Book Description

This volume brings together the previously uncollected stories of this exceptional modernist writer, from fairy tale to fable and social drama.Covering a range of situations--broken engagements, encounters with ghosts, brushes with crime--these previously uncollected stories demonstrate the virtuosity that characterizes all of Elizabeth Bowen's writing."The Lost Hope" ranks with the best of her war stories. Shattering the lives of soldiers and civilians alike, the war cancels the promise shown by the generation that came of age in the 1940s. Yet the war also clears a path to the future, as happens in "Comfort and Joy" and "The Last Bus." Humour in these tales ranges from the sardonic to the light-hearted. In the title story, "The Bazaar," Captain Winch begs everyone for pins and ends up stealing some. With this collection, Bowen, gifted with keen social observation, justifies her place in the company of D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce.