The Return by Elizabeth Bowen, 1923
The magic trick:
Reveling in rich description
This one – published early in Bowen’s career – feels very much like a whole lot of style wanting very badly for a plot. Now one might argue that as an apt description for her an entire catalogue, and I probably wouldn’t race to get to the other side of the debate, but let’s not sour this entire magic trick with such slander.
Let me focus on the style. Bowen is nothing if not a stylist. Consider the opening here. Her verbs are active. Her adjectives are loud. Her descriptions describe. It’s definitely the kind of writing you can disappear into.
And that’s quite a trick on Bowen’s part.
The selection:
Mr. and Mrs. Tottenham had come home.
The moist brown gravel of the drive and sweep bore impress of their fly wheels. Lydia Broadbent listened from the doorstep to the receding gritty rumble of the empty fly, and the click and rattle as the gate swung to. Behind her, in the dusky hall, Mr. Tottenham shouted directions for the disposal of the luggage, flustered servants bumped against each other and recoiled, and Porloch the gardener shouldered the heavy trunks with gasps and lurches, clutching at the banisters until they creaked.
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