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Review
"Brilliant.... A successful combination of social comedy and private tragedy."--"The Times Literary Supplement" (London)
Book Description
Genteel life at 'the 'Big House' continues while the Irish War of Independence rages beyond the gates, but for how long?
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Elizabeth Bowen's novel, The Last September, is a wonderful evocation of a vanished world that today seems as remote as that of pre-Revolutionary Russia. A sense of doom pervades the book - her characters know that they are doomed because they belong to a ruling class that is being abandoned by the government in London and will not be accepted by the Irish catholics around them. In the middle of a nasty and bitter war between the British army and the IRA, and with the ever-present threat of ethnic cleansing by the IRA hanging over them, their reaction (and an all too human one) is to pretend that nothing is happening. They pretend to the British they are British, they pretend to the Irish they are Irish, they pretend to themselves that if they keep the old rituals going then things will carry on much the same. It is a masterful portrait of a society undergoing a nervous breakdown and retiring into itself and refusing to accept reality. But the best reason to read this book is the use of language - Elizabeth Bowen writes so beautifully that it becomes addictive. The way she looks at the world is unique and deserves to be more widely recognised. After reading The Last September I read Bowen's Court, and there is no doubt that The Last September is strongly autobigraphical.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Set in Ireland in 1929, this lyrical and nostalgic novel expresses the point of view of some of the Anglo-Irish who lived in their long-established big houses in the countryside of Ireland while the `Troubles' were in full spate. The novel mainly concerns Lois, living with her Uncle and Aunt, Sir Richard and Lady Myra Naylor, because of the death of her mother and father during the Great War. For Lois, and a nephew of Lady Naylor's, Lawrence, life is one long round of visitors, tennis parties, dances in the nearby town and in general a leisured existence doing a little sketching on the side. Lois has a friendship with Livvy, from a neighbouring household and it is known that Gerald Letchworth, a young English subaltern from the nearby barracks appears to be preparing to pay court to her. Then the beautiful and languorous Marda, a distant relation, pays a visit and changes the composition of the household as another visitor, Gerald, there with his wife Francie who is older than him, begins to exhibit signs of infatuation.
There is a large cast of characters, all deftly and skilfully portrayed and the background of the Troubles is a rumble of discomfort beneath the clink of drinks before dinner. Of particular interest is the Anglo-Irish attitude to the English occupation. They welcome officers to their parties, but are neutral when it comes to the activities of local Irish families, to whom they have been used to offering patronage and from whom their large cast of servants is obtained. They prefer not to notice, if they can contrive it, that they are straddling the conflict between English and Irish politics.
Though the personalities and the various love affairs and attractions sometimes pall - there is only so much polite wooing and arcane conversation one can bear - the background of the Troubles provides the catalyst for several incidents and for the downbeat ending.
There is a large cast of characters, all deftly and skilfully portrayed and the background of the Troubles is a rumble of discomfort beneath the clink of drinks before dinner. Of particular interest is the Anglo-Irish attitude to the English occupation. They welcome officers to their parties, but are neutral when it comes to the activities of local Irish families, to whom they have been used to offering patronage and from whom their large cast of servants is obtained. They prefer not to notice, if they can contrive it, that they are straddling the conflict between English and Irish politics.
Though the personalities and the various love affairs and attractions sometimes pall - there is only so much polite wooing and arcane conversation one can bear - the background of the Troubles provides the catalyst for several incidents and for the downbeat ending.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Danielstown, the Irish estate belonging to Sir Richard and Lady Naylor, is the closed environment which allows Elizabeth Bowen to explore the Anglo-Irish lifestyle, values, and allegiances in 1921, a time when The Troubles are about to sweep the country and change it forever. The Naylors' niece Lois is nineteen, a bored young woman without goals, impatient to get on with the job of finding a husband so that she can fulfill her apparent destiny. Her cousin Laurence, an Oxford student who would rather be in Italy or France, also has little to do, a condition he shares with a married couple, Francie and Hugo Montmorency, who visit friends like the Naylors regularly, having no home of their own.
A British army unit is garrisoned nearby to protect their loyal subjects-and, not incidentally, provide a ready source of young men for garden parties and tennis matches. With an acute eye for detail, ironic detachment, and a sometimes caustic wit, Bowen reconstructs the lives of these aristocrats. One comments that it would be "the greatest pity if we were to become a republic and all these lovely troops taken away." Laurence remarks cynically that he would like to be present when "this house burns and we should all be so careful not to notice." When an informer tells the family that guns have been buried on their property, they are blasé about it-they don't want to tell the soldiers because it might result in the trampling of some new trees.
Throughout the novel, Bowen's prose remains formal and detached. When Lois and a young soldier begin to think they are in love, there are no passionate scenes-both are a product of their time and upbringing, and kisses are reserved for the engagement. When nearby estates are attacked, the Naylors simply change their schedules and limit their travel. Bowen's book has the ring of truth--she herself was part of the Ango-Irish tradition in County Cork, and she wrote the book in 1929, when the revolution was still fresh. Though she puts an iconoclastic spin on attitudes and values, she offers no apologies, preferring to present the facts, create the scenes, and allow the reader to judge for himself/herself whether Ireland was better off before or after The Troubles. Mary Whipple
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Last September
Read it for my book club - found it difficult to follow - too many adjectives and boring, boring, boring
Published 18 months ago by Book Club
Not really even worth one star
I bought this book to take on holiday and to be honest I have left it there !
The writing was dire and the characters were only one dimentional.
The writing was dire and the characters were only one dimentional.
Published on 13 April 2010 by Mrs. Barbara Granger
"The façade of the house was like cardboard, without weight"
Danielstown, the Irish estate belonging to Sir Richard and Lady Naylor, is the closed environment which allows Elizabeth Bowen to explore the Anglo-Irish lifestyle, values, and... Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2006 by Mary Whipple
A vanished world brought to life
Elizabeth Bowen's novel, The Last September, is a wonderful evocation of a vanished world that today seems as remote as that of pre-Revolutionary Russia. Read more
Published on 16 May 2000
The author draws you into her web of trivia
willstew@bishopstoke.swinternet.co.uk
THE LAST SEPTEMBER Elizabeth Bowen
I read this book because it came free with a magazine; I'd never read Elizabeth Bowen, and it was... Read more
Published on 3 Jan 2000 by willstew@bishopstoke.swinternet.co.uk
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