Bowen, Elizabeth (1899-1973), was an Anglo-Irish author of novels and short stories about the problem of personal relationships in the modern world. Her books deal especially with the upper-middle class, and often focus on how the demands and values of others affect the individual. Much of the action in her novels involves internal conflict. But Bowen was also expert at describing the physical settings in her fiction and the social attitudes of her characters. The House in Paris (1935) explores the complex emotional relationships surrounding a young English boy in Paris. The Death of the Heart (1938), set in London, examines a girl’s growth to maturity and her understanding of the limitations of the people she knows. The Heat of the Day (1949) is a tightly written story about a wartime love affair.
Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen was born on June 7, 1899, in Dublin. Three books of her writings were published after her death on Feb. 22, 1973. They were The Collected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen (1981) and two collections of her nonfiction, Pictures and Conversations (1975) and The Mulberry Tree (1987).
