A World of Love

by Elizabeth Bowen

Paperback, 1993

Status

Available

Call number

823.912

Genres

General Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Collection

Your library

Publication

Penguin Books Ltd (1993), Paperback, 160 pages

Description

In a writing career that spanned the 1920s to the 1960s, Anglo-Irish author Elizabeth Bowen created a rich and nuanced body of work in which she enlarged the comedy of manners with her own stunning brand of emotional and psychological depth. In A World of Love, an uneasy group of relations are living under one roof at Montefort, a decaying manor in the Irish countryside. When twenty-year-old Jane finds in the attic a packet of love letters written years ago by Guy, her mother’s one-time fiance who died in World War I, the discovery has explosive repercussions. It is not clear to whom the letters are addressed, and their appearance begins to lay bare the strange and unspoken connections between the adults now living in the house. Soon, a girl on the brink of womanhood, a mother haunted by love lost, and a ruined matchmaker with her own claim on the dead wage a battle that makes the ghostly Guy as real a presence in Montefort as any of the living.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Zohrab

The story stars very unclear and confusing. I had no idea of the time and setting. Had to read half the book and read about an automobile to get a sence of time. No idea on the setting. The story is about these women, all related, who have in some ways been involved with a same man.

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LibraryThing member robinamelia

It's been a few days since I finished the book, sharing others' views that its ending was too abrupt, but on further thought, I have changed my mind. The key to understanding what Bowen was up to here is in the Traherne quote with which she begins "There is in us a world of Love to somewhat, though

we know not what in the world that should be.... Do you not feel yourself drawn by the expectations and desire of some Great Thing." The estate in Southern Ireland, Montefort, is this World of Love and it is the first character to which we are introduced. It is "pale" and "expectant." And the country is subject to "late awakenings." (All paragraph 1). The name of the estate suggests an isolated and impregnable fortress. All the love seems to have occurred in the past: Lilia and Fred Danby were clearly sexually alive once, but now they are not. The heat is oppressive and the drought is beginning to be dangerous. I wonder if Ireland really ever has droughts?!

In the second scene, Jane Danby, the nubile daughter, emerges wearing the clothing from a previous era, the era in which this love occurred. The mystery about who wrote the love letters she found in the attic is somewhat distracting, because ultimately what matters is that the capacity to love is rediscovered. Lilia and Fred reconcile. Strangely, the younger daughter, Maud, is left out of this and punished for her part in trying to sell the letters, though that was only an afterthought, it was like like Judas betraying Christ for a few pieces of silver, or the Simonaic sin: you must not mix money and love. That was part of the problem with the uncertain relationship between Antonia and the Danbys, which led to the drought and stagnation. Jane finds a new patroness and is able to break out of the twisted relations thus, presto, becoming ready for love. It doesn't, after all, matter who one loves.

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LibraryThing member stillatim

Sometimes I love Bowen, sometimes she bores me to tears. And this is pretty easy to explain: when she's writing about peoples' relationships and the way we're always talking past one another and not saying what needs to be said, she's fabulous. When she's describing landscape or interior decorating

she's almost always insufferable. Unfortunately for this short book, there's too much landscape and not enough people not quite relating to each other. Also, the ending is unbearably stupid; I suggest you just don't read the last chapter, which seems to have been added with the hope that someone would turn the book into a Hollywood rom-com. Also, what is with all the Yoda speak? "Cold, the room was now in the afternoon"? (Okay, I made that up, but you get the point.) Is that how Irish Protestants speak? Really?

Anyway, read Bowen, but read The Last September or The Heat of the Day instead.

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LibraryThing member soylentgreen23

There was something special about this book from the very first sentence. What was it? Perhaps it was the way that Bowen wrote - not just in her choice of words, but in her choice of sentence structure, with oddly placed adjective and adverb clusters that made you slow down your reading pace. This

is not a book to speed through, you have to take it slowly and let the plot develop at its leisure, and you must give the characters a chance to speak to you, for every single one of them has their own compelling voice - a rare achievement in a book that avoids stereotype and cliche so handsomely.

The story, such as it is, concerns a family living in an old Irish mansion or castle; one day, the eldest daughter discovers a parcel of love letters, this event triggering a set of actions that bring up and resolve (or not) buried mysteries and secrets, and threaten to tear everything apart.

In all, a magnificent achievement.

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