Acknowledgments; Introduction; Light and Vision: Modern Lighting; The 1938 Academy: An Unprofessional View; Christmas at Bowen's Court; The Light in the Dark; Ecstasy of the Eye; New Waves of the Future; Places: Britain in Autumn; By The Unapproachable Sea; Foreword to 'The Cinque Ports', by Ronald and Frank Jessup; The Idea of France; Paris Peace Conference: 1946. An Impression; Paris Peace Conference - Some Impressions 1; Paris Peace Conference - Some Impressions 2; Paris Peace Conference - Some Impressions 3; Prague and the Crisis; Hungary; Without Coffee, Cigarettes, or Feeling; Coming to London; Regent's Park and St. John's Wood; New York Waiting in my Memory; People: Miss Willis; Paul Morand; Mainie Jellett; Tipperary Woman; Alfred Knopf; Blanche Knopf; Foreword to 'Olive Willis and Downe House', by Anne Ridler; Houses: Opening Up the House; Home for Christmas; Bowen's Court; Ireland: Letter from Ireland; Eire; Ireland Makes Irish; How They Live in Ireland: Conquest by Cheque-Book; Ireland; Introduction to 'The House by the Church-yard', by Sheridan Le Fanu; Things: Toys; Calico Windows; Introduction to 'The ABC of Millinery', by Eva Ritcher; An Enormous Channel of Expectation; The Teakettle; Mirrors Are Magic; On Giving a Present; The Art of Giving; Writers and Books: Jane Austen; Introduction to 'Pride and Prejudice', by Jane Austen; What Jane Austen Means to Me; 'Persuasion'; Introduction to 'No One to Blame'; James Joyce; New Writers; Elizabeth Bowen Introduces Guy de Maupassant; Introduction to 'Tomato Cain and Other Stories', by Nigel Kneale; Introduction to 'Haven: Short Stories, Poems and Aphorisms', by Elizabeth Bibesco; A Matter of Inspiration; Introduction to 'The Stories of William Samson'; Introduction to 'An Angela Thirkell Omnibus'; A Passage to E. M. Forster; Introduction to 'Staying with Relations', by Rose Macaulay; Fairy Tales: Comeback of Goldilocks et al.; Introduction to 'The King of the Golden River', by John Ruskin; Enchanted Centenary of the Brothers Grimm; On Writing: What We Need in Writing; The Short Story in England; Introduction to 'Chance'; Introduction to 'The Observer Prize Stories'; English Fiction at Mid-Century; Rx for a Story Worth the Telling; Preface to 'Critics Who have Influenced Taste'; A Novelist and His Characters; Bowen on Bowen: Autobiographical Note; 'Downe House Scrap-Book 1907-1957'; First Writing; Elizabeth Bowen, of Cork and London; My Best Novel; The Next Book; On Writing 'The Heat of the Day'; Note for 'The Broadsheet on The Heat of the Day'; Miss Bowen on Miss Bowen; Confessions; The Cost of Letters; Portrait of a Woman Reading; On Radio and Cinema: Why I Go to the Cinema; Third Programme; 'Lawrence of Arabia'; Ages and Ages: Modern Girlhood; Teenagers; Mental Annuity; The Case for Summer Romance; The Beauty of Being Your Age; Was It an Art?; Women: For the Feminine Shopper; Enemies of Charm in Women, in Men; Woman's Place in the Affairs of Man; Outrageous Ladies; Arts and Disappointments: A Way of Life; The Forgotten Art of Living; The Fear of Pleasure; The Art of Respecting Boundaries; The Virtue of Optimism; Disappointment (unpublished version); Disappointment; How To Be Yourself - But Not Eccentric; The Thread of Dreams; Notes; Works Cited.