A prolific writer of short stories, Elizabeth Bowen claimed towards the end of her life that "a story deals in the not-yet-thought-of but always possible." Covering a range of situations - broken engagements, encounters with ghosts, brushes with crime - these stories demonstrate the virtuosity of technique that characterizes all of Bowen's writing. "The Lost Hope" ranks with the best of her war stories. Shattering the lives of soldiers and civilians alike, the war cancels the promise shown by the generation that came of age in the 1940s. Yet the war also clears a path to the future, as happens in "Comfort and Joy" and "The Last Bus." Bowen's characters live in the grip of intense circumstances. They respond ardently or ironically to their dilemmas, and sometimes both at once, as does sulky, big-limbed Doris Simonez in "Flowers Will Do." If some of the children in these stories are too wise for their age, like the punctual protagonist of "The Unromantic Princess," adults occasionally behave with no insight at all into their actions. Humour in these tales ranges from the sardonic to the light-hearted. In the title story, "The Bazaar," Captain Winch begs everyone for pins and ends up stealing some. Lady Hottenham gives an impromptu little speech that drifts agonizingly into clich
