Jane Bowles

"The most important writer of prose fiction in modern American letters . . . Her work, her life: deep truth, observed without pretension, with humor and humanity. As artist and person, an angel." --Tennessee Williams In these uncanny and insidious tales, Jane Bowles presents an incendiary and groundbreaking vision of the mad possibilities of literary modernism. From "Everything Is Nice," where an American woman is led to a house in a "blue Moslem town" by a veiled woman with porcupines in her basket, to "Camp Cataract," a tour de force of middle-class claustrophobia and dread set in Colorado, these stories are a bewildering, headlong plunge into the jagged, fever-dream world of Jane Bowles. And for the first time ever, this collection includes the excised sections of Bowles's novel Two Serious Ladies (which was originally Three Serious Ladies).

Jane Bowles's avant-garde study of women breaking free from the bonds of convention is itself a master class in liberation from the constraints of everyday thinking, form, and feeling. Two Serious Ladies is the only novel ever written by the legendary and underappreciated Jane Bowles. Long held as a visionary cult classic, this subversive, anarchic, and riotous novel follows two upper-class women as they strip themselves of propriety and descend into debauchery--and it now appears with a new introduction by Sheila Heti. Christina Goering and Frieda Copperfield each embark on their own voyage of discovery and emancipation. Mrs. Copperfield visits Panama with her husband, but finds herself descending into a shadowy and seedy demimonde of brothels and bars, while Miss Goering engages in increasingly sordid encounters with strange men. At the end, the two women meet again, each transformed by her experience--and the reader transformed by the devastating wit and strange clarity with which Bowles writes of society and women's place in it.

Djupsinnig & humoristisk amerikansk klassiker»En modern kultklassiker« The GuardianDen excentriska och äventyrliga Christina Goering träffar den nervösa men lika företagsamma Mrs Copperfield på en fest. Det är två allvarsamma kvinnor ur den övre medelklassen som vill få ut mer av livet än vad de blivit serverade. De ger sig båda iväg på jakt efter någon sorts frälsning: Mrs Copperfield åker till Panama i sällskap med sin make, där hon finner tröst bland de kvinnor som lever och arbetar på landets bordeller, medan Miss Goering har affärer med. diverse olika män. Till sist träffas de båda kvinnorna på nytt nu förvandlade av sina erfarenheter. Två allvarligt sinnade damer är en mystisk, djupsinnig, anarkistisk och humoristisk roman, som kommit att betraktas som en amerikansk klassiker och har hyllats av författare som Truman Capote och Tennessee Williams. I översättning av Eva Thomson-Roos, med ett nyskrivet förord av författaren och kritikern Torbjörn Elensky. JANE BOWLES [född i en judisk familj i New York 1917, död 1973 i Málaga i Spanien] var en amerikansk författare och dramatiker. Hon utvecklade i tonåren ett brinnande litteraturintresse, och efter att ha bott bland annat i Schweiz bosatte hon sig i mitten av 1930-talet i New York, där hon drogs till de intellektuella bohemkretsarna i Greenwich Village. 1938 gifte hon sig med författaren Paul Bowles.» Min favoritroman« Tennessee Williams»Jane Bowles är ett underskattat geni.« The Guardian

'It's the truth,' the women said from their mattress 'Everything is nice'.'Readers who've not yet read Jane Bowles are almost to be envied, like people who've still to read Austen or Mansfield or Woolf' Ali Smith'Jane Bowles's literary output, small but perfect, puts her on a stylistic planet all her own' New Yorker 'A dizzyingly original stylist' New York TimesAlva, a widow, states a preference for plain ordinary pleasures - only to get drunk and flirtatious, and pass out in a strange bed when she is asked out for the evening. Sadie, a spinster, goes to a holiday resort complete with pine groves, marshmallows and respectable clientele - to bring her nervous sister home, but instead comes to an eerie end herself. Mary, a little girl, spends her days in a clay pit leading an imaginary army of hard-muscled men. But when a strange boy invades her headquarters, Mary abandons her soldiers to follow him home. Disturbing, unforgettable and totally unique, Jane Bowles' short stories explore the hidden lives of women that only appear ordinary. With an Introduction by Chris Power

I am going on a trip. Wait until I tell you about it. it's terrible. 'Jane Bowles's literary output, small but perfect, puts her on a stylistic planet all her own' New Yorker 'My favourite book. I can't think of a modern novel that seems more likely to become a classic'Tennessee Williams'The book I give as a gift. It feels like giving someone an exotic fruit' Sheila HetiMiss Goering, an eccentric, impulsive New York heiress, resides in her house and tries not to be unhappy. Mrs Copperfield, an anxious, dutiful married woman, has a great fear of drowning, of lifts, of intruders in the night. Two serious ladies, nothing is natural for them and anything is possible. For Mrs Copperfield - a trip to Panama, where she abandons her husband for love of a local prostitute. For Miss Goering - a move to a squalid little house on an island and a series of sordid encounters with strangers. Both go to pieces -and both realise this is something they've wanted to do for years. With an Introduction by Naoise Dolan

For her centenary (February 22, 2017), the most complete edition ever published of the brilliant modernist writings and evocative letters of an LGBT pioneer. Though Jane Bowles published only one novel, one play, and a handful of stories, her genius for spare prose and vivid dialogue had an outsized influence on her contemporaries. Tennessee Williams called her "the most important writer of prose fiction in modern American letters"; for John Ashbery she was "one of the finest modern writers of fiction in any language." Now, on the occasion of her centenary, Library of America presents the most complete edition ever published of Bowles's incomparable fiction, along with an extensive selection of her frank, vivid, and funny letters. Two Serious Ladies (1943), based partly on her honeymoon in Mexico with her husband, the writer and composer Paul Bowles, follows two bourgeois American women in Panama as they jettison sexual and cultural norms in search of happiness: Christina Goering, a wealthy spinster who becomes a high-class prostitute; and newlywed Frieda Copperfield, who finds love and comfort in the arms of a young Panamanian girl. In The Summer House (1954), a play about two mothers, one selfish and ruthless, despising her dreamy daughter, the other gentle, dominated by her strong-minded daughter, was performed on Broadway in 1953 and reflects Bowles's complicated relationship with her own mother. The volume also includes five short stories, two song lyrics, a puppet play, and the nonfiction sketch "East Side: North Africa." (Paul Bowles's rewrite of "East Side: North Africa," published in 1966, under Jane's name, as the short story "Everything Is Nice," is also included as an appendix), as well as fragments from two abandoned novels, a section of Two Serious Ladies cut from an earlier draft, four abandoned stories, one unfinished play, and one autobiographical fragment. Rounding out the volume are 133 letters, including candid portraits of such friends and acquaintances as John Ashbery, William Burroughs, Ira Gershwin, Allen Ginsberg, Carson McCullers, Sylvia Plath, Paul Robeson, Susan Sontag, Gertrude Stein, Gore Vidal, Eudora Welty, and Tennessee Williams. The letters are introduced with headnotes by editor Millicent Dillon, plus 10 pages of photographs have been reproduced from the original edition of the letters. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

Two Serious Ladies is the only novel by avant-garde literary star and wife of legendary writer Paul Bowles--a modernist cult-classic, mysterious, profound, anarchic, and funny, that follows two upper-class women as they descend into debauchery--updated with an introduction by Claire Messud, bestselling author of The Emperor's Children and The Woman Upstairs. Two serious ladies who want to live outside of themselves, Christina Goering and Frieda Copperfield embark on separate quests of salvation. Mrs. Copperfield visits Panama with her husband, where she finds solace among the women who live and work in its brothels. Miss Goering becomes involved with various men. At the end the two women meet again, each transformed by her experience.