2015: The Year of Reading Women discussion

Discussion and group reads for Elizabeth Bowen.

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabet...

Were you thinking of any particular books? I have The Hotel and The Heat of the Day on my tbr.

I plan to read or re-read several Bowen novels in 2015.

She's one of my favorite novelists, so it's been depressing to see that no one had been discussing her in this thread!

I'm up for group reads of any of her work, except The Heat of the Day which I've re-read just recently.

I love Bowen as well. Will keep an eye on this thread.

I just started "The Death of the Heart" a few days ago for the third time. But, even with the Holiday Season distractions, it feels like this time that the prose has embedded its language into my reading soul. It's going slow but the rhythms of her writing have caught me.

I think I'm going to enjoy this one.

This will be the first Elizabeth Bowen for me.

:)

I'd be up for a The Death of the Heart reading.

I just read my first Bowen, The Hotel. I didn't love it but I have others I'd like to read.

I'd like to try "To the North". Anyone for Elizabeth Bowen (we may all be reading different books) in January, or May?

Bowen---another I want to read.

Lesley wrote: "I'd like to try "To the North". Anyone for Elizabeth Bowen (we may all be reading different books) in January, or May?"

We could aim for May. Do you want to begin with To The North, then?

I read all of her work in my early twenties and fell utterly in love with her highly mannered prose style. I reckon The Death of the Heart and the House in Paris are her best two novels though i also have a soft spot for Eva Trout. The Hotel is her worst novel and To the North is early and less distinctive than later work though still good.

Violet wrote: "I read all of her work in my early twenties and fell utterly in love with her highly mannered prose style. I reckon The Death of the Heart and the House in Paris are her best two novels though i al..."

Agree: To the North feels like a different author's work, sort of like when one reads Woolf's The Voyage Out. Bowen doesn't come into her own unique style until later.

My favorite is The Heat of the Day, but Death... and House... come very close. The Last September is also a masterpiece.

You might want to put that under a spoiler tag...

Sorry. deleted.

Violet wrote: "I read all of her work in my early twenties and fell utterly in love with her highly mannered prose style. I reckon The Death of the Heart and the House in Paris are her best two novels though i al..."

I started with The Hotel and was not at all thrilled. I'm glad to see you feel it's her worst. I have a few others so will be happy to join in and see what she's really like.

i think she was really young and had virtually no experience of life when she wrote The Hotel, Cynthia. The novel after that, The last September is really good though. Then there's Friends and relations which is another dud. After that she really blossomed - House In Paris, Death of the Heart and The Heat of the day are all great.

If one likes Henry James, one will like Bowen: she borrowed a lot of her later style from him, while also making it her own.

Bowen can sometimes be maddening to read: triple and even quadruple negatives; almost archaic phrasing and dialogue; the politics are in the background so the reader is supposed to be in the know as far as context goes; etc. She's a challenge, at times, but she's definitely one of my favorite writers of all time.

Her short stories are also quite good, but, in my opinion, not as strong as her novels.

And since we're all talking about Bowen, why not delve into one of her works sooner rather than later? :)

I've read House in Paris fairly recently but haven't read Death of the Heart for many years and never read Heat of the Day. So those two are high on my list.

Since I've only read one, I'm open to any others.

I'll vote for Heat of the Day but very happy to read Death of the heart again too.

I've only read The Death of the Heart; but it was very, very good.

If there is a group read, I will likely lurk. And whichever book is chosen will become a tbr for me. But I'm not good a keeping up in a group read.

As I said above, I've read Heat about four times in as many years. So I would be up for any other Bowen, if that suits anyone. Maybe mid-Feb.

How about The Death of the Heart. I know it's been over 20 years (probably more than 30) since I read it, so it will be like reading a new book for me.

I'd be up for that, Sue. Any others?

I'm okay with that.