Elizabeth Bowen

A brilliant and much admired novelist, Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973) surpassed herself as a writer of short fiction: ''the supreme genius of her time'', writes John Banville in his introduction; ''T ...

A brilliant and much admired novelist, Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973) surpassed herself as a writer of short fiction: ''the supreme genius of her time'', writes John Banville in his introduction; ''There is not a story in this substantial volume ... that is not brought off beautifully.'' A substantial volume indeed, Including 79 stories written over four decades, ranging in setting from the County Cork of the author''s Anglo-Irish childhood to bomb-ravaged London where she coolly sat out the War, evoked with vivid and impeccable artistry. She has a disturbing sense of the uncanny, an acute eye f