Elizabeth Bowen Novelist
- Gender: Female
- Citizenship: United Kingdom
- Born: Jun 7, 1899
- Died: Feb 22, 1973
Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen, CBE (7 June 1899 - 22 February 1973) was an Irish novelist and short story writer.
Elizabeth Bowen was born on 7 June 1899 at 15 Herbert Place in Dublin, Ireland and was baptized in the nearby St Stephen's Church on Upper Mount Street. Her parents Henry Charles Cole Bowen and Florence Colley Bowen later brought her to Bowen's Court at Farahy, near 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, a collection of short stories entitled Encounters (1923).
Autumn arrives in early morning, but spring at the close of a winter day.
morning
Fantasy is toxic: the private cruelty and the world war both have their start in the heated brain.
war
Never to lie is to have no lock on your door, you are never wholly alone.
being alone
There is no end to the violations committed by children on children, quietly talking alone.
being alone
Experience isn't interesting until it begins to repeat itself. In fact, till it does that, it hardly is experience.
experience
Intimacies between women often go backwards, beginning in revelations and ending in small talk.
women
Education is not so important as people think.
education
Jealousy is no more than feeling alone against smiling enemies.
being alone & jealousy
When you love someone all your saved up wishes start coming out.
love
Pity the selfishness of lovers: it is brief, a forlorn hope it is impossible.
hope