Two Serious Ladies
Jane Bowles
We send all orders via Royal Mail: within the UK, choose from 1st Class, 2nd Class or Special Delivery; for the rest of the world, International Standard or International Tracked. Delivery and packaging charges are calculated automatically at the checkout.
To collect orders in person from the Bookshop, choose Click and Collect at the checkout.
Recommended by Gayle
‘Jane Bowles’s only novel is an under-read modernist classic that follows the two serious ladies of the title as they each strike out on their own unexpected paths: ‘I have gone to pieces, which is a thing I've wanted to do for years,’ declares one. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything that feels so genuinely like a dream – unsettling, out of time, with a logic all of its own, that lingers in the mind long after it’s done.’
From the publisher
'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 Heti
'A modern legend . . . A very funny writer' Truman Capote
'Profoundly witty, genuinely unusual in its apprehensions, and bracingly, humanely true' Claire Messud
I am going on a trip. Wait until I tell you about it. it's terrible.
Miss 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
A W&N Essential