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| I have been considering reading Elizabeth Bowen and wondered what you thought. Her name used to be everywhere. My reading consists mostly of history and biography, plus my guilty pleasure in mysteries, so this will be a departure from my usual preferences.
But now I am immersed in all things Irish and tho she's Anglo-Irish, Elizabeth Bowen sounds interesting. What do you think? Any particular titles to start with? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Ginny, I too enjoy biography/history and would start with E B's Seven Wonders and Bowen's Court which I think are available in one book. They would give you a background to her sort of work. Although you point out that she was 'Anglo-Irish', it is generally used as a term to define the mostly old Protestant landowning classes (used to be known as 'the Ascendancy). To an English person, such as me, she would still be considered 'Irish' as many of those families had lived in Ireland for hundreds of years. Another 'Anglo-Irish' author you might enjoy is Molly Keane aka M J Farrell. Her Good Behaviour is very funny. |
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| I very much enjoyed Bowen's classic novel of adolescent loneliness The Death of the Heart. |
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| As an American of mixed English-Irish-Scottish descent some generations long, I'm sure I miss the nuances. However, I have the impression that the English think of the Anglo-Irish as being Irish, while the Irish think of the Anglo-Irish as being English. Is this accurate? Rosefolly |
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| Nicely put Paula/Rose. Nuances still form a very strong part of the English psyche (even if they shouldn't). I used to know people from the so-called 'Ascendancy' who's family had been in Ireland since Henry II was given the country by the Pope in the late eleven hundreds, so no-way could they have been English, but they were still regarded with some awe and suspicion by the local population. Of course since the 1920's very many of the Protestant population (and not for the most part wealthy landowners) have felt it prudent to leave the country . . . and same is true of Northern Ireland/Ulster where 'the Troubles' still rumble on to a much lesser extent. Interesting that Americans refer to Ulstermen as 'Scotch-Irish' an expression not heard outside the US.;-) Apparently well-over 36 million Americans claim to be of Irish descent. |
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- Posted by woodnymph2 (My Page) on Wed, Nov 10, 10 at 12:51
| Yes, Vee, there are, indeed, a lot of us in the U.S. of Irish descent. The horrors of the Irish potato famine forced many to emmigrate to America. Then, many who had just got off the boat were conscripted into the Union army during the Civil War. |
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| No one interested in the issue of the Protestant Ascendancy can skip the ghost stories of Le Fanu. Though on the surface they are tales of the supernatural, they seem to comment the decline and disenfranchisement of the once powerful Protestant middle class. Bowen admired Le Fanu, though with reservations. Victoria Glendenning's biography of Bowen is a good read. The Canadian experience of Irish immigration was quite different from the American. English-speaking Canada was the preferred destination of Irish Protestants emigrants up to the Famine. More Irish Protestants settled in what is now known as Canada than in the U.S. During the Famine, however, the Canadian government severely restricted the numbers of Irish refugees, which in turn had a huge impact on the numbers going to the U.S. The quarantine island of Grosse-Ile is now a historic park and landmark. It was here that many quarantined Irish emigrants died of cholera, and were buried in mass graves. Susanna Moodie and her sister Catharine Parr Traill both wrote of their time spent quarantined with the unruly Irish. |
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| Tim, interestingly, last week I picked up an old copy of The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845-1849 by Cecil Woodham-Smith. Opening it at random the first thing I read was a letter from the Canadian High Commissioner complaining of the 'type' of Irish immigrant arriving in his country. This book came out nearly 50 years ago and I think more information has become available about the help (inadequate as it was) that was sent from England to the West of Ireland. Of course it must be remembered that the East of the country, not reliant on the single crop, fared much better. The Western Isles of Scotland were also affected by the potato blight. BTW the books about Moodie and Parr 'Sisters in the Wilderness'??? is an excellent read. |
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| I was hoping for thoughts about Elizabeth Bowen and her books and appreciate those that were made. But it seems that any mention of Ireland or the Irish brings out something negative from a few people on this forum. And a host of incorrect "facts". I would like to reply to a number of the innocently misleading statements made here but this is not a forum about politics, religion, ethnicity. I wish everyone would remember that. |
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| Between 1825-1845, approximately 850,000 people left Ireland for North America. Even before the Great Hunger, one of the largest movements of people from Europe to North America had begun. My own statements about Irish history are based on my reading, particularly those of professors Cecil J. Houston and William J. Smyth, who have published several ground-breaking studies of Irish immigration. (Four of my own great, great grandparents came from Ireland.) Many members of "Readers Paradise" are widely read in the areas of Irish literature and history, which explains why this thread took an unexpected turn. The replies on this thread were not meant to be negative, but rather display a lively, wide-ranging interest in the Ireland. I am puzzled by your remark that this "is not a forum about politics, religion, ethnicity" since Bowen often wrote about the troubled history of her homeland. One of her earliest novels, The Last September, is set against a backdrop of terrorist ambushes and house bombings. Bowen's work has a historical and political context, which was the jumping-off point of our discussion. |
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| Well put, Tim. Surely the beauty of the RP site is the ability of its users to 'open up' a discussion. Ginny, I see no negativity towards the Irish in the above comments and if there are eg's of incorrect facts perhaps you could set them right. This would be a very dull place if is consisted of no more than lists of books. |
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| A 'Fact' is, that we are not all longing to be Irish over here and can't always see what the big fuss is about. I'm Welsh; I get on very well with Irish people on the whole, but I'd rather be of my own Celtic P roots. I hope no-one takes that as an insult. Elizabeth Bowen is a very subtle, witty writer. I haven't read a great deal of her work, but I love 'Hotel' - about the British sojourning abroad (Europe) in the early 20th century at one particular hotel. They are mainly women of varying ages, young to old, and what happens when men, and one man in particular, invade their world is beautifully observed and very funny. Dido y Cymraes |
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| I wish I had the time to answer the above thoughtful replies but am on my way to the airport--with EB's biography by Glendenning in hand. When I return, I will post again. |
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| I've read The House in Paris, The Heat of the Day and The Death of the Heart and thought all of them very fine. Very recently I read To the North which is probably one of her weaker works but still head and shoulders above most other fiction, I think. |
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