The Irish Signorina

by Julia O'Faolain

Julia O'Faolain's subtle, seductively plotted novel weaves together Ireland and Italy, romantic love and mystery... The invitation to visit the Cavalcantis at their family villa in Tuscany arrived quite unexpectedly. But in the wake of History finals, and still shaken by her mother's death, Anne decides to go. More then sun or a holiday, she needs to satisfy a lingering curiosity. For no lover of her own has yet been able to rival her mother's glowing descriptions of Cosimo - her ex-lover and a friend of the charming and formidable Cavalcantis.

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_O...

Reviews

[A. Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too frequently, this novel made me think I had missed something. But I hadn't. O'Faolain hadn't given it, no subtle foreshadow, just suddenly somebody has fallen in love with somebody else a day after meeting. The novel is melodrama, bordering on siblings producing halves of an heirloom brooch (there IS a family freckle). The sub-plot of terrorists/nationalists in hiding and which side is in the right is mildly interesting but thinly drawn, and in the end, when the signorina's decision is unclear, I really didn't care. Whether she was going to opt for an incest only she knew existed or not, the novel didn't have the weight to make her choice matter. This book was on my list of important Irish books to read, but it was there on the assessment of others (more informed than I). I don't know what they saw that I didn't.

[Ronan Doyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite at all what I expected, until it was again. O'Faolain has a way of slyly subverting genre less by narrative invention than comedy of manners: there is much that is (too) familiar in this aristocrat drama, plenty of typically tepid points in its political characterisations, yet select scenes sing with a kind of artful impropriety—c-words, erection puns and all—that had me in awe. But they are select, with many pages between. I've much more O'Faolain to get to yet, but experience so far would seem to suggest the short story her firmer ground.