he always maintained that living consisted of no fundamentals, outlines, basic truths or principles ... but simply a vast quantity of details, endlessly variable, and utterly unrelated)." Adams, Matthew (3–4 June 2017). "Talent and torment". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 4 September 2017.

Marriage could be the fascinating, difficult experience of living in two bodies instead of one—it matters far less than people think which alternative body they select—it matters far more than they imagine how they inhabit it thereafter.The point about two people is that they should change at approximately the same speed in approximately the same direction. You spend ninety per cent of your time with children, invalids, fools, and animals. What a mind will yours become.”

There are only two kinds of people—those who live different lives with the same partners, and those who live the same life with different partners. A biography, entitled Elizabeth Jane Howard: A Dangerous Innocence by Artemis Cooper, was published by John Murray in 2017. A reviewer said it was "strongest in the case it makes for the virtues of Howard's fiction". [10] Personal life [ edit ] Narrato come un percorso a ritroso, “Il lungo sguardo della scrittriceElizabeth Jane Howard mostra, attraverso la narrazione della famiglia della Antonia, le costrizioni di un matrimionio subito, una condizione matrimoniale scelta come fuga da una terribile famiglia di origine ma diventata un’altra prigione con un marito silenzioso, disinnamorato ma fedele alle convinzioni sociali, padre pessimo incapace di affetto nei confronti dei figli, perennemente critico nei confronti della moglie cinico e silenzioso con le amanti .What a mistake it is to listen to one’s thoughts. But it is a mistake of such infinite variety that making it constitutes a chief pleasure in life. There were only two kinds of people, those who live different lives with the same partner, and those who live the same life with different partners … ” Partecipazione, non immedesimazione. È sicuramente un romanzo imperfetto, ma mi ha coinvolto sia con la storia sia con la scrittura, davvero elegante, sottile, puntuale. If you think that you might read this book and don’t want to know anything about the plot, then read no further. Although the pleasure of the book is in the prose and acute observations of human relationships, so I don’t think that knowing a little about the book would matter much; and I’ve no idea anyway how much I will give away. She was a nice, ignorant, unimaginative girl, designed perfectly to reproduce herself; and regarding her, Mr Fleming, found it difficult to believe in The Origin of the Species

Howard, who died at 90 in 2014, became far from innocent, marrying three times and having a string of lovers, including her first husband’s brother, Arthur Koestler, Ken Tynan, Laurie Lee, Cyril Connolly, and Cecil Day-Lewis. Perhaps all those lovers were the result of a sort of innocence. Then we return still further, to the 1930s. People still dress for dinner and don't understand one another. Alcohol still lubricates society. A woman stares into her empty glass as she decides that she could never be an artist, the glass symbolising an empty dream. She is told 'anyway, you'll marry and have children' although there were some actual careers open to women at this time. The last part of the story occurs in 1926.

a b Brown, Andrew (9 November 2002). "Profile: Elizabeth Jane Howard". The Guardian . Retrieved 17 February 2018. Self-centered men, everyone at their worst. There are amazing human interactions, but at times I got lost in the writing. I wanted more fire in Antonia, and had a hard time relating to her. If I didn't feel down about love before.... That said, there is much to applaud in this perceptive, sophisticated, sensitive but ultimately bleak work. Howard's astute turn of phrase works well in descriptive passages, such as this one:

Finding a character's point of view is made more difficult because the author keeps inserting her own external view, as when a character is reminded that she should 'take tea (that horrible unnecessary meal designed to make unsatisfied women more unsatisfactory) with' another woman. Three Miles Up and Other Strange Stories. 2003. ISBN 978-1-872621-75-3. (Contains the three stories included in We Are for the Dark, plus "Mr Wrong".) Elizabeth Jane Howard - obituary". The Telegraph. 2 January 2014. ISSN 0307-1235 . Retrieved 17 February 2018.Howard wrote the screenplay for the 1989 movie Getting It Right, directed by Randal Kleiser, based on her 1982 novel of the same name. [8] She also wrote TV scripts for the popular series Upstairs, Downstairs. [1] Perhaps it is just that by the second half of the book I could hardly bear to be around Conrad and the damage he wreaks but I found the story weaker and less compelling than the first half. However, Howard is a very strong writer and even at her weakest greatly interesting. I’m just glad to be away from this suffocating world in which relationships are something to be avoided (not that living alone looks good either). Antonia Fleming surely deserves better than what she got. Antonia takes it, sure- I don't imagine options were wide for a woman in those days. When someone is able to manipulate, there are many reasons why the bullied accept it. The reason I didn't love it was it brought me down and I didn't like the men at all. I am not a man hater, but this book will test you. The most mysterious, intricate point about women is that they require somebody else to teach them to live in their own body. Without that, they are lost, because they never discovered. The first section of the book is set in 1950. Mrs Fleming is married to an impossible man—conceited, rude, selfish, arrogant, and uncaring. The only man in the book who is not in some way a monster is her father, a man who cares not about the present but about 16th century social customs, is mostly reading in his library, and ignores the silly ways of his promiscuous wife. He is loved by Toni, as we later learn Mrs Fleming to be called, primarily because she hates her mother.