Elizabeth Bowen: as good as Henry James
Tessa Hadley in the Times
Bowen’s solemn attentiveness to things is almost religious, but on the other hand she’s wry and realistic, full of the comedy and irony of those same things. In its stretch of expression and penetration of thought, Bowen’s writing seems to me as rare as Henry James’s; the ambition of her novels and stories is like his too. As with James, her intelligence can’t be separated from her sensuous apprehension. Her work reassures the reader that life is as intricate, and amusing, and profound, as she makes it out in her sentences.
From this piece by Tessa Hadley in The Times. Perhaps we should say she’s as good as James at his best. When he is dull, he is very very dull, but when he is good he’s extraordinary.
One of the many advantages of being very old but having started writing very young is that I can remember people I was privileged to know then and who I cannot meet now because they died long ago. Elizabeth Bowen was one such. She was enormously kind and generous to me as a young writer. She was a judge for the Booker Prize when I was shortlisted and wrote of her own volition to tell me how much she had liked the novel. With the boldness of youth I replied thanking her but saying that I hated it now and thought it was the worst I had written. ( As a matter of fact I still think so) She replied to disagree and then we met. But it wasn’t a long friendship because she already had breast cancer and died the following year. I cherish the memory but not sure if I would want to have met H James. Amanda is right though. Elizabeth was one of the very best English novelists of the 20th C. But James was a geniys
So interesting - I missed this. Not entirely sure I agree. There is a depth and moral grandeur to HJ that EV, though v v good, does not strike me as achieving.
I’m a big fan of Hadley too. Her novel Free Love was stunningly good, a 1960s reworking of Anna Karenina but powerful, challenging and erotic. I aas surprised it didn’t win a prize, perhaps due to a situpid review of ut un the S Times…