Elizabeth Bowen, The Death of the Heart

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The Death of the Heart

is Elizabeth Bowen's sixth novel and it was one of her most successful works when it came out in 1938. It encapsulates several recurrent themes of Bowen's writing and also shows some of her subtly experimental techniques which only recently came to be evaluated and re-assessed by critics. Bowen's development of the plot and apparently conventional, even mannered style, are only the surface of her delicate and multiform exploration of consciousness.

Divided into three parts, “The World”, “The Flesh” and “The Devil” (which allude to the temptations as described in the Bible, Ephesians 2, 1-9), the novel revolves around the figure of Portia, a sixteen-year old girl, who after the death of her mother comes to live in London with her half-brother Thomas and

1776 words

Citation: Prudente, Teresa. "The Death of the Heart". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 September 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10655, accessed 19 March 2024.]

10655 The Death of the Heart 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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