Can I read The Ghost in the House: Bowen's Court (1942) and ‘The Back Drawing-Room’ (1926) on EtoBox?

The Ghost in the House: Bowen's Court (1942) and ‘The Back Drawing-Room’ (1926) by King Alfred Professor of English Neil Corcoran; Neil Corcoran is a book available to read on EtoBox.

What is The Ghost in the House: Bowen's Court (1942) and ‘The Back Drawing-Room’ (1926) about?

## Abstract This chapter offers a reading of Bowen's family history, Bowen's Court, and of a crucial short story, The Back Drawing-Room. It suggests that the various types of ghost encountered in both are crucial to an understanding of Bowen's writing. It traces these back to Bowen's inheritance from forms of Irish 19th-century Protestant Gothic and from her origins as a member of the Ascendancy, in which her view of the ‘big house’ is crucial. It also explores in detail Bowen's view of Irish history, her attitudes of both attachment to and detachment from Ireland, and her permanent interest in various forms of dispossession. Doing so, it takes issue with some influential earlier readings of Bowen, notably that by Declan Kiberd.

Author

King Alfred Professor of English Neil Corcoran; Neil Corcoran

Publisher

Oxford University PressOxford

Published

2004

Language

EN

ISBN

9780191719011

Subjects

Literary Criticism, History, Literary Fiction

Updated

2026-03-24