Elizabeth Bowen’s literary fame rests mostly on her achievements in fiction; however, she also wrote numerous reviews, prefaces, and personal essays throughout her career. The pieces in

capture the breadth and depth of her engagement with literature past and present, ranging as they do from Flaubert and LeFanu to Woolf and Lawrence, with many obscure and illustrious names in between. While limited space precludes including summaries of each piece in this rich volume, a representative sample will give readers a sense of Bowen’s powers of perception as a reviewer. Reading a famous author’s reflections on others’ works additionally provides a glimpse into the writer’s creative process and psyche: what Bowen says about others often reveals more about herself…

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Citation: Brassard, Genevieve. "Collected Impressions". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 May 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10658, accessed 21 November 2024.]