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"'Readers who've not yet read Jane Bowles are almost to be envied, like people who've still to read Austen or Mansfield or Woolf, and have all the delight, the literary satisfaction, the shock of classic originality, the revelation of such good writing, still to come.' - Ali Smith"
Book Description
A cult classic, beautifully reissued, with a foreword by Paul Bowles and memoir by Truman Capote
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
John Ashbery, reviewing The Collected Works of Jane Bowles back in 1967, wrote: 'in all her work, it is impossible to deduce the end of a sentence from its beginning, or a paragraph from the one that preceded it, or how one of the characters will reply to another. And yet the whole flows marvelously and inexorably to its cruel, lucid end.' This, I think, is the essence of Jane Bowles' very particular gift: each page gives the reader a succession of surprises, while maintaining an irresistible momentum. Two Serious Ladies is certainly not an ingratiating novel: it's something much more rewarding. This is a fine edition of a remarkable book.
26 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Two Serious Ladies is a book I've read many times with the same curious delight at its absolute oddness. It has been my favourite book for a long time, but I keep giving my copies away to people. It is truly hard to describe, Jane Bowles was the most unique writer, her short stories and this short novel have the ability to infuriate and mystify the reader, eccentric is a word that comes to mind. In writerly terms she does a lot of things wrong and yet gets things so utterly right. I've never known another person who has read her, and I always wish that everybody had.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is easy to read: short sentences, dialogues to the point - I can only think of Willa Cather and Albert Camus for comparison. The two ladies in question live outwith the rules of society in some ways - it is however a post war novel, and what may have seemed shocking then now barely raises an eyebrow, but it is a 'story' that takes the reader places that are unexpected, and this is why I liked it. I think however it may not appeal to everyone. Weird is one word that comes to mind. But fluent weirdness.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Too Serious, Ladies
Glowing reviews on the jacket of this reissued novel refer to it as a classic and compare its author, Jane Bowles, to Jane Austen, amongst others. Read more
Published 10 days ago by Rotgut
The utter pointlessness of everything
This is a curious book: irritating, frustrating, but, once properly into reading it, oddly interesting, and then, finally - a feeling of release once finished. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Lady Fancifull
Charming and delightful!
It's a long time since I've read this book but it has stay with me as one of my favorites. It a delightful journey through the prejudiced world of two very different ladies, who... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Eagles
Original, unpredictable, rather dreamlike novel
The story of Christina Goering and Frieda Copperfield, who meet at a New York party, both looking for social escape, and self determination. Read more
Published 17 months ago by deepbluesky
It's OK but...
Perhaps I have been spoilt by Persephone books whose reissued novels of 1940's ladies have got me into a provincial mentality, but I didn't enjoy this book. Read more
Published 18 months ago by J. E. M. Kneale
Disappointing in the extreme
Being recommended by Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote I was expecting a book full of dazzling wit and energy. I couldn't have been more wrong! Read more
Published 20 months ago by Princess Mononoke
Two Serious Ladies - 88 (Underscore)
Jane Bowles was a wealthy, well-connected bohemian: An alcoholic and a bisexual, as was the style at the time,between drinks and chasing Muslim ladies around Tangier she found time... Read more
Published 21 months ago by A. Miles
Not for me
I have been struggling as to how to review this book, which I have tried to get into on numerous occasions.
It just is not for me. Read more
It just is not for me. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Doug
Disappointing
Two Serious Ladies tells the story of the eccentric Christina Goering and Mrs Copperfield. The two women meet briefly at the start of the novel, at a party, but then go their... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Heather
Two Selfish Rich Girls
What happens when the whole literary world (apparently) including Truman Capote thinks a book is brilliant, and you don't? Read more
Published 21 months ago by Mrs. R.
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