Elizabeth Bowen, The Little Girls

Genevieve Brassard (University of Portland)

Ed. by Cristina Sandru, The Literary Encyclopedia
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kerry Myler (Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1964

Places

Ireland, Republic of (Eire) (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Described as the most Proustian of Elizabeth Bowen’s novels, The Little Girls trips and misleads its readers, from its disingenuous title onward. With a structure reminiscent of The House in Paris (1934), this penultimate novel of Bowen’s career begins and ends with three old women as protagonists, with a middle section revisiting a key moment in their past as school-age friends on the eve of the First World War. Perhaps “The Old Ladies” struck Bowen as a less appealing title, but it is more likely that her choice to focus on the childhood incarnation of her characters signals the severe case of arrested development all three women suffer from, to varying degrees and for different reasons.

Bowen …

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806 words

Citation: Brassard, Genevieve. "The Little Girls". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 June 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=333, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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