Fifth Monday Classics Book Group - Bowen's Court & Seven Winters, Elizabeth Bowen

May 2022 Fifth Monday Classics

The Fifth Monday Classics Book Group will be meeting via Zoom

Monday, May 30th • 6:30 PM ET / 11:30 PM IST via Zoom

Session open to all, no registration required.

Click on this link to join the Zoom session

Find out about Solas Nua's Fifth Monday Classics Book Group and titles list

Join the Book Group's Facebook Group here!

Bowen's Court describes the history of one Anglo-Irish family in County Cork from the Cromwellian settlement until 1959, when Elizabeth Bowen was forced to sell the family house she loved. Bowen reviews ten generations of her family, representatives of the Protestant Irish gentry whose lives were dominated by property, lawsuits, formidable matriarchs, violent conflicts, hunting, drinking, and self-destructive fantasies.



Seven Winters recalls with endearing candour Bowen's family and her Dublin childhood as seen through the eyes of a child who could not read till she was seven and who fed her imagination only on sights and sounds.

"Interesting, beautiful and important"

— New Statesman

"She startles us by sheer originality of mind and boldness of sensibility into seeking our world afresh"

— V.S. Pritchett

"Thrillingly convoluted"

— Guardian

Elizabeth Bowen - Photo by Jane Bown

About the Author

Elizabeth Bowen
was born in Dublin in 1899, the only child of an Irish lawyer and landowner. She travelled a great deal, dividing most of her time between London and Bowen's Court, the family house in County Cork which she inherited. Her first book, a collection of short stories, Encounters, was published in 1923. The Hotel (1927) was her first novel. She was awarded the CBE in 1948, and received honorary degrees from Trinity College, Dublin in 1949, and from Oxford University in 1956. The Royal Society of Literature made her a Companion of Literature in 1965. She died in 1973.

Photo by Jane Bown


All events are listed in Eastern Time and Irish Standard Time.


Related events