The Counterplot

by Hope Mirrlees

The Counterplot is the second novel by Hope Mirrlees. Written in 1923, it was originally published in 1924, and is the only one of Mirrlees's three novels to take place in contemporary settings.The novel's protagonist is Teresa Lane, a woman of 28, living in Plasencia, a villa in the South-East of England, shortly after World War I, who studies the spectacle of her family life with the intent of transforming it into art. The result is a play, The Key, written by Teresa after the style of the Spanish autos sacramentales and set in Seville during the reign of Pedro the Cruel, the text of which is reproduced in its entirety within chapter eleven.

436 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1924

About the author

Hope Mirrlees (1887-1978) was a British translator, poet and novelist. She published three novels in her lifetime, Madeleine: One of Love’s Jansenists (1919), The Counterplot (1924) and the fantasy novel Lud-in-the-Mist (1926); three volumes of poetry, including Paris: A Poem (1919), described by the critic Julia Briggs as "modernism's lost masterpiece"; and A Fly in Amber (1962), a biography of the British antiquarian Sir Robert Bruce Cotton.

Reviews

[Jordan]

that's right! i passed my exam and am living it up by reading TWO BOOKS AT ONCE. WHOOO-HOOOOO!!!!!

***

ohhhh dearrrrr. i returned this to the library after only 2 pages.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mirrlees is best known for Lud in the Mist, an early fantasy novel. This one is almost completely different, but also beautifully written and against all odds, gripping.
It’s best described as a British Catholic country house novel in the tragic vein, with foreshadowings of Brideshead Revisited and a hint of Frost in May (including a reference to Madeleine Sophie Barat. Of course the girls went to the Sacred Heart. Of course they did). Three sisters: Pepa (not the pig), deceased leaving two children; Concha, lovely and conventional; and Teresa, torn up by her faith and her family. Teresa tries to understand the world and her place in it by writing a play about her family set in 14th century Castile. Available to read for free on Project Gutenberg. If anything I’ve written here makes it sound appealing, give it a try. It’s worth it.