a strange relationship. i don't understand bowen or ritchie or sylvia. people did write interesting letters before telephone and email ( )

I received Love's Civil War though the Early Review program. Elizabeth Bowen's love letters to Charles Ritchie are what you'd except - wonderfully written. My problem with the books was the formal. I normally love epistolary-style books but this one felt only half done to me. It really is a shame that Ritchie's letter were destroyed. I think that I might have liked it better if it was all of her letters or all of his diary entries. With the letters only going in one direction it felt unbalanced to me. I probably wouldn't recommend it the average reader but I would suggest it for fans of Bowen. ( )

Advance Reader Copy

Elizabeth Bowen (Anglo-Irish, 1899-1973) was the author of at least eleven major novels, and umpteen short stories. Charles Ritchie (1906-1995) was a Canadian career diplomat who worked with the UN from its inception, was involved in NATO and was the Canadian ambassador to the U.S. Love’s Civil War is an edited collection of Bowen’s letters and Ritchie’s diary entries, the documentation of a complex and at times incomprehensible love affair.

Reading this book through to the end became an effort of will, a Herculean task requiring fortitude and grit. I picked it up and put it down several times and would cheerfully have ditched it, if it hadn’t been for a commitment as an early reviewer. The struggle wasn’t with their writing. Bowen writes beautifully in her letters, with little masterpieces of description and characterisation; Ritchie less so but his were diary entries. No, the struggle was with the relationship itself and its effect on their lives. There were times when I wanted to hurl the book in frustration with both of them - particularly with her. A brilliant, articulate, fun-loving and fun woman, she nonetheless seemed to abase herself at Ritchie’s feet, submerged in a love for him which would never develop into a life together because he wouldn’t let it. Her moaned “oh Charles, Charles, Charles” or “dear beautiful, I love you, I love you” at the end of many of her letters had me gritting my teeth. “Give him the boot!”, I wanted to yell back through time, “Expend your energy on someone who will love you fully in the way you need and deserve!” But it wasn’t to be.

Part of my frustration was that I didn’t “get” her fascination with Ritchie. He came across as a self-absorbed narcissist, a careerist who always put himself and his own wants and needs first. He was a philanderer, not only betraying Bowen but his wife, Sylvia. He must have been very good at his job because he rose up steadily through the diplomatic ranks. But his purported charm seemed shallow, of the cocktail party sort. I struggled to see what Bowen saw in him, to the point where she made him into the sine qua non in her life. At times it made her seem adolescent in her affections, the angst and constant questioning those of a seventeen year old, not an accomplished woman of letters, sought after by universities to be writer in residence and adored by her students. As judgemental as this likely sounds, it was what was giving me the most trouble reading the first two thirds of the book, as he seemed almost lifeless set beside her energy.

But somehow this relationship hung on for thirty years until her death. As ultimately unfulfilled and unfulfilling as it appeared to be, as awkward and complex, as geographically challenged with continents or oceans between them, they clung to it, writing constantly to each other, growing old, if not together, at least in tandem. It’s difficult to say whether Bowen would have been as successful an author if the affair had ripened into a fully realised relationship or whether this strange yearning after the unattainable provided her with the impetus to write the way she did.

Victoria Glendinning’s editing is unobtrusive but very helpful, her asides in italics useful for fleshing out unknown individuals and their histories, their connection to Bowen’s and Ritchie’s lives. This book did have the effect of making me want to search out Bowen’s writing, to see what she had to say as a writer. It seemed strange to read about her so intimately with no knowledge of what or how she wrote.

Would I recommend this book? On the whole, yes. Although Bowen and Ritchie alternately annoyed and frustrated me, they also provided an interesting glimpse at an era which was one of tremendous upheaval and change, with marvelous bits of gossip in Bowen’s letters. Bowen lived the upper crust life with servants, the great house in Ireland, flitting to Europe, sailing to America, yet struggling with financial troubles. Ritchie was heavily involved in the restructuring of Europe at the end of the war, as well as the creation of the U.N. (although there is a paucity of his actual activities mentioned, no doubt for security reasons). So, their love affair aside, they were interesting studies. But the love affair itself is the point of the book, of the letters and the diary entries, and about this I remain somewhat ambivalent.

I came, by the end, to a kind of grudging acceptance that their relationship was what it was, however uncomfortably it sat in light of Bowen’s frequent bouts with despair and its seemingly lopsided nature. Whatever they gave each other, each seemed to need: Bowen, an object to love as a lodestone for all her ardour; Ritchie, to be the recipient of an unwavering adoration, an idolisation he seemed to need. To his credit, Ritchie went to England to be at her side when she died of lung cancer (she was a heavy smoker and a regular drinker). The last sentence of the book does indicate that whatever his surface failings, she had meant everything to him but I won’t spoil it by telling you what he wrote.

Victoria Glendinning's biography of Elizabeth Bowen is on my must read list now.

An interesting look into the affair of an author and a diplomat, as shown through letters and diary entries. The footnotes are very helpful for filling in some of the gaps for the reader; however, I do find myself wanting to know more about the principles and their motivations and perspectives.

A very enjoyable book and I am now planning to read some of Elizabeth Bowen's work.

I received this book as an Early Reviewer. For this, I am very grateful as I loved this book.
Being Irish but living in Canada, I found I sort of identified with the two main characters to some extent. I have read several of the books Elizabeth discussed in her letters and intend to read more of her work.
There is something a bit invasive about reading private letters and diary entries. It feels like snooping but is irresistible. The changes in society and the intimate details of Elizabeth's and Charles's lives are fascinating, as are the descriptions of the people they knew. I confess I skimmed over some of Elizabeth's agonizing about the separations. It is interesting how often Charles seems troubled by guilt though she is not.
It would be wonderful to fill in the blanks as the story is somewhat one-sided but Ritchie's letters to Elizabeth appear to have not survived.
Glendenning has done a great job with the material available to her. I will now seek out her biography of Bowen and look for Ritchie's published diaries too. ( )