Synopsis
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.
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About the Author
Elizabeth Bowen was born in Dublin in 1899, the only child of an Irish lawyer and landowner. She was educated at Downe House School in Kent. Her book Bowen's Court (1942) is the history of her family and their house in County Cork, and Seven Winters (1943) contains reminiscences of her Dublin childhood. In 1923 she married Alan Cameron, who held an appointment with the BBC and who died in 1952. She travelled a good deal, dividing most of her time between London and Bowen's Court, which she inherited. Elizabeth Bowen is considered by many to be one of the most distinguished novelists of the twentieth century. Her first book, a collection of short stories, Encounters, appeared in 1923, followed by another, Ann Lee's, in 1926. The Hotel (1927) was her first novel, and was followed by The Last September (1929), Joining Charles (1929), another book of short stories, Friends and Relations (1931), To the North (1932), The Cat Jumps (short stories, 1934), The House in Paris (1935), The Death of the Heart (1938), Look at All Those Roses (short stories, 1941), The Demon Lover (short stories, 1945), The Heat of the Day (1949), Collected Impressions (essays, 1950), The Shelborne (1951), A World of Love (1955), A Time in Rome (1960), Afterthought (essays, 1962), The Little Girls (1964), A Day in the Dark (1965) and her last book Eva Trout (1969). She was awarded the CBE in 1948, and received honorary degrees from Trinity College, Dublin in 1949, and from Oxford University in 1956. In the same year she was appointed Lacy Martin Donnelly Fellow at Bryn Mawr College in the United States. The Royal Society of Literature made her a Companion of Literature in 1965. Elizabeth Bowen died in 1973.
Review
"Bowen is a tough old bird. And once you're on her side, it's going to be a loyal alliance. Because it's nice to have a writer who will never lie to you. Not even to make you feel a little better" Kirkus "Bowen wrote numerous great novels, including Friends and Relations...about how telephones have infiltrated our thinking and desires: waiting for a call, being interrupted by a call, not knowing what might be announced" Guardian "There is much to savour, enjoy, intrigue and shock in this wonderful novel. Bowen is sublime" Book Snob
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Friends and Relations
Published by
Penguin Publishing Group, 1987
ISBN 10: 0140003983
ISBN 13: 9780140003987
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Condition: Good. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # GRP71449610
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Friends and Relations
Seller: ThriftBooks-Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ, U.S.A.
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Paperback. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G0140003983I5N00
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Friends and Relations
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Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G0140003983I3N00
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Friends and Relations
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Paperback. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G0140003983I5N00
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Friends and Relations
Seller: ThriftBooks-Atlanta, AUSTELL, GA, U.S.A.
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Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G0140003983I3N00
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Friends and Relations
Seller: Hessay Books, York, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Mass Market Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Penguin Modern Classics edition. 1594pp, the paper tanning a little with age. Illustrated softback covers with an illustration by James Durden. A couple of very light spots of foxing to the foredge, otherwise a very clean, tight, Near Fine copy. Propriety and passion - Lady Elfrida's affair has an effect on her son Edward. Seller Inventory # 13280
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Friends and Relations. A novel. - (=Penguin Modern Classics).
Published by
London, Penguin, 1982
ISBN 10: 0140003983
ISBN 13: 9780140003987
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Illustrierte Originalbroschur.
Seller: BOUQUINIST, München, BY, Germany
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Illustrierte Originalbroschur. Condition: Wie neu. 3. Auflage. 159 (1) Seiten. Good condition. Paperback. 19,6 cm. Guter Zustand. Seiten papierbedingt leicht gebräunt. Untere hintere Buchecke mit einer kleinen Knickspur. Aus der Bibliothek der Gräfin Ledebur. - Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen, CBE (7 June 1899 22 February 1973) was an Anglo-Irish novelist and short story writer. Life: Elizabeth Bowen was born in Dublin and later brought to Uppingham in Kildorrery County Cork where she spent her summers. When her father became mentally ill in 1907, she and her mother moved to England, eventually settling in Hythe. After her mother died in 1912, Bowen was brought up by her aunts. She was educated at Downe House School, 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, becoming good friends with Rose Macaulay, who helped her find a publisher for her first book, 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". 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 and at least one lesbian relationship, with the American poet, May Sarton. In 1930, Bowen was the first 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 Irish neutrality. Bowen's political views tended towards Burkean conservatism. Her husband retired in 1952 and they settled in Bowen's Court, where Alan Cameron died a few months later. Many writers visited her at Bowen's Court, including Virginia Woolf, Eudora Welty, and Carson McCullers. For years Bowen struggled to keep the house going, lecturing in the United States to earn money. In 1959 the house was sold and demolished. After spending some years without a permanent home, Bowen settled in Hythe and died of cancer in 1973, aged 73. She is buried with her husband in Farahy church yard, close to the gates of Bowen's Court. A commemoration of her life is held annually in Farahy church. Assessment: Elizabeth Bowen was greatly interested in 'life with the lid on and what happens when the lid comes off,' or in other words, 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 the 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, thus, also on the plots. Bowen's war novel The Heat of the Day is considered one of the quintessential depictions of London atmosphere during the bombing raids of World War II. wikipedia--wiki-Elizabeth_Bowen Aus: wikipedia- Sprache: Englisch Gewicht in Gramm: 240. Seller Inventory # 44364
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FRIENDS AND RELATIONS
Seller: Le-Livre, SABLONS, France
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Couverture souple. Condition: bon. RO30026824: 1943. In-8. Broché. Bon état, Couv. convenable, Dos satisfaisant, Papier jauni. 159 pages. Livre en anglais. . . . Classification Dewey : 840.091-XX ème siècle. Seller Inventory # RO30026824
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