The Little Girls (Masterplots II: British and Commonwealth Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Elizabeth Bowen
- First Published: 1964
- Type of Work: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: The late 1950’s or early 1960’s and 1914
- Setting: Somerset and London
- Principal Characters: Dinah Dicey Piggott Delacroix, Sheila Sheikie “Beaker” Artworth, Clare “Mumbo” Burkin-Jones
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction
- Subjects: Girls, Children, Self-discovery, Friendship, England or English people, War, Women, London, Widows or widowers, Time, Nostalgia, Antiques
- Locales: London, England, Somerset, England
The Novel
It is appropriate that a novel whose theme involves the question of dealing with the past should take place in two time frames. The first and third sections of The Little Girls are set in the period after World War II, when Dinah “Dicey” Piggott Delacroix decides to recapture her childhood; the second section is set in the time just before World War I, when she and her friends were living that childhood.
Dinah’s preoccupation with the past is evident in the first scene of the novel. Ostensibly from whim or boredom, actually from a deep need, Dinah...
[The entire page is 1610 words long]
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