A World of Love

What a terrific book. Not quite as good as the better-known 'The Death of the Heart', but well worth reading. There are two aspects to Bowen's work which attract me. First, her language. On almost every page there is something to leave one breathless. Here's a sample:Their tide had turned and was racing in again: here was the universe filling up -- all there had been to be, do, know, dare, live for or die for at the full came flooding to this doorstep.That's writing of the highest sort.Also, unlike many second-rate writers, her novels center around the relationships between the characters, not only what type of people they are, but how they know each other and how they are related. One feels they are real people, not just devices to fill up space in the plot as dictated by the author, and as with real people, things are rarely nice and tidy, and feelings get hurt. This gives her work a third dimension which is crucial to the unfolding of her novels.