Eva Trout - by Elizabeth Bowen (Paperback)

About the Book

Bowen's last novel epitomizes her bold exploration of the territory between the comedy of manners and cutting social commentary. Orphaned at a young age, Eva is plotting to escape her life in Worcestershire. When she sets out to hock her Jaguar and disappear without a trace, she unwittingly leaves a paper trail for her various custodians--and all kinds of trouble--to follow.

Book Synopsis

Eva Trout, Elizabeth Bowen's last novel, epitomizes her bold exploration of the territory between the comedy of manners and cutting social commentary.

Orphaned at a young age, Eva has found a home of sorts in Worcestershire with her former schoolteacher, Iseult Arbles, and Iseult's husband, Eric. From a safe distance in London, her legal guardian, Constantine, assumes that all's well. But Eva's flighty, romantic nature hasn't entirely clicked with the Arbles household, and Eva is plotting to escape. When she sets out to hock her Jaguar and disappear without a trace, she unwittingly leaves a paper trail for her various custodians-and all kinds of trouble-to follow.

Review Quotes

"Bowen is magnificent when she writes about conspiracy, duplicity and ambiguity, and her achievement . . . is extremely impressive." -Margaret Drabble

"[Elizabeth Bowen] is what happened after Bloomsbury . . . the link that connects Virginia Woolf with Iris Murdoch and Muriel Spark." -Victoria Glendinning

"It is as though Henry James has been superimposed upon Jane Austen." -Walter Allen, The Modern Novel

About the Author

Elizabeth Bowen was born in Dublin in 1899. She wrote many acclaimed short stories and novels, including The Heat of the Day, The Death of the Heart, The Last September, and Eva Trout. She was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1948. She died in 1973.