Not THAT Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor (1912-1975) was a wonderful English author who wrote a dozen observant, gently witty novels and four short story collections about -- mostly -- the lives of upper-middle-class women. Her stories were often published in The New Yorker. Taylor's own life was quiet and low-key, and she preferred, she said, to write books in which "practically nothing happens." But the "nothing" she describes is a compelling one; Kingsley Amis called her "one of the best English novelists" born in the 20th century. She, like Jane Austen, was especially good at portraying the kinds of self-deception we all practice. Virago Press, the excellent publisher I posted about earlier (2/17/10), republished all of her books in the 1980s, and then again republished several of her novels this decade. Thank you, Virago, once again! And thank you, Benjamin Schwarz, for the article of appreciation of Taylor's work in the September 2007 issue of the Atlantic, some of which I have drawn on here.

The novels include "At Mrs. Lippincote's," "A View of the Harbor," "In a Summer Season," and "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont," which in 2005 was made into a lovely movie starring the perfectly cast Joan Plowright. Over the years, I have read all of Elizabeth Taylor's published novels and short stories, some volumes more than once, and highly recommend her work to you.