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The Rising Tide
In 1900 Lady Charlotte French-McGrath is mistress of Garonlea, a huge gothic house in Ireland. She rules her household and her family -- husband Ambrose and children Muriel, Enid, Violet, Diana and Desmond -- with a rod of iron. Desmond's marriage to the beautiful, lively Cynthia and, several years later, the onset of the First World War are the two events which finally, and irrevocably, break Lady Charlotte's matriarchal hold. Cynthia enters the Jazz Age and on the surface her life passes in a whirl of fox-hunting, drinking and love-making. But the ghosts of Garonlea are only biding their time: they know the source of their power, a secret handed on from one generation to the next.
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1937
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About the author
M.J. Farrell
17 books7 followersM.J. Farrell is a pseudonym used by
Molly Keane
for her earlier published novels and plays.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
July 12, 2022
One I feel the need to mull over.
July 12, 2016
This book is very atmospheric and completely time, place, and character-driven. Time passes, and the characters grow older, but there really aren't many dramatic turns. Molly Keane writes suspensefully, though, and gives the impression of underlying currents of darkness and malevolent forces. Most of the drama takes place in the characters' minds and perceptions. The two houses, Garonlea and Rathglass, represent the two time periods (along with their cultural mores), depicted in the book. Garonlea is the severe Neo-Gothic manor, with its unhappy vibrations and Edwardian constraints, and Rathglass, the more natural, bright, modern house filled with flowers and Jazz Age parties. The gardens of the two houses are similarly symbolic and described beautifully. Against these two backdrops, the mostly female cast of characters variously struggles against or conforms to expectations. Cynthia tries her best to white out the gloominess of Garonlea and turn it into a light-filled, cream-colored, cocktail-filled party house. But for how long can Cynthia's beauty and youth hold against the power of the old manor, which still houses the outdated accoutrement in small storage rooms, and seems always at the ready to subsume her efforts?
May 31, 2021
Cynthia was not shy when she first met people. She was too certain of herself. Quite sure of her success. So that this first encounter with Desmond's relations was hardly the reason for the constricted chill that was causing her to feel so unreal to herself; on the defensive and alone when they stopped before the great wan house sprawled at the bottom of the valley with the mist rising round it off the river below.
The tide is such a perfect metaphor for what happens in this book: it goes in, it goes out, the generations ebb and flow, and the same patterns reassert themselves.
The story is centred around a great Irish house called Garonlea, and the two chatelaines who occupy it and battle for power over it. Lady Charlotte dominates her Edwardian era family for many years, until the coming of Cynthia - the wife of Lady Charlotte's only son. For a while, Cynthia holds sway over Garonlea. She operates as a sort of regent during the 1920s, after her husband's death in World War I and until her own son comes of age. Cynthia attempts to conquer (and thereby claim) the cold, gloomy house by making it over. But her strength cannot hold, and the next generation resents and resists being dominated in its own turn. There is the house, with its strong undertow of unhappiness, but there is also the entire system which makes each generation only temporary tenants.
The novel contains a cast of unlikeable characters, but the author is indifferent to the very idea of likability or sympathy. Her project is to present the world of the Anglo-Irish landowners and she succeeds admirably at that. The Irish War of Independence is taking place during the book and it hardly rates a mention. I don't think that is due to any oversight on the author's part, but rather to demonstrate how aristocrats like Lady Cynthia - whose world revolves around horses, hunting and strong drink - existed in a world of their own making. At least for a time.
Once Sylvester had seen the saddest possible sight - a boat lying on it side in a shallow green estuary, its sides rotted away. He could see the water flowing through its staves like open windows. But here there was no water - only time, to rot and make an end.
November 26, 2008
Here Molly Keane turns her early 20th century social commentary on one family's two generations of women in power. She takes on a broader time period than I've seen in her other books, ranging thirty years, in order to bridge the generation gap from the 1900s to the 20s and explore how the power dynamics change not only with the person in charge but with the constraints of each period.
Keane presents the 1900s as an absolutely intolerable time to be an unmarried female, particularly in the family of Lady Charlotte French-McGrath. The four daughters of the family are expected to do exactly as she says in regard to all things, including what to eat, what to say, and bedtime, as long as they remain unmarried. The only son, in contrast, goes off to build his own life with his bride, Cynthia. As the family ages and changes, the power dynamic fluctuates. Eventually, Cynthia rises to full power, ready to cause her own damage to the next generation.
The Rising Tide has a much darker, more sinister tone than Keane's black comedies. This is not comedy at all, but an exploration of power as it inevitably fails and falls to the next generation, a picture of the women in power as they slide toward the edge.
Keane presents the 1900s as an absolutely intolerable time to be an unmarried female, particularly in the family of Lady Charlotte French-McGrath. The four daughters of the family are expected to do exactly as she says in regard to all things, including what to eat, what to say, and bedtime, as long as they remain unmarried. The only son, in contrast, goes off to build his own life with his bride, Cynthia. As the family ages and changes, the power dynamic fluctuates. Eventually, Cynthia rises to full power, ready to cause her own damage to the next generation.
The Rising Tide has a much darker, more sinister tone than Keane's black comedies. This is not comedy at all, but an exploration of power as it inevitably fails and falls to the next generation, a picture of the women in power as they slide toward the edge.
December 18, 2014
This 1930's novel would never be placed on the "Thriller" shelf by a bookseller, but it is darker and more suspenseful than the succession of best-selling "thrillers" written today. Like Iris Murdoch at her peak, Molly Keane, showcases the power of personality to devastating effect.
I am drawn to books that feature women with limited choices; it fascinates me to see how they cope and often flourish. Keane has taken this situation a step further: it is not just that her young women are living in a rural setting with limited society (and, of course, no suggestion of working. . . ), they are living under the domination of a cruel and manipulative personality--their mother. Chilling is too weak a word to describe their situation.
I sat on the edge of my seat as I read this book, which spans over thirty years starting in the early 1900's. It is hardly accurate to say I enjoyed it, but I was totally immersed in the world of Anglo-Irish culture that Keane presented and was fascinated by the story.
Several years ago at a book/author luncheon the presenting novelist was asked the question "what makes a book good"? She replied that "a good book must do more than entertain." I have thought about that so many times and have concluded that this is exactly what I want in a book----something MORE than entertainment. Molly Keane is a thought-provoking author and one definitely worth reading.
I am drawn to books that feature women with limited choices; it fascinates me to see how they cope and often flourish. Keane has taken this situation a step further: it is not just that her young women are living in a rural setting with limited society (and, of course, no suggestion of working. . . ), they are living under the domination of a cruel and manipulative personality--their mother. Chilling is too weak a word to describe their situation.
I sat on the edge of my seat as I read this book, which spans over thirty years starting in the early 1900's. It is hardly accurate to say I enjoyed it, but I was totally immersed in the world of Anglo-Irish culture that Keane presented and was fascinated by the story.
Several years ago at a book/author luncheon the presenting novelist was asked the question "what makes a book good"? She replied that "a good book must do more than entertain." I have thought about that so many times and have concluded that this is exactly what I want in a book----something MORE than entertainment. Molly Keane is a thought-provoking author and one definitely worth reading.
February 26, 2016
Four and a half.
July 30, 2015
In The Rising Tide, Molly Keane contrasts brilliantly the Edwardian era with its strict rules of propriety, fussy clothing and the kind of rigid conventions that so often imprisoned unmarried women in dull lives at home, with the freer, party years of the 1920’s. The title reflects the rise of Cynthia, but also those tidal like waves of time, the years pass, and one generation is replaced by the next, the conflicts of one mirrored in the next – time after time.
Full review: https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2015/...
Full review: https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2015/...
July 25, 2020
This book really caught me off-guard. Molly Keane's seventh novel, it's less of a sadistic skewering than her other novels I've read, and more of a slow, definitely painful, but ever-so-patient dissection. She undresses the nerves as skillfully as ever, peeling the layers away chronologically as well as psychically--moving from the overstuffed, -braided and -bedecked turn of the century (the book starts in 1900) to the blithe, slick, hardened 1920s--as well as exposing, in reverse, the layers of cynicism and trauma that form and deform individuals growing up and growing old in any age. Oh, and hunting--there's a lot of hunting. A LOT OF HUNTING. Keane devotes pages and pages and more pages to the acid excitement, paralyzing fear, and crashing boredom of this upper-class Anglo-Irish addiction, even depicting it in detail from the point-of-view of the poor frightened children who have to risk their necks three times a week just to prove to their mother that they're not "beastly cowards" or, as the American in the story bluntly puts it, "cissies." Don't worry, everyone gets their due in this story, especially the mean mom, but it's less chickens coming home to roost than just time marching forward, ceaselessly, relentlessly, like a . . . um . . . rising tide.
I mean, all that AND there were metaphorically-haunted-house passages that were truly Jamesian in their use of material things to convey menace and psychological warfare. There isn't really a higher compliment in my vocabulary, and though the book as a whole feels looser and more rambling than James, the disparate parts wandered back around full-circle to clinch the reader in the end. Masterful. And maybe her masterpiece? I don't know, Keane has infinite books and I've only read a handful, but this is certainly the first I've read to rival my favorite of hers, Good Behaviour.
I mean, all that AND there were metaphorically-haunted-house passages that were truly Jamesian in their use of material things to convey menace and psychological warfare. There isn't really a higher compliment in my vocabulary, and though the book as a whole feels looser and more rambling than James, the disparate parts wandered back around full-circle to clinch the reader in the end. Masterful. And maybe her masterpiece? I don't know, Keane has infinite books and I've only read a handful, but this is certainly the first I've read to rival my favorite of hers, Good Behaviour.
May 17, 2021
Lady Charlotte rules her house & family with a rod of iron. How will she adapt when handing her power over to new daughter in law Cynthia? And will the new reign be any different from the last for the family?
No one could question the writing skill of Molly Keane & being new to her work I was blown away by her in-depth character descriptions - and assassinations! However, reviewing purely from an enjoyment point of view I did find this was laborious in parts & uncomfortable in others. Still a very enjoyable reading experience though & to read a modern classic & find that an author writing in 1937 was very ahead of her time was illuminating.
No one could question the writing skill of Molly Keane & being new to her work I was blown away by her in-depth character descriptions - and assassinations! However, reviewing purely from an enjoyment point of view I did find this was laborious in parts & uncomfortable in others. Still a very enjoyable reading experience though & to read a modern classic & find that an author writing in 1937 was very ahead of her time was illuminating.
March 31, 2016
I loved this cleverly-written novel about the vicissitudes of a wealthy Anglo-Irish family living in a gloomy pile of stone called Garonlea in the early 1900s. It's really the story of two women -- the matriarch Lady Charlotte who rules her household with an iron fist; and later, her daughter-in-law Cynthia. The young wife at first seems kinder and more loving, but as time goes on she proves to be equally as power-mad as her predecessor. I couldn't like either woman, mainly because they treated their children so badly, but it was an engrossing tale and I couldn't wait to find out if the charming and self-absorbed Cynthia would ultimately lose her little empire. The other characters were all complex individuals as well.
April 3, 2015
Molly Keane's writing closely observes the inner thoughts of an Anglo Irish family across the decades from before WWII and just afterwards. There is no comfort to be drawn from the chillingly self obsessed characterization of the two Mothers in this story who are really quite monsterous. She paints a quite horrible picture of the life of these people who seem oblivious of all that is going on around them at the time politically. The writing is clever and can be humorous but always interesting in style. I wanted so much for the family to stand up to these two women that sometimes I wanted to throw the book but the denouement for both was beautifully created.
May 4, 2012
A good story of how miserable it was to be an unmarried woman at the turn of the 20th century. We often forget how far we've come. There is still inequality, but nothing like then. Darker, deeper, less funny than other Keane novels. That's good for me, because I don't like her cynical humor that much.
March 27, 2017
I enjoyed the atmosphere of Garonlea, the awful family stately home, and the characters were interesting, but I got very bored by the endless descriptions of hunting and horses.
August 24, 2025
A deviation in style from Keane's earlier novels but still as tight as a play in the setting and scope .
We are in Ireland , in the financially secure , culturally confident closed society of the wealthy Anglo Irish at the start of the twentieth century . There's formality , discipline and strict codes of behavior all policed by a grotesque matriarch , Lady Charlotte , who demands obedience and subservience from her daughters until they marry and leave home . Only the single son, Edmund , is granted any headroom , freed from the Gothic mansion by the necessities of education . The girls live in the plush , overstuffed domestic space where any rebellion is squashed or swiftly managed.
When Edmund brings home his bride to be , Cynthia , whose initial flattery seduces everyone , it's not clear that she will set up another kingdom for the newly liberal and less straightened generation in a house across the silent river . Lady Charlotte's house is throbbing with Gothic malignancy while Cynthia's is groomed for hunting , informality and parties laced with buckets of booze . Let the battle commence .
There's so much in this page turner to keep you engrossed . Hunting in all it's terrible cruelty but also it's captivating addiction , full of risk and fear . A appalling portrait of parental bullying and the prison of childhood , the devastation of grief and it's dysfunctional aftermath but most of all the terrible tyranny of a society set up to stifle , trap and cage it's women , whose feelings remain repressed , unexplored and certainly never spoken . Capable women , Lady Charlotte and Cynthia , can only operate in a strict domestic sphere where their performances must be seen and praised .
Unlike Elizabeth Bowen , who brings the terrible turmoil of Ireland into the house in The Last September or Isabel Colgate's historical fiction The Shooting Party which has the rumble of politics on the threshold of WW1 , Keane chooses to barely mention the contemporary setting outside the parklands . Her focus is on internal dereliction , the final hurrah of a society hell bent on denial both in the wider world and mostly in themselves .
The pacing wanders like a tired horse in the second part and we get a bit caught in the woods but it remains masterful in tone , dialogue and structure. Keane's set pieces , especially the finale , are as sharply observed and dramatic as Austin and there's a hint of comedy to soften its dark heart
We are in Ireland , in the financially secure , culturally confident closed society of the wealthy Anglo Irish at the start of the twentieth century . There's formality , discipline and strict codes of behavior all policed by a grotesque matriarch , Lady Charlotte , who demands obedience and subservience from her daughters until they marry and leave home . Only the single son, Edmund , is granted any headroom , freed from the Gothic mansion by the necessities of education . The girls live in the plush , overstuffed domestic space where any rebellion is squashed or swiftly managed.
When Edmund brings home his bride to be , Cynthia , whose initial flattery seduces everyone , it's not clear that she will set up another kingdom for the newly liberal and less straightened generation in a house across the silent river . Lady Charlotte's house is throbbing with Gothic malignancy while Cynthia's is groomed for hunting , informality and parties laced with buckets of booze . Let the battle commence .
There's so much in this page turner to keep you engrossed . Hunting in all it's terrible cruelty but also it's captivating addiction , full of risk and fear . A appalling portrait of parental bullying and the prison of childhood , the devastation of grief and it's dysfunctional aftermath but most of all the terrible tyranny of a society set up to stifle , trap and cage it's women , whose feelings remain repressed , unexplored and certainly never spoken . Capable women , Lady Charlotte and Cynthia , can only operate in a strict domestic sphere where their performances must be seen and praised .
Unlike Elizabeth Bowen , who brings the terrible turmoil of Ireland into the house in The Last September or Isabel Colgate's historical fiction The Shooting Party which has the rumble of politics on the threshold of WW1 , Keane chooses to barely mention the contemporary setting outside the parklands . Her focus is on internal dereliction , the final hurrah of a society hell bent on denial both in the wider world and mostly in themselves .
The pacing wanders like a tired horse in the second part and we get a bit caught in the woods but it remains masterful in tone , dialogue and structure. Keane's set pieces , especially the finale , are as sharply observed and dramatic as Austin and there's a hint of comedy to soften its dark heart
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April 5, 2020An absorbing, atmospheric novel of an upper-class Ango-Irish family. The central character,a spoiled, beautiful charismatic woman, is expertly drawn; despite her flaws, she’s more alive than anyone else in the novel.
November 9, 2021
I found the middle a bit tiring (maybe it’s just the presence of so many stubborn characters unwilling to mend or be flexible) BUT the ending piece is a stunner.
May 23, 2019
Any Molly Keane is worth reading, but this isn't my favourite. Nevertheless, what she draws here is a strictly defined world, a harsher image of the fraying Anglo-Irish ascendancy than is the norm. Often, a reader feels a sympathy for the waning class, but in this book, the waning and fraying upper classes can't wane and fray soon enough. The story spans two full generations of the family at Garonlea. Lady Charlotte cows her husband and her daughters and her son's widow is equally merciless to her children. Metaphorically speaking, it's easier to accept Lady Charlotte as an exemplar of her time, but Lady Cynthia represents a class that should know it's time is over but doesn't. She hangs on to her power and desirability with sharpened teeth, uncaring of her children who grow to hate her. She deserves it. She doesn't care. There isn't a molecule of motherly devotion in her. All a reader's sympathy is directed to the children of both generations. What matters is the hunt, the horses, the dogs, social expectations. Nurturing children doesn't matter at all. The house at Garonlea freely shelters fighters on both sides in the Civil War, pragmatically done to save the house from being burned, not from any political or emotional investment in the outcome. A lot of hateful people here, and children whose emotional maturity has no chance of blossoming. A pretty grim social study.
June 21, 2019
I think Keane somehow lost her way in this book. Everything was ticking along quite nicely for the first two thirds, until the death of the lady. After that, the plot got stuck in a loop, in which Cynthia's romantic affairs were described obsessively, with too much unnecessary detail, without the story moving forward an inch. The narrative style became too explanatory and slightly clumsy and made the reading slow and difficult, endless descriptions of plants, gardens, rooms, clothes, all manner of trivia.
I ended up skimming through the last few chapters, almost the whole description of the party at the end, hoping to recognise the clue to the denouement, but even that was difficult, so featureless and repetitive the writing had become. In the end I felt the whole plot had drowned in a sea of seemingly trivial detail, the ending more a running out of steam than anything else.
I suspect the clothes might have had some meaningful significance, though obviously not to anyone as ignorant of period clothing as me. There was a clear effort to emphasise the power of the house as a physical entity-its rooms, furniture, decoration-but I wasn't convinced, it felt forced.
Not the best Keane, but I enjoyed a lot of it.
I ended up skimming through the last few chapters, almost the whole description of the party at the end, hoping to recognise the clue to the denouement, but even that was difficult, so featureless and repetitive the writing had become. In the end I felt the whole plot had drowned in a sea of seemingly trivial detail, the ending more a running out of steam than anything else.
I suspect the clothes might have had some meaningful significance, though obviously not to anyone as ignorant of period clothing as me. There was a clear effort to emphasise the power of the house as a physical entity-its rooms, furniture, decoration-but I wasn't convinced, it felt forced.
Not the best Keane, but I enjoyed a lot of it.
May 30, 2020
I really needed to read this book at this point in my life.
The lengthy descriptions of hunting threw me off a little bit, but never mind. The book is loaded with psychological insights, and it makes you realise the humanity of trying to live a life. I guess I'm not phrasing it too well. But what I mean is, it makes you see, with startling clarity, the sufferings, the drama, the undeniable pain, the sheer joy, the passion, of living. Not surviving, not existing. It makes you realise that some people live, in order to exist.
This book, along with the last one that I read ( Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden) have made me think very deeply about what it means to make a place yours. Not just a home, but a place that cannot be possibly separated from the essence of one's personality. It's made me look at myself, and those around me, the homes I've visited, and reflect on how we define places and how we let them define us too. The fact that both these books were written by women makes me also ponder upon the assertion of identities that women participate in.
Also, did everyone think Diana and Simon were gay, or is it just me?
The lengthy descriptions of hunting threw me off a little bit, but never mind. The book is loaded with psychological insights, and it makes you realise the humanity of trying to live a life. I guess I'm not phrasing it too well. But what I mean is, it makes you see, with startling clarity, the sufferings, the drama, the undeniable pain, the sheer joy, the passion, of living. Not surviving, not existing. It makes you realise that some people live, in order to exist.
This book, along with the last one that I read ( Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden) have made me think very deeply about what it means to make a place yours. Not just a home, but a place that cannot be possibly separated from the essence of one's personality. It's made me look at myself, and those around me, the homes I've visited, and reflect on how we define places and how we let them define us too. The fact that both these books were written by women makes me also ponder upon the assertion of identities that women participate in.
Also, did everyone think Diana and Simon were gay, or is it just me?
January 28, 2017
Pas ma tasse de thé. Je me suis de plus en plus ennuyée au fil des pages. Snif. :(
September 6, 2017
A good read, thoughtprovoking and yet a bit depressing. Perhaps because I feel like I'm leaving youth myself, I don't know. There are things in here I recognise. Set in Ireland in the beginning of the 1900s, this story covers three generations of a landed gentry family living at the gothic estate of Garonlea, and its repressive atmosphere. These are rich folk who are interested in society, horses and hunting, and the realities of the little folk barely touch them - or if they do, they are mentioned in an off hand way of just being a hindrance. Things like the first world war, the home rule question...
The women are the major players in this book, and Keane has created some real monsters. This all starts with the mother, Lady Charlotte, who is a snob and a despot who rules over her daughters and every aspect of their lives. Everything is to be just as she wishes. Life doesn't work out that way always, which infuriates her. Rebellious Diana never bends to her. Overly romantic Enid continues with a love affair she is forbidden to continue. One that she is then forced into marriage with after an unwanted pregnancy is discovered. Violet gets away via marriage, and poor Muriel is left to be bullied and terrifed by the awful mother. The son, Desmond, marries Cynthia, whom Charlotte approves of at first, until she sees there is a rival in this younger woman. Cynthia may be a more personable woman, but she makes her own childrens' lives a misery, forcing them into horseriding and hunting when they clearly have no interest. But as the book points out, whilst she may not love them exactly, she wants to make sure she is not embarassed by them. It's just a continuation of generations torturing the others, and as children grow up and get their independence, they start to turn on their elders, as both Charlotte and Cynthia gradually find out. Perhaps these two women who hated each other weren't quite so different. And with the generational fighting, there's also the growing realisation that they are no longer young, but growing middle aged and irrelevant. Something we will all have to face up to at some point.
The women are the major players in this book, and Keane has created some real monsters. This all starts with the mother, Lady Charlotte, who is a snob and a despot who rules over her daughters and every aspect of their lives. Everything is to be just as she wishes. Life doesn't work out that way always, which infuriates her. Rebellious Diana never bends to her. Overly romantic Enid continues with a love affair she is forbidden to continue. One that she is then forced into marriage with after an unwanted pregnancy is discovered. Violet gets away via marriage, and poor Muriel is left to be bullied and terrifed by the awful mother. The son, Desmond, marries Cynthia, whom Charlotte approves of at first, until she sees there is a rival in this younger woman. Cynthia may be a more personable woman, but she makes her own childrens' lives a misery, forcing them into horseriding and hunting when they clearly have no interest. But as the book points out, whilst she may not love them exactly, she wants to make sure she is not embarassed by them. It's just a continuation of generations torturing the others, and as children grow up and get their independence, they start to turn on their elders, as both Charlotte and Cynthia gradually find out. Perhaps these two women who hated each other weren't quite so different. And with the generational fighting, there's also the growing realisation that they are no longer young, but growing middle aged and irrelevant. Something we will all have to face up to at some point.
June 16, 2021
“Lady Charlotte loved her daughters with a passion none the less genuine if it demanded first their unquestioning obedience, and fed itself on a profound jealousy of any interest in their lives other than those she might herself prompt or provide. She felt that her children owed to her as a mother, not as a person, love, confidence and obedience.”
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.
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The Rising Tide was the my Bookclub choice for May and it was a mixed bag for both me and the group as a whole I think
Set in Ireland at the end of the Victorian era, Molly Keane’s eviscerating wit is on full display, although perhaps it’s not quite as honed as in her much later work, and my favourite so far, Good Behaviour
Victorian matriarch, Lady Charlotte, is very much from the ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’ school of child rearing. Garonlea, her country estate, is a place of heavy damasks, dark rooms and suits of armour lurking in the corners. She is displaced from her Queendom by Cynthia, who marries the heir to Garonlea and waits poised in the drawing rom as Charlotte dies, ready to take occupancy. Cynthia’s reign is marked by hunts, dances, parties and rooms filled with light and vases brimming with flowers. Their style might be very different, but Charlotte and Cynthia are more alike than either of them care to admit. Skilled manipulators, The Rising Tide shows the rise and fall of both women as the world changes around them and they are left as objects of pity or ridicule for the next generation
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.
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The Rising Tide was the my Bookclub choice for May and it was a mixed bag for both me and the group as a whole I think
Set in Ireland at the end of the Victorian era, Molly Keane’s eviscerating wit is on full display, although perhaps it’s not quite as honed as in her much later work, and my favourite so far, Good Behaviour
Victorian matriarch, Lady Charlotte, is very much from the ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’ school of child rearing. Garonlea, her country estate, is a place of heavy damasks, dark rooms and suits of armour lurking in the corners. She is displaced from her Queendom by Cynthia, who marries the heir to Garonlea and waits poised in the drawing rom as Charlotte dies, ready to take occupancy. Cynthia’s reign is marked by hunts, dances, parties and rooms filled with light and vases brimming with flowers. Their style might be very different, but Charlotte and Cynthia are more alike than either of them care to admit. Skilled manipulators, The Rising Tide shows the rise and fall of both women as the world changes around them and they are left as objects of pity or ridicule for the next generation
October 24, 2020
1920s upper class Ireland is a suffocating place for four young women to grow up. Their behaviour, pastimes and their futures are all dictated by the cruel matriarch who is their mother. Their personalities and their feelings are completely crushed.
The new order, in the guise of daughter-in-law, Cynthia is no less damaging, though. The iron will of Lady Charlotte is soon superseded by the wilful and deceptively charming Cynthia. The lifestyle she superimposes soon descends into compete decadence. Her children, too, are by turns neglected, bullied, ridiculed. But there is pay-back. The spirit of Lady Charlotte lives on in son, Simon. One of the darkest moments of the novel is when she notices how he is looking at her- with no love at all.
The new order, in the guise of daughter-in-law, Cynthia is no less damaging, though. The iron will of Lady Charlotte is soon superseded by the wilful and deceptively charming Cynthia. The lifestyle she superimposes soon descends into compete decadence. Her children, too, are by turns neglected, bullied, ridiculed. But there is pay-back. The spirit of Lady Charlotte lives on in son, Simon. One of the darkest moments of the novel is when she notices how he is looking at her- with no love at all.
July 25, 2025
Time is a mother, a great healer to some, a tyrant to others.
A thought-provoking novel that spans thirty years in the lives of a family possessed by the darkness that lurks within the Gothic, suffocating manor of Garonlea. Molly Keane’s writing is rich and sprawling with vivid descriptions of gardens, clothes, and the inner turmoils that command each character and their choices. It details two women’s desire for queendom—over the manor, over their children, and above all, themselves.
Time plays a great role in the grand scheme of things: it strips one of vanity and control, while simultaneously offering a strange kind of acceptance, as it did for Cynthia. While I found the middle section to be quite tiresome, it didn’t take away from how deeply the final line stayed with me.
A thought-provoking novel that spans thirty years in the lives of a family possessed by the darkness that lurks within the Gothic, suffocating manor of Garonlea. Molly Keane’s writing is rich and sprawling with vivid descriptions of gardens, clothes, and the inner turmoils that command each character and their choices. It details two women’s desire for queendom—over the manor, over their children, and above all, themselves.
Time plays a great role in the grand scheme of things: it strips one of vanity and control, while simultaneously offering a strange kind of acceptance, as it did for Cynthia. While I found the middle section to be quite tiresome, it didn’t take away from how deeply the final line stayed with me.
July 3, 2024
Keane is such a master at writing about people's worst feelings and inclinations, while also highlighting the good in them. I was never quite sure how I felt about the heroine (villian?) Cynthia, whose vanity and arrogance are displayed alongside her skill for making people comfortable and important. I expected this to be more of a power-battle between Cynthia and her mother-in-law, and loved that it sort of is really a power-battle between Cynthia and the changing times/aging. Definitely going to be reading more Keane.
August 12, 2017
I bought this Virago edition many years ago and stumbled on it during a recent/current illness. I got very absorbed in it and really enjoyed it. The story is personal and societal and illuminating. I find a certain resonance with a story about people living in a privileged bubble (as the Anglo-Irish did for centuries.) This book doesn't offer options for the rest of us, but it's a good portrait of entitled ceaselessness. It just sort of suited me right now!
July 8, 2025
C'est mordant, acerbe et dur. Molly Keane regarde son lecteur comme ses personnages droit dans les yeux, sans commisération. Pour le dire simplement, tout le monde s'en prend plein la gueule et c'est peut être bien mérité. Le tableau qu'elle dresse de l'aristocratie irlandaise début 20ème est sans concession et sans pitié... mais cela pourrait être n'importe lequel d'entre nous.
July 13, 2021
Battle of the titans: dowager matron of gloomy manor house and hyper-charming bride of only son, becomes a fight to the death over the hearts and properties of parties from all sides. Without giving too much away, Time vanquishes all.
July 14, 2021
A thoughtful examination of two aristocratic women who hold power in their small world .. one at the beginning of the 20th century and the other twenty years later.
Well developed characters but not particularly likeable.
Well developed characters but not particularly likeable.
May 17, 2025
ecrit en 1940, environ. histoire d'une famille de la haute société anglo irlandaise sur 3 générations. à partir de 1900. style rapide. étude des caractères et des sentiments des personnages. vie d'un domaine genre Menderlay ou les hauts de hurlevent ou Tara.
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