The Last September

A detailed Summary of The Last September

In the novel, The Last September, Elizabeth Bowen describes specific events and displays extreme emotions that many people would think could only be expressed from personal experience. Elizabeth would put characteristics of her childhood and teenager years into the life of Lois, one of the main characters in the book. Her life was full of trials and tribulations and she shared that throughout her novel. I believe that Elizabeth Bowen wrote this novel from her own personal experience, especially through Lois Farquar. As stated by the author Phyllis Lassner, "Bowen's conception of her family home is reconstituted in the relationship between Danielstown and its residents"(Lassner 27). Elizabeth Bowen's books portray moments in her life:

In The Last September, Miss Bowen's first important novel, she deals directly with the crisis of being Anglo-Irish at a time of national crisis, called the Troubles. Just as her early stories were written about her childhood at the time of her transition to adulthood, this work, too, marks another stage of transition in her life. (Kenny 61)

Elizabeth Bowen's life is portrayed through the characters and setting of her book The Last September.

Elizabeth Bowen was born in 1899. She lived most

At the time of this book, Elizabeth Bowen was married. She was in love and this influenced some of the characters. On critic says, "Hugo is here the romantic mind in extremis, projecting onto nature his feelings and imagination. That love is, from its very conception, unrealizable seems obvious" (Parrish 59). She would create such characters to free her from the guilt she was facing:

To better write the book The Last September, Elizabeth would imagine that her inheritance, Bowen's Court, was burning. She wanted to be able to feel Lois' reactions to the burning of Danielstown. This also helped her feel the emotions of the Anglo-Irish as the "Big Houses" were burned at the time of the Troubles. She was able to vividly imagine the houses being burned because a couple of houses surrounding Bowen's Court were burned (Kenny 36). When creating and describing the setting for The Last September, she would remember Ireland's setting. The author Edwin Kenny stated:

[Imagining Bowen's Court being burnt] was the risk Miss Bowen had to accept with her inheritance of the house, the burden of its inherited guilt. Bowen's Court again reasserted the bipolarity of her life by recalling her from the new "center" for her life she had created on the other side of the water in her writing and her marriage and home with Alan Cameron and by recalling her family and cultural past represented in the symbolic structure of the house, whose past associations were tinged by guilt and whose present was without useful funct

Some common words found in the essay are:
Elizabeth Bowen, Bowen's Court, Elizabeth Bowen's, Considering Elizabeth, Miss Bowen's, Alan Cameron, Edwin Kenny, Anglo-Irish Houses, Lassner Bowen's, bowen's court, Miss Bowen, elizabeth bowen, elizabeth bowen's, september elizabeth, kenny 61, september elizabeth bowen, houses burned, book september, bowen's life, kenny 61 elizabeth, lois farquar, life kenny 61, mother died, elizabeth bowen's life, book september elizabeth,

Approximate Word count = 1021
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels