Jane Bowles

Aquel verano Jane trabajaba en En el cenador, la pieza teatral que con tanta delicadeza estrenaría en Nueva York. Yo no soy muy aficionado al teatro; casi nunca aguanto una obra más de dos veces, pero ésta la vi tres, y no por lealtad a la autora, sino porque tenía un ingenio espinoso, el aroma de una buena copa, un amargor refrescante... las mismas cualidades que me atrajeron de entrada en Dos damas muy serias, la novela de Jane Bowles. ―Truman Capote

This comedy of manners follows the decline into debauchery of two different women, one a spinster who turns into a high class prostitute and the other a woman who changes her husband for Pacifia, a Panamanian. The author has previously written "Everything is Nice" and "A Little Original Sin".

Adaptació catalana de Carme Serrallonga Posada en escena de Simone Benmussa

For her centenary (February 22, 2017), the most complete edition ever published of the brilliant modernist writings and evocative letters of an LGBT pioneer. Though Jane Bowles published only one novel, one play, and a handful of stories, her genius for spare prose and vivid dialogue had an outsized influence on her contemporaries. Tennessee Williams called her "the most important writer of prose fiction in modern American letters"; for John Ashbery she was "one of the finest modern writers of fiction in any language." Now, on the occasion of her centenary, Library of America presents the most complete edition ever published of Bowles's incomparable fiction, along with an extensive selection of her frank, vivid, and funny letters. Two Serious Ladies (1943), based partly on her honeymoon in Mexico with her husband, the writer and composer Paul Bowles, follows two bourgeois American women in Panama as they jettison sexual and cultural norms in search of happiness: Christina Goering, a wealthy spinster who becomes a high-class prostitute; and newlywed Frieda Copperfield, who finds love and comfort in the arms of a young Panamanian girl. In The Summer House (1954), a play about two mothers, one selfish and ruthless, despising her dreamy daughter, the other gentle, dominated by her strong-minded daughter, was performed on Broadway in 1953 and reflects Bowles's complicated relationship with her own mother. The volume also includes five short stories, two song lyrics, a puppet play, and the nonfiction sketch "East Side: North Africa." (Paul Bowles's rewrite of "East Side: North Africa," published in 1966, under Jane's name, as the short story "Everything Is Nice," is also included as an appendix), as well as fragments from two abandoned novels, a section of Two Serious Ladies cut from an earlier draft, four abandoned stories, one unfinished play, and one autobiographical fragment. Rounding out the volume are 133 letters, including candid portraits of such friends and acquaintances as John Ashbery, William Burroughs, Ira Gershwin, Allen Ginsberg, Carson McCullers, Sylvia Plath, Paul Robeson, Susan Sontag, Gertrude Stein, Gore Vidal, Eudora Welty, and Tennessee Williams. The letters are introduced with headnotes by editor Millicent Dillon, plus 10 pages of photographs have been reproduced from the original edition of the letters.

My favourite book. I can't think of a modern novel that seems more likely to become a classic' TENNESSEE WILLIAMS'The book I give as a gift... It feels like giving someone an exotic fruit.' SHEILA HETI'A modern legend ...A very funny writer' TRUMAN CAPOTE'I am going on a trip. Wait until I tell you about it. it's terrible.'Miss Goering, an eccentric, impulsive New York heiress, resides in her house and tries not to be unhappy.Mrs Copperfield, an anxious, dutiful married woman, has a great fear of drowning, of lifts, of intruders in the night. Two serious ladies, nothing is natural for them and anything is possible. For Mrs Copperfield - a trip to Panama, where she abandons her husband for love of a local prostitute.For Miss Goering - a move to a squalid little house on an island and a series of sordid encounters with strangers. Both go to pieces -and both realise this is something they've wanted to do for years. With an introduction by Naoise Dolan

En 1943 apareció Dos Damas muy serias, publicada por Alfred A. Knopf en Estados Unidos. Su autora contaba con 25 años y no recibió buenas críticas, salvo la de un puñado de amigos (Truman Capote, Ten

De una extrañeza inquietante y una agudeza a veces conmovedora, a veces cómica, los relatos reunidos en este volumen -hasta ahora inéditos en español-, junto a Verano en la glorieta, la obra de teatro en la que trabajó durante ocho años y que rápidamente se consideró de culto, completan el universo de la breve pero genial obra de Jane Bowles. Una obra que a pesar de construirse a partir de la imposibilidad, los deseos no expresados, las insatisfacciones, de estar poblada de personajes a la deriva en sus propias vidas, atrapados en vínculos familiares asfixiantes o atravesados siempre por algún dilema o dualidad, no deja de ser divertida y disparatada.

A pesar de su escasísima obra narrativa -tan solo la novela Dos damas muy serias y el libro de relatos Placeres sencillos-, la figura de Jane Bowles («esa leyenda moderna», como la calificó Truman Capote) se ha ido agigantando en los últimos tiempos, convirtiéndose en una figura de culto en el mundo anglosajón y en sus diversas traducciones. Su prestigio entre los mejores escritores de su tiempo se remonta a los inicios mismos de su carrera literaria, cuando publicó Dos damas muy serias, saludada por Tennessee Williams como «mi libro favorito» y por Alan Sillitoe como «un hito en la literatura norteamericana del siglo XX», entre otros muchos ejemplos. Dos damas muy serias relata el paradójico itinerario de dos mujeres muy diferentes, en busca de su independencia y de su autenticidad. Christina Goering, de familia distinguida, rica, solterona y proclive al misticismo desde su infancia, busca su salvación luchando contra su naturaleza, es decir: forzándose a aventuras con desconocidos. Paralelamente a este destino ejemplar, Frieda Copperfield, dispuesta a lograr su felicidad terrenal a cualquier precio, no vacila en abandonar a su marido y su existencia convencional en el curso de un viaje por Centroamérica e irse a vivir con Pacífica, una joven prostituta panameña. Los personajes son gloriosamente impredecibles, fantásticos, excéntricos, alejados de toda lógica normal de conducta social.