Of all the authors in the world I could choose to read through their oeuvre it might be a little strange that I've chosen Molly Keane. Then again, maybe not. The world I live in couldn't be more different than the world Molly Keane knew and grew up in. I'm not even sure I would necessarily have liked her world, though I do find it fascinating from the outside looking in.
Molly Keane (née Mary Skrine) was born in Ireland (Co. Kildare) in 1904 to a "rather serious Hunting and Fishing and Church-going family". She was educated mostly at home by governesses and published her first book, The Knight of Cheerful Countenance, in 1926 which she wrote when she was only seventeen. One story goes that she did so in order to supplement her pin money. Like many of her class she traveled the hunt circuit, which was very expensive. Molly Keane wrote most of her earlier books under the pseudonym, M.J. Farrell, which was the name of a pub. It would have been "social death" to admit being a writer, though I think most of her set weren't really readers. It was her husband who encouraged her to take her writing seriously. She wrote fourteen novels and a number of plays, which were successfully staged, though their popularity waned during the war years.
Part of my fascination with Keane is the fact she was Anglo-Irish--or part of the privileged class. I've always found this particular period in Irish history interesting and complex due to the political climate and the nature of the class system which had such repercussions on Irish society, though could ultimately not last. It's the hunting and fishing part of the equation I might be able to live without, yet these are subjects that feature prominently in her books--at least the few I've read so far. There are lots of dogs, horses, hunting scenes and other outdoorsy activities. But she manages to hold my attention with all the other stuff that comes in between hunting parties--romantic entanglements, family relationships and in her later work the question of independent rule in Ireland. I suspect her later works might perhaps be more serious, and if I continue my reading of her work I'll soon find out.
Taking Chances, Keane's third novel, was published in 1929. Although I don't like to read book introductions before reading the story I did take a peek, and Clare Boylan calls this work "an ironic study of misplaced passion". Three siblings live together in their elegant home, Sorristown. Roguey is lord of the manor, and rather full of himself. Maeve is preparing to marry Rowley who lives on a neighboring estate. And Jer, the youngest member of the family as well as the most delicate, adores his older sister. When Maeve's bridesmaid, Mary Fuller, arrives from England she unsettles them all by catching Rowley's eye. Since this is not a proper review, I thought I could at least share a teaser, and since Mary is going to stir things up, let me describe her to you.
"It was not alone that she had a face and voice to throw spells, but there was all about this girl, breathing from her, an atmosphere of charm, secret and afar. She was exciting. Thing, one felt, would happen round her. Like the lady who rode to Banbury Cross, 'rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,' Mary was a factor for disturbance. She was, Rowley felt sure, a person to be distinctly loved or disliked, never a person to be just tolerated."
I think there is definitely going to be more than horses and dogs to this one!