the intriguing mystery of the central characters: the sisters Laurel and Janet, and Laurel's husband, Edward, with whom we gradually discover that Janet is in love.

The genteel atmosphere of the middle class family in the early decades of the 20th century is perfectly caught. The marquee at the (clearly large) home and garden of the Studdart sisters, for Laurel's wedding; the careful way the guests must be directed through the big house in a circular route; the young Laurel's guidance on furnishing her new home by older, sometimes titled, relatives; the economies that Laurel and Edward must make in order to keep up their respectable way of life - all are shown, as in every great work of fiction, by the actions and speech of the characters. And yes, I do think this is a great novel, though sadly underestimated by both its original public and by many contemporary readers.

At the heart of the novel are the embarrassed allusions to passion, which is the great, forbidden shadow hanging over all the characters. Many years ago, Edward's mother had an affair with the uncle of Janet's own husband, Rodney. That affair scandalized their families and blighted Edward's childhood, so that he cannot bear to think of it. Any reference to it wounds him and reawakens his unhappy childhood memories, so to appease him it must be denied and covered up by all.

Janet, however, seemingly grows tired of the constant effort needed to keep the two former lovers apart, when their families are so closely related and it is only natural for both to occasionally be present at a family gathering. We gradually begin to understand that Janet is in love with her brother-in-law, and had been from the beginning. Edward had apparently dated both sisters before making up his mind to marry Laurel. It is soon after that marriage that Janet surprises everyone by making her own, very suitable, match, to a wealthy landowner who just "happens" to be closely related to Edward's family through the scandalous affair of many years ago. As we look back through the previous chapters at this point, we may begin to suspect that Janet's own marriage was not as hasty and unthinking as might be assumed. She chose it very cleverly.

I won't give the plot away beyond this point, but the tension is kept up extremely well, and the whole book is a comedy of manners as well as a credible depiction of secret, long-stifled passion. The situation implodes during a long summer holiday as the two former lovers meet and reminisce, while the families of Janet and Laurel attempt in different ways to deal with Edward's anger and distress.

The children in this novel are, as usual with Bowen, excellently drawn. Their conversations and personal reflections are touching and funny, and lighten the sometimes heavy atmosphere. And the awkward and fractious Theodora, who first appears as a gawky adolescent at Laurel's wedding, has several long sections in her own right, which are increasingly hilarious. Bowen hints that Theodora is a lesbian, and her fixation with Janet causes big complications later in the novel.

To me, this is the young Bowen using her powers to the full after some years of experimenting, and the novel is an entire success.

I do, however, have a question for others who've read this novel: what do you make of the final sentence? I would dearly love to know. Its ambiguity troubles me, and I can think of several interpretations.

[N · Rating 5 out of 5]

"He measured the whole of his own territory, the barren and pitted territory of emotion" (Bowen 117).

Two sisters: Janet and Laurel Studdart.

Janet marries Rodney; Laurel marries Edward. Edward's mother is the flamboyant Lady Elfrida. Rodney's Uncle Considine is shady as hell. Finally, there's young teenaged Theodora who is bored and wants to start drama between the families.

Ten years later, a mysterious letter arrives revealing that Considine and Lady Elfrida had an affair, shattering both the men who are married to the sisters.

Theodora is gossipy and insists on causing drama. Edward and Laurel don't have much money in Kensington, with their children Simon and Anna. Janet and Rodney live with the rakish Uncle Considine in grand style. Their daughter Hermione is precocious. and does not seem to fit in anywhere in the worlds of her family members.

Later Janet and Edward become close and develop an emotional affair. We know she's always loved him, "they exchanged a glance of extraordinary intimacy which was at the same time, feverish and unhappy...from the moment of meeting till now they had been easily brother and sister, in itself created a sense of emergency, of having been dwarfed into this very naturalness by some large event or presence, like birth or death" (Bowen 161). The damage of Theodora revealing family secrets is done. Nothing is the same anymore.

Bowen is always a treat to read- she always captures human folly with dramatic and ironic pathos that seem to always verge on the emotional, or through comedy.

This is definitely a book that is a comedy of manners that seems to examine the ideals of marriage and living a conventional life. And the inability to see past through the eccentricities of others: Lady Elfrida, Theodora, Uncle Considine and Hermione come to mind.

She always writes of outsiders trying to fit in within upper crust, wealthy communities of which they are often scapegoated or criticized by those trying to fit within the confines of heteronormative behavior.

There's always the underlying theme that certain characters fit within a queer spectrum through insinuation, and in her later books such as "Eva Trout"- they become full fledged characters who are indeed struggling to be seen. Droll, funny, and always a little bit sad- Elizabeth Bowen always is magnificent in writing these little chamber operas.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have tried to like Elizabeth Bowen. She seems like the kind of author I would like: Irish, English, domestic, social commentary, even -- some have told me -- Jane Austen-adjacent. But I find her books inscrutable and her characters and plots boring, and I mean, really boring.

She never actually says what is going on. Her characters never say what they mean. I can't tell if they are nice or nasty or ...what. It's hard to care. Her syntactical style is interesting to parse, occasionally you catch some hint of wit, but, in the end, it's still unclear what the heck she's talking about.

And it's exhausting and frustrating to try to hang in there. Some say her books are better the second time, but I'm not sure I care. Life is too short. There are too many other authors and novels I have not yet read, and whom I feel pretty sure I will enjoy more than her. Once I've read everything written by Niall Williams, Colm Toibin, Anne Enright, Geraldine Brooks, Ann Patchett, Maggie O'Farrell, Sebastian Barry...you get the idea. New Irish novelists, especially, are cranking out books that are fun and engaging and creative and satisfying. I can't keep up.

With apologies to those who love Bowen. It just feels to me like too much work for not enough pay-off.

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I struggled with this - few of the characters made an impression and there were so many of them - and then the rhythms, the demands, of Bowen's uncompromising prose became a gauntlet thrown down...a challenge I had to rise to. I was equally disengaged with the (melo)drama of the middle part of THE HOUSE IN PARIS, but this was less puerile, less constrained merely by quaint old mores and fads, less like an archaic nude dauguerrotype in outmoded lingerie and with old fashioned personal grooming...there are matriarchs and patriarchs, good bad and indifferent, impossible, appalling, appealing children or teens, the usual middle generation frozen in quiet desperation. Ghosts, skeleton leaves. Friends and relations.

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

For “Death of the Heart” alone I will always love Elizabeth Bowen. Unfortunately I have yet to find a book of hers that comes close to it, yet I will likely read more. This book simply bored me. It felt like it started in the middle of a mundane story and never seemed to end so much as run out of steam. The characters are dull and not especially likeable. They all seem to hold on to ancient resentments and spend much of the book trying to avoid confrontation with anyone remotely associated with past slights. There are some beautifully written scenes but they can’t save the book. (Actually 2 ½ stars but I can’t go up to three.)