Elizabeth Bowen, Elizabeth Taylor, and venturing into the worldly…
I
n the first half of this episode, we look at… domestic books vs worldly books? Or something like that? We never quite worked out what we meant, but we still had things to say. In the second half, we look at two collections of short stories by Elizabeths – Elizabeth Taylor’s The Devastating Boys and a collection of Elizabeth Bowen’s stories called The Demon Lover (UK edition) and Ivy Gripped The Steps (US edition). I wasn’t sure we’d manage to disentangle them, but I think we got there.
Do let us know what you think, or any suggestions for future episodes (and thanks for those that have been sent recently!) You can support the podcast on Patreon, view our iTunes page, or find us in your podcast app of choice.
The books and authors we mention in this episode are:
Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
The Cross of Christ by John Stott
The Chronicles of Clovis by Saki
The Unbearable Bassington by Saki
The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
Sarah Waters
Little by Edward Carey
Jane Austen
Ali Smith
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
Howards End by E.M. Forster
A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Benjamin Disraeli
The Palliser Novels by Anthony Trollope
The Chronicles of Barsetshire by Anthony Trollope
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
Coriolanus by William Shakespeare
Richard III by William Shakespeare
Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Kamchatka by Marcelo Figueras
Sleepwalking Land by Mia Couto
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
The Masters by C.P. Snow
The Abbess of Crewe by Muriel Spark
God on the Rocks by Jane Gardam
Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
A Merry Christmas, and other Christmas stories by Louisa May Alcott
Barbara Pym
At Mrs Lippincote’s by Elizabeth Taylor
The Soul of Kindness by Elizabeth Taylor
A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor
Alva & Irva by Edward Carey
Oh lovely! Can’t wait to listen to this one. I discovered your podcast a couple of weeks ago and absolutely love it. I listen whilst walking the dogs and it makes the task much more enjoyable. Still got many hours to listen to, thankfully.
I loved the first discussion. Relating to the domestic side, I think a lot about the idea of place and how where we live affects how we live. I can think of many authors I particularly love who explore this theme well. (Marilynne Robinson and Wendell Berry come to mind at the moment.) I’m so glad you mentioned Trollope. Trollope has been one of my favorite author discoveries of the last several years. I haven’t read the Palliser novels yet, but I love the Barsetshire novels and have read some of them multiple times. I love how Trollope stakes out a fictional county and puts its boundaries to such good use in freeing up space to explore relationships and human character (virtue/vice).
When I commented on the Patreon page, I completely forgot that I love reading the many, many short stories that L.M. Montgomery writes. I wonder if short stories are related to the first topic in that the author has to work within very set boundaries, even if the story is experimental.
Oddly, I absolutely loved The Demon Lover, and thought they not only captured the war setting and the effect on the characters but also had something of a twist in them. And I loved her writing in it. But it would be dull if we all liked the same thing!