{"product_id":"the-shadowy-third-julia-parry-9780715654385","title":"The Shadowy Third: Love, Letters, and Elizabeth Bowen","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'A fascinating and moving portrait of love, loyalty and infidelity.' Sarah Waters\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA sudden death in the family delivers Julia Parry a box of love letters. Dusty with age, they reveal an illicit affair between the celebrated Irish novelist, Elizabeth Bowen, and the academic Humphry House - Julia's grandfather. So begins a life-changing quest to discover and understand this affair, one with profound repercussions for Julia's family, not least her grandmother, Madeline.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUsing fascinating unpublished correspondence, Julia follows the lives of three very different characters through some of the most dramatic decades of the twentieth century: from the rarefied air of Oxford in the 1930s and the Anglo-Irish Big House, to the last days of Empire in India and into the Second World War. The story opens up a lost world, one with complex and often surprising attitudes to love and sex, work and home, duty and ambition, and to writing itself, spiced throughout with social history and a celebrated supporting cast that includes Isaiah Berlin and Virginia Woolf.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInspired by Bowen's own obsession with place and memory, Julia travels to all the locations in the letters - from Kolkata to Cambridge; from Ireland to Texas weaving present-day storytelling with historical narrative and literary exploration.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom an assured, elegant new voice, \u003cem\u003eThe Shadowy Third\u003c\/em\u003e is a beautifully written investigation of family, love, and the lasting power of literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePraise for \u003cem\u003eThe Shadowy Third\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cp\u003e'Julia Parry has a fascinating tale to tell, and she does so with a compelling immediacy and also with admirable finesse. Bowen fans will be in her debt; and those interested in the milieux she frequented.' \u003cstrong\u003ePeter J. Conradi\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'\u003cem\u003eThe Shadowy Third\u003c\/em\u003e is the intimate portrait of a love triangle, with the novelist Elizabeth Bowen as one of the protagonists. It is also a work of discovery, using letters with sensitivity and intelligence, rebuilding a lost world with imaginative flair, seeing Bowen and her world with insight, and the lives of Julia Parry's own grandparents with a sharp eye for detail and a skill at telling a fascinating story.\u003cstrong\u003e' Colm Tb匤, author of \u003cem\u003eThe Empty Family\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'A vivid picture of an important and immensely gifted writer in love.' \u003cstrong\u003eJoseph O'Connor\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'A compelling story of marriage, passion and betrayal that reads like a richly textured novel. With skill, wit, and empathy, Parry takes readers on a compelling journey to find the truth of her grandfather's love affair with a famous novelist. Gripping, poignant, and fascinating.' \u003cstrong\u003eCharlotte Gordon, author of\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eRomantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eParry is a spirited narrator who is clearly a great admirer of Bowen's fiction but isn't blindsided by this, remaining admirably nuanced as she gives a judicious moment-by-moment account of these complicated characters over the decades.' \u003cstrong\u003eLara Feigel, \u003cem\u003e Spectator\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'Fascinating and poetic.' \u003cstrong\u003eIan D'Alton, Irish Times\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'An essay of rare sensitivity and intelligent reflection... Julia Parry's elegantly written \u003cem\u003eThe Shadowy Third\u003c\/em\u003e uncovers the love triangle that consumed the novelist - and her grandmother.' \u003cstrong\u003eRupert Christiansen, \u003cem\u003eTelegraph\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'Parry is an intrepid narrator, with a beguiling style... she marshals her facts and impressions with energy and assiduity.' \u003cstrong\u003ePatricia Craig, \u003cem\u003eTLS\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Julia Parry\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0715654381\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780715654385\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Duckworth Books Ltd\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/25\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 386\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.86d","brand":"Julia Parry","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44047626371327,"sku":"9780715654385","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_5150b72e-1674-4cce-8cc2-a54ccf135aed.jpg?v=1684991296","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-shadowy-third-julia-parry-9780715654385","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}