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Amiche devote
Jessica e Jane hanno vissuto insieme per sei mesi e sono amiche ma lo sono davvero? Jessica ama l’amica con la cattiveria della possessività assoluta; Jane è ricca, sciocca e beve troppo. L’amico comune Sylvester le osserva e, per quanto si dispiaccia che Jane debba essere “amata e maltrattata e magari assassinata da quella orrenda Jessica”, decide che non sono affari suoi. Al contrario, quando il gentiluomo irlandese George Playfair incontra Jane, la pensa diversamente e convince la giovane ad andare in Irlanda – accompagnata da una Jessica riluttante –, dove inizia la lotta per conquistare la sua devozione. Eccoci quindi nel mondo tanto caro all’autrice, e sotto l’occhio un po’ cinico del sofisticato Sylvester assistiamo a una girandola di relazioni e di lotte di potere, dove quasi niente finisce bene.
245 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1934
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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 47 reviews
August 5, 2012
I do love a book which divides opinion. As I was preparing to write about my reactions to the novel, I glanced over a few reviews of it on Librarything.com and Goodreads.com – and there certainly seems to be as many people who really liked it as didn’t. So before I go any further I must immediately put myself in the former camp, I loved it. It is only the second Molly Keane novel I have read – and I am looking forward now to reading more.
Molly Keane was the real name of writer M J Farrell, she wrote under a pseudonym because she was part of the small world of Anglo-Irish hunting aristocracy that she wrote about. Sometime before writing Devoted Ladies – Molly Keane had been made aware of lesbianism and homosexuality – and this novel was her fascinated response to it.
Devoted Ladies – is a darkly comic satire, some of the characters are quite unlikeable, although I really did love the ridiculously silly Jane and her dreadfully camp, deliciously vicious house boy/valet Albert. The novel opens in 1930’s London – at a party given by Sylvester Browne. Jane and Jessica have been living together for six months, Jane is rich very silly and completely bullied by the horrid Jessica. During the party they have an argument and Jessica throws a bottle of tonic water at Jane. It is also at this party that Jane first meets George Playfair, an Irish gentleman hunting type. George is something of an innocent; he has no idea about the truth of the relationship between Jane and Jessica. This hedonistic 1930’s world is wonderfully reproduced by Keane – it was quite a different setting for her books and was not where her readers at this time were used to finding themselves upon opening one of her novels. Jane, weak and suggestible succumbs to alcoholic poisoning - and it is during her recovery that George visits Jane – when Jessica is out – and persuades her to visit Ireland. From here on the reader is back in familiar Molly Keane territory.
Sylvester Browne – friend of George Playfair is now back in Ireland – staying with his cousins Hester and Viola (Piggy) Browne – Piggy is a desperately sad character who I found at times a little pathetic and at other times I couldn’t help but sympathise with. Piggy is utterly devoted to her friend Joan – George Playfair’s sister. Her unrequited crush is really quite pitiful, Joan married to another Irish gentleman hunter, and mother of twin boys uses Piggy – and quietly despises her. It is into the Browne household that Jane, Jessica and Albert crash land. Jessica is injured in a car accident on the way, and is laid up in the house, while Jane is able to go out and about with her new friends. She and Sylvester see in George Playfair her chance of freedom from Jessica. However Jessica is darkly vicious, she will do anything to prevent Jane having her own way. The stage is set then, for a battle – and it is never quite clear how it may be won.
I found this utterly compelling, and loved the dark humour of it, there are some terrible 1930’s stereotypes – which I am sure, were quite deliberate – it is a novel of its time. Still I found it immensely enjoyable.
Molly Keane was the real name of writer M J Farrell, she wrote under a pseudonym because she was part of the small world of Anglo-Irish hunting aristocracy that she wrote about. Sometime before writing Devoted Ladies – Molly Keane had been made aware of lesbianism and homosexuality – and this novel was her fascinated response to it.
Devoted Ladies – is a darkly comic satire, some of the characters are quite unlikeable, although I really did love the ridiculously silly Jane and her dreadfully camp, deliciously vicious house boy/valet Albert. The novel opens in 1930’s London – at a party given by Sylvester Browne. Jane and Jessica have been living together for six months, Jane is rich very silly and completely bullied by the horrid Jessica. During the party they have an argument and Jessica throws a bottle of tonic water at Jane. It is also at this party that Jane first meets George Playfair, an Irish gentleman hunting type. George is something of an innocent; he has no idea about the truth of the relationship between Jane and Jessica. This hedonistic 1930’s world is wonderfully reproduced by Keane – it was quite a different setting for her books and was not where her readers at this time were used to finding themselves upon opening one of her novels. Jane, weak and suggestible succumbs to alcoholic poisoning - and it is during her recovery that George visits Jane – when Jessica is out – and persuades her to visit Ireland. From here on the reader is back in familiar Molly Keane territory.
Sylvester Browne – friend of George Playfair is now back in Ireland – staying with his cousins Hester and Viola (Piggy) Browne – Piggy is a desperately sad character who I found at times a little pathetic and at other times I couldn’t help but sympathise with. Piggy is utterly devoted to her friend Joan – George Playfair’s sister. Her unrequited crush is really quite pitiful, Joan married to another Irish gentleman hunter, and mother of twin boys uses Piggy – and quietly despises her. It is into the Browne household that Jane, Jessica and Albert crash land. Jessica is injured in a car accident on the way, and is laid up in the house, while Jane is able to go out and about with her new friends. She and Sylvester see in George Playfair her chance of freedom from Jessica. However Jessica is darkly vicious, she will do anything to prevent Jane having her own way. The stage is set then, for a battle – and it is never quite clear how it may be won.
I found this utterly compelling, and loved the dark humour of it, there are some terrible 1930’s stereotypes – which I am sure, were quite deliberate – it is a novel of its time. Still I found it immensely enjoyable.
July 29, 2010
What a horrible book. Evil lesbian, "nasty" appearing to be used to mean "homosexual" (as in, "Albert was a nasty boy"), casual racism. And even without all that it was a relentlessly unpleasant book.
Three stars because it was so effectively, deliberately horrible. I was absorbed even as my brain made "bleh spit spit" faces.
Three stars because it was so effectively, deliberately horrible. I was absorbed even as my brain made "bleh spit spit" faces.
did-not-finish
June 10, 2024I just can't finish it. I am going to read other Molly Keane's novels, but this one... There was wit, that I love, but the violence, and absurdity were too much for me.
[I got to the third chapter, which was around 80 pages.]
[I got to the third chapter, which was around 80 pages.]
October 10, 2010
It seems the story took a downward turn after my initial status update in which I called it awesome.
Jessica and Jane are (sometimes-more-than) friends who have lived together for about six months. They are the rich, the upper class, somewhat uninteresting in the way that the exceptionally rich often are. They like to party and drink and have uninteresting thoughts. As a relationship forms between Jane and George Playfair, Jessica's possessiveness really comes out.
I don't know. It was just... bleh after a while. I had high hopes. Polly Devlin calls Devoted Ladies an "art deco" novel in the Introduction, and what would be cooler than that? The Virago Modern Classics edition cover shows a detail of the Thea Proctor painting, The Bay (c 1927). That's a pretty fantastic image (and a shame its not included on GR - any librarians out there? Feel free to fix that.)
Devoted Ladies was published under the pseudonym, MJ Farrell, which is why I chose this edition here instead of the glamorous Molly Keane reprint. I try to use the the edition closest to the one I'm reading - if the people read it as a MJ Farrell novel, then by gosh, that's the edition I'm going to use on GR.
Anyway, I hoped the story would hold my interest all the way through but it did not. It's a funny story (and it's meant to be, so I'm not just being a jerk), but I just didn't care that much about Jessica or Jane after the first couple of chapters, and as other characters came into the mix my interest waned even more. I think others might enjoy this one more than I did, so I don't want to discourage any readings of this, if for no other reason than to read another relatively unfamiliar lady writer of the early 20th century. No reason for Farrell/Keane to fall into complete oblivion.
July 13, 2012
Keane is a new discovery and a happy one for me. She wrote this novel as a response to a newfound awareness of homosexuals in her society, both set and written in the 1930's. Keane saw gays as a fresh cast of characters for a novel. Here, she satirizes the upper, fox-hunting, class, skewering their idleness, their burgeoning or shabby wealth, but not all of her characters are laughable, not all of them hateful, not all of them gay. Instead, she creates Piggy, poor Piggy, a woman whose history of romance is painfully empty, and who loves both Joan and George, in an eager, longing kind of way. Piggy is the one I cared for most, wanting something to work out for her. Keane does create characters to care about. She also creates situations in which all these people come together, rather like an Agatha Christie murder, so that a reader learns about them through their treatment of each other. Jessica, manoeuvering to maintain her power over Jane, while Jane is shifting her future plans to George, is hateful. Sylvester is generally mean but not without redeeming qualities. There is social cruelty among this group, some one-note, flat characters, but there is variety, there is kindness, there is dimension. The writing is not as full of epigrams and wit as Wilde, but it is that kind of story. I enjoyed enough to acquire other Keane titles.
January 31, 2020
An enjoyable read; astutely witty, without any doubt. However, as a modern reader, I cannot simply look past the littering of racial slurs and homophobic insinuations bubbling under the service, despite being able to acknowledge this as a ‘novel of its time’. I have the same problem with Nancy Mitford. That being said, all the characters are intentionally (at least, I hope so) detestable in a rather delicious way. I will read more Keane, for certain, but I will be sure to prepare myself to be deflated by the uncomfortably dated attitudes which jarringly jab through her otherwise glittering prose. The ending was quite satisfying. Could have done without the fox hunting, though.
January 5, 2009
A viciously funny black comedy of manners, mainly set in Ireland. Nice little details involving antiques, dogs, horses, even plants.
May 7, 2022
Closer to 3.5
I had never heard of Molly Keane until a friend recently suggested that I check out her work, specifically 'Devoted Ladies' (due, I guess, to its addition of gay characters; something Keane didn't normally do). Knowing I was a huge fan of P.G. Wodehouse, my friend let me know that he thought Keane's work was funnier (!). (Hmm, I thought... could such a thing be possible?)
Writing as either Keane or 'M.J. Farrell', the author penned about 20 novels and plays. (Wodehouse, of course, wrote *tons* more.) This first venture of mine reveals that Keane is, indeed, funny - but not in a way that's at all competitive with Wodehouse. With Keane, you have to think more about how she's expressing herself through her characters. The wit is certainly there but it's a lot more deadpan.
Overlapping roughly in the same period (the early 1900s), both writers used the English language in individual ways that would now most likely be considered quaint. But, all things considered, Wodehouse is easier to read. He writes what almost amounts to standup-material jokes which fly well on a surface level. When he's not doing that (and often when he is), he has some form of traditional farce in full swing.
Keane is subtler. As evidenced in 'DL', and unlike Wodehouse, Keane doesn't particularly write jokes rooted in a similar, playful usage of conversational language. Her humor comes more through descriptions of the emotional (i.e., tempestuous) lives of her characters. We're kept abreast of everything they love or hate, or claim to love but actually hate. As well, 'DL' (at least) is not a farce. Keane places her characters in a series of mundane social settings (i.e., a lunch, a picnic, a hunt for berries, a hunt for foxes) and, again, we follow their emotional paths.
'DL' is, indeed, a lesbian love story - minus the love but not minus the codependent intensity. Witnessing the relationship of Jessica (butch) and Jane (femme) put me in mind of 'The Killing of Sister George', with its vaguely s&m set-up. (Frank Marcus' play - and screenplay - is not one I've ever liked especially, since all of the characters are so unsavory and don't even have wit to save them.)
Keane's plot involves the 'suspense' of whether or not Jane will stay with Jessica - or find a more satisfying love in a heterosexual vein. The solution arrives ultimately in a savagely black, tw0-page punch that almost inspired me to grant a four-star review.
I wish this novel had been easier to get through. But I'll look a bit further into Keane's work, to see what else she had on her mind.
I had never heard of Molly Keane until a friend recently suggested that I check out her work, specifically 'Devoted Ladies' (due, I guess, to its addition of gay characters; something Keane didn't normally do). Knowing I was a huge fan of P.G. Wodehouse, my friend let me know that he thought Keane's work was funnier (!). (Hmm, I thought... could such a thing be possible?)
Writing as either Keane or 'M.J. Farrell', the author penned about 20 novels and plays. (Wodehouse, of course, wrote *tons* more.) This first venture of mine reveals that Keane is, indeed, funny - but not in a way that's at all competitive with Wodehouse. With Keane, you have to think more about how she's expressing herself through her characters. The wit is certainly there but it's a lot more deadpan.
Overlapping roughly in the same period (the early 1900s), both writers used the English language in individual ways that would now most likely be considered quaint. But, all things considered, Wodehouse is easier to read. He writes what almost amounts to standup-material jokes which fly well on a surface level. When he's not doing that (and often when he is), he has some form of traditional farce in full swing.
Keane is subtler. As evidenced in 'DL', and unlike Wodehouse, Keane doesn't particularly write jokes rooted in a similar, playful usage of conversational language. Her humor comes more through descriptions of the emotional (i.e., tempestuous) lives of her characters. We're kept abreast of everything they love or hate, or claim to love but actually hate. As well, 'DL' (at least) is not a farce. Keane places her characters in a series of mundane social settings (i.e., a lunch, a picnic, a hunt for berries, a hunt for foxes) and, again, we follow their emotional paths.
'DL' is, indeed, a lesbian love story - minus the love but not minus the codependent intensity. Witnessing the relationship of Jessica (butch) and Jane (femme) put me in mind of 'The Killing of Sister George', with its vaguely s&m set-up. (Frank Marcus' play - and screenplay - is not one I've ever liked especially, since all of the characters are so unsavory and don't even have wit to save them.)
Keane's plot involves the 'suspense' of whether or not Jane will stay with Jessica - or find a more satisfying love in a heterosexual vein. The solution arrives ultimately in a savagely black, tw0-page punch that almost inspired me to grant a four-star review.
I wish this novel had been easier to get through. But I'll look a bit further into Keane's work, to see what else she had on her mind.
April 7, 2017
When I spotted a Virago copy of Devoted Ladies by M.J. Farrell in an Oxford charity shop, I knew precisely three things about M. J Farrell:
1. She was Irish.
2. She also wrote under the name of Molly Keane – a name popular among bloggers who are avid readers of Virago Modern Classics.
3. Her work was characterised by a sharpness of wit that was directed at the Anglo Irish landed gentry of which she was a member.
About Devoted Ladies I knew next to nothing. The back cover blurb told me it was her fifth novel and was unusual in that the elements which characterised her first four publications – namely, horses, romance and snobbery – were replaced by something rather more sensational and gritty. Rather more up my street in other words.
This is a tale of two women who live together within the fashionable London society circle of the 1930s. Farrell avoids any mention of a physical relationship between them but drops enough hints for us to detect this is a lesbian couple; a daring topic for a novel given that only a few years earlier Radclyffe Hall’s novel on the same theme, Well of Loneliness was banned for obscenity.
It doesn’t take long to further establish that far from being ‘devoted’ Jessica and Jane have a rather stormy relationship. Jessica is butch, domineering and sharp-tongued; Jane is softer, a bit silly, and a drinker. She is easy prey to the cruel possessive behaviour of her ‘friend’.
Her cohort of friends don’t care for what they witness – particularly when things turn nastily violent – and fear for her safety. But they’re also rather tired of what they consider Jane’s histrionics. One of them, the playwright Sylvester Browne, is too wrapped up in his own world and anyway doesn’t see it as his business to intervene. It’s left to a newcomer among this group, George Playfair, an Irish gentleman of the hunting class, to come to Jane’s aid. When he finds Jane recovering from a bout of alcoholic poisoning he takes pity on her and persuades her to leave her London home and visit Ireland to aid her recovery. Since he doesn’t really comprehend the nature of her relationship with Jessica he’s oblivious to the way she will interpret his invitation as a challenge to her own control over Jane. The battle is set with Jane caught in the middle.
It took a while for me to warm to Devoted Ladies. I enjoyed the first scenes which lay out a world which has so few cares it can devote itself entirely to hedonistic pleasures. Jane isn’t a particularly likeable character – in the early chapters she plays a lot on the little girl lost act but is essentially a drunk much given to plaintive requests to her guests to”fix me a brandy and soda, I feel horrible.” when she feels she is being ignored. The first chapters set in Ireland didn’t set me alight either since much of this revolves around Sylvester and the Hester and Viola (Piggy) Browne, two cousins with whom he stays in Ireland and who struck me as rather pathetic initially.
Piggy is a charmless character when we first get to know her; lacking self knowledge and consideration for Hester, spending money on frivolous presents ye nothing that would make the house they share more habitable. But then Piggy began to get a hold on me the more I saw how Farrell made her silliness and self centred nature a mask. Piggy is so desperate to be loved and valued, that she goes to quite extraordinary lengths to gain the approval of her so-called friend Joan though their every encounter uses her hours of anxiety. How to time her arrival at Joan’s house so as not to appear too eager yet not lose a precious moment of time with Joan? And then the vexed question of what to wear, requiring a delicate balance between looking good and yet not looking as if she’d gone out to buy something new especially.
How To Look One’s Best in Old Clothes was a question that fevered Piggy to her very soul. The passion that was on her to look her very best on these lovely days was set about miserably by the knowledge that her appearance in Castlequarter in any clothes not in rags would be met by a cold scrutiny, and Joan’s faint ridiculing voice would examine the matter, saying “Why are you so grand today Piggy?” or “i did mean to take the children ratting in the manure heaps this morning but it seems a bit severe on your nice new clothes.
Poor Piggy resorts to deliberately cutting holes in perfectly good clothes, wearing clothes stained with a dog’s footprints and an odd ensemble, just to try and pass muster. This is a woman whom Farrell shows, is not living – and has never really lived – but merely existed; a victim to stronger characters who know exactly how to pull her strings. Though Devoted Ladies is meant to be comic – and indeed it has its witty moments – my overwhelming feeling when I learned Piggy’s fate was of profound sadness for a life wasted.
What started as a novel I was ambivalent about – and at times considered abandoning – became by the end a moving experience. It’s apparently not Farrell/Keane’s best work (that seems to be considered Good Behaviour which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1981) but it’s given me enough of a taste to read her other novels.
1. She was Irish.
2. She also wrote under the name of Molly Keane – a name popular among bloggers who are avid readers of Virago Modern Classics.
3. Her work was characterised by a sharpness of wit that was directed at the Anglo Irish landed gentry of which she was a member.
About Devoted Ladies I knew next to nothing. The back cover blurb told me it was her fifth novel and was unusual in that the elements which characterised her first four publications – namely, horses, romance and snobbery – were replaced by something rather more sensational and gritty. Rather more up my street in other words.
This is a tale of two women who live together within the fashionable London society circle of the 1930s. Farrell avoids any mention of a physical relationship between them but drops enough hints for us to detect this is a lesbian couple; a daring topic for a novel given that only a few years earlier Radclyffe Hall’s novel on the same theme, Well of Loneliness was banned for obscenity.
It doesn’t take long to further establish that far from being ‘devoted’ Jessica and Jane have a rather stormy relationship. Jessica is butch, domineering and sharp-tongued; Jane is softer, a bit silly, and a drinker. She is easy prey to the cruel possessive behaviour of her ‘friend’.
Her cohort of friends don’t care for what they witness – particularly when things turn nastily violent – and fear for her safety. But they’re also rather tired of what they consider Jane’s histrionics. One of them, the playwright Sylvester Browne, is too wrapped up in his own world and anyway doesn’t see it as his business to intervene. It’s left to a newcomer among this group, George Playfair, an Irish gentleman of the hunting class, to come to Jane’s aid. When he finds Jane recovering from a bout of alcoholic poisoning he takes pity on her and persuades her to leave her London home and visit Ireland to aid her recovery. Since he doesn’t really comprehend the nature of her relationship with Jessica he’s oblivious to the way she will interpret his invitation as a challenge to her own control over Jane. The battle is set with Jane caught in the middle.
It took a while for me to warm to Devoted Ladies. I enjoyed the first scenes which lay out a world which has so few cares it can devote itself entirely to hedonistic pleasures. Jane isn’t a particularly likeable character – in the early chapters she plays a lot on the little girl lost act but is essentially a drunk much given to plaintive requests to her guests to”fix me a brandy and soda, I feel horrible.” when she feels she is being ignored. The first chapters set in Ireland didn’t set me alight either since much of this revolves around Sylvester and the Hester and Viola (Piggy) Browne, two cousins with whom he stays in Ireland and who struck me as rather pathetic initially.
Piggy is a charmless character when we first get to know her; lacking self knowledge and consideration for Hester, spending money on frivolous presents ye nothing that would make the house they share more habitable. But then Piggy began to get a hold on me the more I saw how Farrell made her silliness and self centred nature a mask. Piggy is so desperate to be loved and valued, that she goes to quite extraordinary lengths to gain the approval of her so-called friend Joan though their every encounter uses her hours of anxiety. How to time her arrival at Joan’s house so as not to appear too eager yet not lose a precious moment of time with Joan? And then the vexed question of what to wear, requiring a delicate balance between looking good and yet not looking as if she’d gone out to buy something new especially.
How To Look One’s Best in Old Clothes was a question that fevered Piggy to her very soul. The passion that was on her to look her very best on these lovely days was set about miserably by the knowledge that her appearance in Castlequarter in any clothes not in rags would be met by a cold scrutiny, and Joan’s faint ridiculing voice would examine the matter, saying “Why are you so grand today Piggy?” or “i did mean to take the children ratting in the manure heaps this morning but it seems a bit severe on your nice new clothes.
Poor Piggy resorts to deliberately cutting holes in perfectly good clothes, wearing clothes stained with a dog’s footprints and an odd ensemble, just to try and pass muster. This is a woman whom Farrell shows, is not living – and has never really lived – but merely existed; a victim to stronger characters who know exactly how to pull her strings. Though Devoted Ladies is meant to be comic – and indeed it has its witty moments – my overwhelming feeling when I learned Piggy’s fate was of profound sadness for a life wasted.
What started as a novel I was ambivalent about – and at times considered abandoning – became by the end a moving experience. It’s apparently not Farrell/Keane’s best work (that seems to be considered Good Behaviour which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1981) but it’s given me enough of a taste to read her other novels.
May 9, 2022
Too lazy and busy to write a review right now, but I loved this book, and now I want to read more of Keane's stuff. What a joy to discover a new author to love...
January 31, 2016
Devoted Ladies are people I wouldn't want to be friends with. My god, this is so close to the truth it's a crazy mix of clever black comedy and horror. Because people do behave like this, and Keane has dissected these personality attributes so well, with her dry wit, that you find yourself stuck in the head of these women and their motivations. Just vile. Not woman's greatest moment.
There really isn't a massive plot to this book, other than some people who know each other in London all end up in Ireland and one of them fancies this Irish guy and they might get married. Looking at it like that, it sounds rather thin, and perhaps fitting of one of the Irish-set books George gives Jane to read whilst she's on her sick bed - classically soppy books mixing hunting and romance, with marvelous titles such as "The Girl Who Gave". Because, I should add, this is focusing on the country upper classes who enjoy nothing more than a good hunt, and sadly the only time you can see them calming down and approaching something human like is when they're tracking their hounds across fields and watching foxes being torn to shreds. It may not be a massively complex plot, but what this is, is a character driven book, with some brilliantly portrayed characters. And their interactions with each other. It feels as though Keane is describing the whole of womankind that she may have come into contact with.
The ladies in this book are all devoted to their individual arts and generally making one another's lives a misery. We have flatmates Jane and Jessica, living in London. Jane is an airhead alcoholic party girl who doesn't have an opinion about anything and lets herself be bullied into doing anything she doesn't, whilst on the inside cowering and whimpering that she wished she could do what she wants. Ruses even have to be concocted between her, her ladies maid the butler Albert (another wonderful character) and her nurse, so that she may read her books, such as "The Girl Who Gave". Jessica is an intellectual snob and a vicious bully, who will go to the lengths of random physical violence. At a party at the start, she throws a glass at Jane's head because... couldn't really tell you. She loves the fact that she bullies and controls Jane, whilst at the same time looking down her nose at her. I suppose this all feeds some insecurity she has deep down. In London they are friends with playwright/author Sylvester, who puts himself out for no one, and George Playfair, awfully nice Irish rich guy who is a little bit besotted with Jane.
The action then goes to Ireland where for various reasons they find themselves living with Hester and Viola - constantly referred to, even by herself, as 'Piggy'. Hester is of the rich aristocracy who has lost her fortune and is forced to have Piggy, who does have some money and can help keep the household afloat. Hester therefore is a bit of a martyr to Piggy's whims and will often do without or cancel her plans because Piggy might want something different. But we see a bit of a blossoming of Hester, even though she's more of a side character, and of all the women she's the most likable. Piggy is completely in awe/dominated/utterly and consciously taken advantage of by her 'friend' Joan. She is constantly called fat Piggy and made fun of by this family, but she's like a loyal dumb dog and laps it up and keeps running around asking for more. In turn she vents on Hester, and then Jane who is immediately seen as competition for Joan and George's love - and so starts the female bitching. Look at the colour of her nails, what is she wearing!!! etc etc. Joan is a self absorbed narcisst girl-woman who unashamedly uses people and although beautiful on the surface, is pretty nasty underneath.
What a vile bunch of characters they are! And yet it's interesting to read and see the mind games and tactics they play against each other, whilst all the time trying to convince everyone how utterly devoted they are to one another. Fascinating and mildly depressing for how close to real life it is.
I should add this is my second Keane book. Although this is worth a read, I didn't like it as much as Time After Time.
There really isn't a massive plot to this book, other than some people who know each other in London all end up in Ireland and one of them fancies this Irish guy and they might get married. Looking at it like that, it sounds rather thin, and perhaps fitting of one of the Irish-set books George gives Jane to read whilst she's on her sick bed - classically soppy books mixing hunting and romance, with marvelous titles such as "The Girl Who Gave". Because, I should add, this is focusing on the country upper classes who enjoy nothing more than a good hunt, and sadly the only time you can see them calming down and approaching something human like is when they're tracking their hounds across fields and watching foxes being torn to shreds. It may not be a massively complex plot, but what this is, is a character driven book, with some brilliantly portrayed characters. And their interactions with each other. It feels as though Keane is describing the whole of womankind that she may have come into contact with.
The ladies in this book are all devoted to their individual arts and generally making one another's lives a misery. We have flatmates Jane and Jessica, living in London. Jane is an airhead alcoholic party girl who doesn't have an opinion about anything and lets herself be bullied into doing anything she doesn't, whilst on the inside cowering and whimpering that she wished she could do what she wants. Ruses even have to be concocted between her, her ladies maid the butler Albert (another wonderful character) and her nurse, so that she may read her books, such as "The Girl Who Gave". Jessica is an intellectual snob and a vicious bully, who will go to the lengths of random physical violence. At a party at the start, she throws a glass at Jane's head because... couldn't really tell you. She loves the fact that she bullies and controls Jane, whilst at the same time looking down her nose at her. I suppose this all feeds some insecurity she has deep down. In London they are friends with playwright/author Sylvester, who puts himself out for no one, and George Playfair, awfully nice Irish rich guy who is a little bit besotted with Jane.
The action then goes to Ireland where for various reasons they find themselves living with Hester and Viola - constantly referred to, even by herself, as 'Piggy'. Hester is of the rich aristocracy who has lost her fortune and is forced to have Piggy, who does have some money and can help keep the household afloat. Hester therefore is a bit of a martyr to Piggy's whims and will often do without or cancel her plans because Piggy might want something different. But we see a bit of a blossoming of Hester, even though she's more of a side character, and of all the women she's the most likable. Piggy is completely in awe/dominated/utterly and consciously taken advantage of by her 'friend' Joan. She is constantly called fat Piggy and made fun of by this family, but she's like a loyal dumb dog and laps it up and keeps running around asking for more. In turn she vents on Hester, and then Jane who is immediately seen as competition for Joan and George's love - and so starts the female bitching. Look at the colour of her nails, what is she wearing!!! etc etc. Joan is a self absorbed narcisst girl-woman who unashamedly uses people and although beautiful on the surface, is pretty nasty underneath.
What a vile bunch of characters they are! And yet it's interesting to read and see the mind games and tactics they play against each other, whilst all the time trying to convince everyone how utterly devoted they are to one another. Fascinating and mildly depressing for how close to real life it is.
I should add this is my second Keane book. Although this is worth a read, I didn't like it as much as Time After Time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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August 27, 2020It’s pretty hard to get past the ignorant and homophobic portrayal of lesbians (and, secondarily, gay men) in this book, and probably we shouldn’t try. But it’s Molly Keane, and she seems genuinely fascinated by her subject, and makes a remorselessly delectable meal out of it.
There's a lot to love, but the nastiness feels excessive. Sylvester, a playwright who makes an appearance in Keane's much better book The Rising Tide, feels like a very personal character to Keane, and his interior monologues about writing are particularly moving. But his senseless, brutal torment of other characters--particularly one who is perhaps intended to be a failed country lesbian--makes him an unpleasant reader surrogate. Keane doesn't spare herself; she has characters (not bright ones) read her own hunting romances, by name, in an extended sequence mocking the sub-genre in which she'd already made such a success. It’s too bad such a goofily self-referential novel is so excessively ugly. The ending is pat, cliched, and cruel, as if Keane had gotten bored with her toys and flung them away.
There's a lot to love, but the nastiness feels excessive. Sylvester, a playwright who makes an appearance in Keane's much better book The Rising Tide, feels like a very personal character to Keane, and his interior monologues about writing are particularly moving. But his senseless, brutal torment of other characters--particularly one who is perhaps intended to be a failed country lesbian--makes him an unpleasant reader surrogate. Keane doesn't spare herself; she has characters (not bright ones) read her own hunting romances, by name, in an extended sequence mocking the sub-genre in which she'd already made such a success. It’s too bad such a goofily self-referential novel is so excessively ugly. The ending is pat, cliched, and cruel, as if Keane had gotten bored with her toys and flung them away.
December 10, 2012
I heard about this book in a random article I found about gay women in "gothic" literature. Not really what I'd consider a gothic book by any streach of the imagination, it was more Collette meets Cold Comfort Farm. But I throughly enjoyed it! Written in 1936 it is a book that starts out with two women at a party, having a lover's quarrel and then has one as an invalid because of alcohol poisoning, done as comedy, it was just brilliant. While there was no happy romance between the two girls I really enjoyed the tragedy of their relationship. The fights and the jealousy all felt very real despite the delightfull over the top and decadence of the novel. I loved how open the writing that they were in a relationship was. {Perhaps it was because they were kinda horrible they were allowed to get away with it). The fact that if the truth ever came out it would be too shocking to deal with. But I really loved the "evil" butch Jessica. She was fantastic, I can totally understand why she got so annoyed with her girlfriend, who decided to get married to a totally normal man on a whim and was clearly self destructive. Jane was SUCH an idiot, so superficial and such an air head. The only parts I found a bit dull were with Piggy and her sister. The second half of the book was a bit slower than the first, but I think the end made up for it.
May 28, 2025
I had a hard time getting into this. I had previously read Keane's late-in-life masterpiece, Good Behavior, and her first book, a simple but entertaining riding to hounds romp. I think this was the first of the novels where she moved away from light romances and into darker psychological territory. I found the opening with its attempted characterization of Sebastian blundering and hard to follow, and the windows into characters' thoughts were stated in laughably unsubtle terms. The idea is that Jessica is terrorizing her lesbian lover Jane into staying with her, so instead of letting Jessica's actions speak for her, Keane gives us this: "Had the truth been in her now, she would have cried out, 'You dreary man! You smoke Gold Flake cigarettes which I loathe and you ask me to lunch on Sunday, and neither you nor any other will ever help me to escape from Jessica and from all my weakness and terror.'" (p. 188)
Jessica was so crudely drawn I found it impossible to imagine anyone like her. Like what even is this writing? "She would require no more of Jane after she had destroyed her. She only required her destruction. One must end a chapter. That one could go away and laugh and tell of it." (p. 281) The odd thing is that the actions were strong enough to speak for themselves, so I'm not sure why Keane spelled everything out so clumsily.
There were some great moments, like when Jane sees Jessica with a Bradshaw train timetable and exclaims "Reading Bradshaw, darling. How fantastic! What a good brain you have, darling! How does it end?" (p. 253) But again, she mentions like five times that it's a train timetable so that she's sure you're in on the joke. Did her editor make her add these clarifications?
Still, there are many moments of the keen (keane!?) perception that is so evident in Good Behavior, as when Piggy is feeling left out and terrible about herself, but then kind George proffers her a lifeline:
And she is so good at cruelty. The way in which Joan torments Piggy is both particular to its time and place but also universal mean-girl:
(It doesn't.) But then she'd go back to her odd clumsy exposition and ruin it all. Jessica was definitely the weak point, but Jane and Sebastian don't quite work either. She could have made more of Jane's attempts to make it into one of Sebastian's plays as a character, and lightened up a bit on the baby-Jane pastiche. The end went a ways toward redeeming the book for me, but I was left still feeling like it hadn't really come together into a meaningful resolution that said something. Hopefully this was just a mid-career stumble, and I enjoy what came before and what comes after more!
Other notes:
There are some minor mistakes in name references. Garden writer Beverly Nichols is actually Beverley (p. 231). Country clothing outfitter Austin Reade is actually Reed (p. 279). I only know this because I looked both up, and duckduckgo struggled.
"Sylvester preferred to speak of plants by their correct botanical names. Perhaps because he secretly liked the Worts and Banes and Winkles of their English names and preferred to keep this liking to himself." (p. 112)
"It was 6:00 now--a lean hour with dinner dim in the distance and tea an unrealized moment of the past." (p. 126)
Medlars! "Feathers on the chintz, a light sky outside, too few buns, medlar jelly and weak scalding Chinese tea, meant Castlequarter from five o'clock till six to Piggy." (p. 163)
"heavy ochre powder . . . greasy white lipstick that tasted of scented lard . . . chamois gloves with string sewn in the palms [for riding]" (p. 143)
"Old field boots . . . brown Balmorals" (p. 154)
Car has place for visiting cards, face powder, and cigarette ash (p. 207)
Foraging for blackberries, shrimp, and lobsters at the seaside
"Piggy would look perfect, Sylvester thought, as he turned his back disgustedly upon her, in a red bathing dress with short sleeves, frills and anchors all over it. It should be worn with black stockings and a round mob cap of checked rubber. No, he thought then, Piggy belongs in a slightly later date in the world's history. She belongs to the Age of Underclothes. She should have had an affair with a vulgar man in the Great War. Then the 'hot' books frothed and bubbled with underclothes. Well-shaped legs in black silk stockings stuck out of them in all directions. Sickening the way they wrote and talked about women's underclothes then." (p. 214-215)
"Even in shrimping there was not quite that pure fever of selfishness, that sneaking poaching way one crept up on a mushroom unseen by a fellow picker, crept up and pounced as on a secret prey." (p. 220)
Jessica was so crudely drawn I found it impossible to imagine anyone like her. Like what even is this writing? "She would require no more of Jane after she had destroyed her. She only required her destruction. One must end a chapter. That one could go away and laugh and tell of it." (p. 281) The odd thing is that the actions were strong enough to speak for themselves, so I'm not sure why Keane spelled everything out so clumsily.
There were some great moments, like when Jane sees Jessica with a Bradshaw train timetable and exclaims "Reading Bradshaw, darling. How fantastic! What a good brain you have, darling! How does it end?" (p. 253) But again, she mentions like five times that it's a train timetable so that she's sure you're in on the joke. Did her editor make her add these clarifications?
Still, there are many moments of the keen (keane!?) perception that is so evident in Good Behavior, as when Piggy is feeling left out and terrible about herself, but then kind George proffers her a lifeline:
'Oh, I'm sorry, what did you say?' He had not quite heard her. Christ, to have to say it again.
'Did you enjoy the dance at Knockfin?' Her voice was striving small as gnat's now.
'I did, I think. I think I behaved rather badly. Joan told everybody I was drunk. Did she tell you I was drunk?'
Adorable George who asked one a private lovely question. (p. 194)
And she is so good at cruelty. The way in which Joan torments Piggy is both particular to its time and place but also universal mean-girl:
How To Look One's Best In Old Clothes was a question that fevered Piggy to her very soul. The passion that was on her to look her very best on these lovely days was set about miserably by the knowledge that her appearance at Castelquarter in any clothes not in rags would be met by a cold scrutiny, and Joan's faint ridiculing voice would examine the matter, saying: "All dressed up to-day, Piggy?" or "Why are you so grand to-day, Piggy?" . . .
To-day Piggy dressed herself up in as faithful an imitation of Joan's outdoor clothes as her own passionate concentration and Mrs. Kenny's skill had been able to accomplish. True this rough tweed skirt was new, but, instructed by her love, she had torn and darned a good three-cornered hole, she had left her dog's wet footprints to dry upon it too and hoped its unfamiliarity would so pass unnoticed." (p. 142-143)
(It doesn't.) But then she'd go back to her odd clumsy exposition and ruin it all. Jessica was definitely the weak point, but Jane and Sebastian don't quite work either. She could have made more of Jane's attempts to make it into one of Sebastian's plays as a character, and lightened up a bit on the baby-Jane pastiche. The end went a ways toward redeeming the book for me, but I was left still feeling like it hadn't really come together into a meaningful resolution that said something. Hopefully this was just a mid-career stumble, and I enjoy what came before and what comes after more!
Other notes:
There are some minor mistakes in name references. Garden writer Beverly Nichols is actually Beverley (p. 231). Country clothing outfitter Austin Reade is actually Reed (p. 279). I only know this because I looked both up, and duckduckgo struggled.
"Sylvester preferred to speak of plants by their correct botanical names. Perhaps because he secretly liked the Worts and Banes and Winkles of their English names and preferred to keep this liking to himself." (p. 112)
"It was 6:00 now--a lean hour with dinner dim in the distance and tea an unrealized moment of the past." (p. 126)
Medlars! "Feathers on the chintz, a light sky outside, too few buns, medlar jelly and weak scalding Chinese tea, meant Castlequarter from five o'clock till six to Piggy." (p. 163)
"heavy ochre powder . . . greasy white lipstick that tasted of scented lard . . . chamois gloves with string sewn in the palms [for riding]" (p. 143)
"Old field boots . . . brown Balmorals" (p. 154)
Car has place for visiting cards, face powder, and cigarette ash (p. 207)
Foraging for blackberries, shrimp, and lobsters at the seaside
"Piggy would look perfect, Sylvester thought, as he turned his back disgustedly upon her, in a red bathing dress with short sleeves, frills and anchors all over it. It should be worn with black stockings and a round mob cap of checked rubber. No, he thought then, Piggy belongs in a slightly later date in the world's history. She belongs to the Age of Underclothes. She should have had an affair with a vulgar man in the Great War. Then the 'hot' books frothed and bubbled with underclothes. Well-shaped legs in black silk stockings stuck out of them in all directions. Sickening the way they wrote and talked about women's underclothes then." (p. 214-215)
"Even in shrimping there was not quite that pure fever of selfishness, that sneaking poaching way one crept up on a mushroom unseen by a fellow picker, crept up and pounced as on a secret prey." (p. 220)
December 30, 2024
absolute outrage that nyrb has not done a rerelease of this
April 28, 2022
"For once she saw her life as her life was -- a rotten wooden whistle into which she might puff wind endlessly till she died."
Some nicely grotesque characters, but paced like a glacier and pretty stagey. Jessica is engagingly cruel, and Jane interestingly needy, but the novel's central relationship can't sustain 300 pages.
Some nicely grotesque characters, but paced like a glacier and pretty stagey. Jessica is engagingly cruel, and Jane interestingly needy, but the novel's central relationship can't sustain 300 pages.
March 11, 2022
I loved this book even though it's a bit shocking.
What I think some other reviewers don't realise is that though lesbianism obviously happened in the 1920s and 30s it wasn't written about and this book hints at it between Jessica and Jane and also in the homosexuality of Albert and Sylvester. Yes, Molly Keane is a bit scathing about them all but that's part of her charm. Her other books are similar.
I think she was trying to paint a picture of the London life which encompassed a 'gay' scene and seemed more open to a gay scene and then overlapping with the Anglo Irish fox hunting scene where to be gay definitely seemed to be something to be swept under the carpet.
I found the relationship between Piggy and her friend (can't recall the name but sister of George Playfair) interesting because the character of the sister was based on someone Molly knew, as were most of her characters, but the wife of a Master of Foxhounds. Piggy and the other characters were also based on people she knew but obviously elaborated on a lot and also adding some drama. You have to remember that after the First World War a lot of eligible young men were killed or injured so you can see how Piggy came to have few lovers or options to marry.
I agree that ultimately you don't care much about the characters because they aren't that nice for you to want to care about. It all seems a bit shallow with drinking, going off to places for a 'break' and not much in the case of work, apart from maybe Albert. Even Hester, Piggy's sister lives off an allowance and pounces on the paying guests money which Jane and Jessica provides.
But I've read it a few times because it's light, funny and has enough to keep me interested to read more than once.
What I think some other reviewers don't realise is that though lesbianism obviously happened in the 1920s and 30s it wasn't written about and this book hints at it between Jessica and Jane and also in the homosexuality of Albert and Sylvester. Yes, Molly Keane is a bit scathing about them all but that's part of her charm. Her other books are similar.
I think she was trying to paint a picture of the London life which encompassed a 'gay' scene and seemed more open to a gay scene and then overlapping with the Anglo Irish fox hunting scene where to be gay definitely seemed to be something to be swept under the carpet.
I found the relationship between Piggy and her friend (can't recall the name but sister of George Playfair) interesting because the character of the sister was based on someone Molly knew, as were most of her characters, but the wife of a Master of Foxhounds. Piggy and the other characters were also based on people she knew but obviously elaborated on a lot and also adding some drama. You have to remember that after the First World War a lot of eligible young men were killed or injured so you can see how Piggy came to have few lovers or options to marry.
I agree that ultimately you don't care much about the characters because they aren't that nice for you to want to care about. It all seems a bit shallow with drinking, going off to places for a 'break' and not much in the case of work, apart from maybe Albert. Even Hester, Piggy's sister lives off an allowance and pounces on the paying guests money which Jane and Jessica provides.
But I've read it a few times because it's light, funny and has enough to keep me interested to read more than once.
May 15, 2009
This takes place in rural Ireland in I think 1933. The author seems almost malicious towards her characters who are variously presented as evil, pathetic, manipulative or stupid. There's a fox-hunting scene, which I wish I understood better, and at the heart of the novel a portrayal of a very abusive lesbian relationship. As a description of a time and people --fading,alcoholic, upper class Anglo-Irish in the 1930's--it is somewhat interesting.
January 5, 2017
Rereading this, it's even more apparent how much I am NOT a fan of the "psycho lesbian" trope.
June 13, 2025
Just finished this book and... not sure how I feel about it.
On the one hand, it was a pretty slow read and it took me a lot of will power to finish it. However, Keane does incorporate some beautiful imagery of both the city and (mostly) country life. It was an alright read and had both some really interesting studies of society while also having a rather unsettling portrayal of certain characters.
I enjoyed the books critique of the frivolous and shallow lives of the upper-class. All of the characters are deliberately unlikeable, especially with their eternal artificiality towards everyone and everything. I did really enjoy Sylvester's character; he was so interesting in his dichotomy between his outward artificiality verses his inward appreciation for beauty and his true feelings, the latter he mostly tried to repress and hide from being tainted by others knowing of his true passions. His observations of the other characters and situations were also startlingly clear in his understanding of their artificiality, troubles, or loneliness- which you wouldn't expect from his character.
What troubled me most about the book was the portrayal of homosexuality through Jane and Jessica's characters. It seemed to me as a very negative portrayal of lesbian relationships- where Jane and Jessica were completely toxic, manipulative, and shallow in their love for each other. However, perhaps it could be affirming by showing their relationship as never having a chance because of the stigma at the time- that perhaps Jane's infatuation with George and yearning to be free of the 'evil' Jessica is because at the time only heterosexual relationships allowed social stability and were regarded as 'normal.' Piggy's act then at the end of the novel a sad reality of society's unwillingness to acknowledge homosexuality in an accepted and ideal conception of life/relationship. Personally, I'm still trying to decide whether Keane's portrayal of homosexuality was purely negative or if she meant it to be a more dynamic read- but Im curious to read others' interpretations of it.
Which then brings me to Piggy, a character I felt so bad for she was hard to read. Her whole life consisted of her being pushed to the side or used by others who were perceived as more 'fabulous' than her, which she then responded by abasing herself to become a servant to the every whim of who she wished she could be (Joan, then George). While I wanted Piggy to get a good ending, I liked how Keane ended it more realistically- that she can show the tragic side of living your life for others instead of living and finding love for yourself.
Interesting read in that you need to think a lot about what Keane is actually trying to say.
On the one hand, it was a pretty slow read and it took me a lot of will power to finish it. However, Keane does incorporate some beautiful imagery of both the city and (mostly) country life. It was an alright read and had both some really interesting studies of society while also having a rather unsettling portrayal of certain characters.
I enjoyed the books critique of the frivolous and shallow lives of the upper-class. All of the characters are deliberately unlikeable, especially with their eternal artificiality towards everyone and everything. I did really enjoy Sylvester's character; he was so interesting in his dichotomy between his outward artificiality verses his inward appreciation for beauty and his true feelings, the latter he mostly tried to repress and hide from being tainted by others knowing of his true passions. His observations of the other characters and situations were also startlingly clear in his understanding of their artificiality, troubles, or loneliness- which you wouldn't expect from his character.
What troubled me most about the book was the portrayal of homosexuality through Jane and Jessica's characters. It seemed to me as a very negative portrayal of lesbian relationships- where Jane and Jessica were completely toxic, manipulative, and shallow in their love for each other. However, perhaps it could be affirming by showing their relationship as never having a chance because of the stigma at the time- that perhaps Jane's infatuation with George and yearning to be free of the 'evil' Jessica is because at the time only heterosexual relationships allowed social stability and were regarded as 'normal.' Piggy's act then at the end of the novel a sad reality of society's unwillingness to acknowledge homosexuality in an accepted and ideal conception of life/relationship. Personally, I'm still trying to decide whether Keane's portrayal of homosexuality was purely negative or if she meant it to be a more dynamic read- but Im curious to read others' interpretations of it.
Which then brings me to Piggy, a character I felt so bad for she was hard to read. Her whole life consisted of her being pushed to the side or used by others who were perceived as more 'fabulous' than her, which she then responded by abasing herself to become a servant to the every whim of who she wished she could be (Joan, then George). While I wanted Piggy to get a good ending, I liked how Keane ended it more realistically- that she can show the tragic side of living your life for others instead of living and finding love for yourself.
Interesting read in that you need to think a lot about what Keane is actually trying to say.
August 8, 2025
This novel does exactly what it says on the tin . It's a set-piece entertainment which could so easily have been a play in two or three acts . It's full of clichés and dry humour which almost hides the tragic poignancy of control , abuse and loneliness that motivates the behaviour of the principal female characters . These days readers may baulk at the unlikable characters , at the obviously dated prejudices, pastimes and attitudes but it's worth getting past our own moral landscapes and the horrible behaviours in the first part simply to enjoy the deft skill with which Keane brings the tale to its climax.
Our first pair of " Devoted Ladies " are living together in a asymmetric relationship in London . It's a life of debauchery and loose sexual morals lubricated by alcohol where no one is likeable and everyone bitches about everyone else. Dumb Jane is under the violent rule of Malevolent Jessica while gay playwright Aloof Sylvester observes and navigates , using the people he mixes with for his popular cheap novels and West End successes . Is Molly Keane writing herself into this story !
There's a crisis , an innocent and honest huntin , fishing, shootin bloke, George , fetches up at the right moment and we move to the decaying and depleted community of the Anglo Irish where appearances count for everything in a world where their power and wealth is sluicing down the plughole . Our second pair of Devoted Ladies is equally asymmetrical , with the poor deluded spinster Piggy held tight in the fantasy of her friendship with her neighbour , Joan , who is exploitative and two faced .
Keane is an acute observer of both locations having been raised in the latter , then finding personal freedom and fame in the former, after her career as a writer , under the pseudonym M J Farrell, took off .
It's no accident that we have no context , no sense of Ireland or London beyond the tight circle of privilege . The players are few , the settings almost clichéd ( London party , country house , picnic , the hunt ) but this allows the caricatures ( the dumb blond , the country squire , the ugly spinster , the bored wife , the gay playwright) to develop some nuance and interiority . it's unsaid that the substrate is the legacy of WW1 and Irish Independence . No available men allows same sex relationships to be normalised in the city but the isolated rural elites, under threat of extinction, turn to denial of reality and resort to the doctrines and habits of their ancestors . Will it all turn out ok in the end ? You'll simply have to read it to find out .
Our first pair of " Devoted Ladies " are living together in a asymmetric relationship in London . It's a life of debauchery and loose sexual morals lubricated by alcohol where no one is likeable and everyone bitches about everyone else. Dumb Jane is under the violent rule of Malevolent Jessica while gay playwright Aloof Sylvester observes and navigates , using the people he mixes with for his popular cheap novels and West End successes . Is Molly Keane writing herself into this story !
There's a crisis , an innocent and honest huntin , fishing, shootin bloke, George , fetches up at the right moment and we move to the decaying and depleted community of the Anglo Irish where appearances count for everything in a world where their power and wealth is sluicing down the plughole . Our second pair of Devoted Ladies is equally asymmetrical , with the poor deluded spinster Piggy held tight in the fantasy of her friendship with her neighbour , Joan , who is exploitative and two faced .
Keane is an acute observer of both locations having been raised in the latter , then finding personal freedom and fame in the former, after her career as a writer , under the pseudonym M J Farrell, took off .
It's no accident that we have no context , no sense of Ireland or London beyond the tight circle of privilege . The players are few , the settings almost clichéd ( London party , country house , picnic , the hunt ) but this allows the caricatures ( the dumb blond , the country squire , the ugly spinster , the bored wife , the gay playwright) to develop some nuance and interiority . it's unsaid that the substrate is the legacy of WW1 and Irish Independence . No available men allows same sex relationships to be normalised in the city but the isolated rural elites, under threat of extinction, turn to denial of reality and resort to the doctrines and habits of their ancestors . Will it all turn out ok in the end ? You'll simply have to read it to find out .
June 13, 2024
I started this book with a bit of prejudice because in my introduction it says:
Devoted readers of M.J. Farrell's hunting romances who bought her new novel, Devoted Ladies, in 1934 to lose themselves in her singular and special world, that of Anglo-Irish in Southern Ireland, and one to which she utterly belonged, were in for a rude shock when they first opened this book.
This introduction made me want to read her previous books, where she talks about Those famous concerns of her four previous novels - horses, romance, snobbery, the world of the landed gentry in Ireland, the hunt as tapestry, the glorious backdrop to life, and the houses of Ireland lying like temples at the very heart of her books and it didn't make me feel good about reading this book 😄. In the end I found it engaging.
In the first part the author introduces various characters and I was just thinking that at a certain point they would all find themselves together when I turn the page and that's exactly what happens.
The plot is based a lot on power relations between people. Jessica bullies Jane, Joan takes advantage of Piggy's blind devotion, Piggy bullies Hester about money. Everyone takes advantage of every situation where they are stronger than another person. You do and say mean things, you create opportunities to put other people in difficulty, so that you can then go around telling the anecdote and laughing about it and thus be very funny and modern in front of others. Jessica wants to destroy the story of love between George and Jane not to have Jane but "then one could go away and laugh and tell of it".
The most negative character in my opinion is Jessica but the saddest is Piggy, who doesn't even use her real name anymore and uses the nickname that comes from her physical appearance to talk about herself in the third person.
I wouldn't have said it was a book from the 1930s, it certainly seems more modern to me, it reminds me more of Muriel Spark and the 1960s.
I would really like to see a film based on this book, London in the 1930s and then the Irish countryside, à la James Ivory so to speak.
Devoted readers of M.J. Farrell's hunting romances who bought her new novel, Devoted Ladies, in 1934 to lose themselves in her singular and special world, that of Anglo-Irish in Southern Ireland, and one to which she utterly belonged, were in for a rude shock when they first opened this book.
This introduction made me want to read her previous books, where she talks about Those famous concerns of her four previous novels - horses, romance, snobbery, the world of the landed gentry in Ireland, the hunt as tapestry, the glorious backdrop to life, and the houses of Ireland lying like temples at the very heart of her books and it didn't make me feel good about reading this book 😄. In the end I found it engaging.
In the first part the author introduces various characters and I was just thinking that at a certain point they would all find themselves together when I turn the page and that's exactly what happens.
The plot is based a lot on power relations between people. Jessica bullies Jane, Joan takes advantage of Piggy's blind devotion, Piggy bullies Hester about money. Everyone takes advantage of every situation where they are stronger than another person. You do and say mean things, you create opportunities to put other people in difficulty, so that you can then go around telling the anecdote and laughing about it and thus be very funny and modern in front of others. Jessica wants to destroy the story of love between George and Jane not to have Jane but "then one could go away and laugh and tell of it".
The most negative character in my opinion is Jessica but the saddest is Piggy, who doesn't even use her real name anymore and uses the nickname that comes from her physical appearance to talk about herself in the third person.
I wouldn't have said it was a book from the 1930s, it certainly seems more modern to me, it reminds me more of Muriel Spark and the 1960s.
I would really like to see a film based on this book, London in the 1930s and then the Irish countryside, à la James Ivory so to speak.
April 1, 2024
Mixed mixed miiiiixed feelings. I guess it felt like I was “queer baited” into reading this book, except that that can’t be the case for a 1920s publication so I can’t really accuse it of that. Terrible stereotypes, sure yes. But the evil, shitty characters somehow made me wanna finish the book and know what happens.
It’s a mixture of the beautiful and damned and the great gatsby but make it Anglo-Irish and slightly queer.
I did love both Albert and Viola “Piggy,” I think that without them I might not have been able to finish the book.
Could have done without the evil lesbian trope, but then again it’s the 1920s I guess the author was just “going along with her times.”
The prose, however, is very good there are lines regarding descriptions of the weather/ non-moving objects that match each character and these are written quite beautifully.
It’s a mixture of the beautiful and damned and the great gatsby but make it Anglo-Irish and slightly queer.
I did love both Albert and Viola “Piggy,” I think that without them I might not have been able to finish the book.
Could have done without the evil lesbian trope, but then again it’s the 1920s I guess the author was just “going along with her times.”
The prose, however, is very good there are lines regarding descriptions of the weather/ non-moving objects that match each character and these are written quite beautifully.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 1, 2020
Nasty, shallow little book this. Only picked it up from the covid-lockdown re-read shelf as I remember from other works Molly Keane can be a laugh-out-loud funny writer. Not here. While there are some moments of Irish lyricism in the descriptive writing, some sentences are so wordy they need reading three or four times to get the drift.
The characters are almost without exception detestable, waspish, green with sickening jealousy and evil intentions, all proved as this tedious novel gallops towards one of its two denouements: the near-entire obnoxious cast getting off on the pursuit and slaughter of a tired fox cub.
Devoted Ladies? Demented more like.
The characters are almost without exception detestable, waspish, green with sickening jealousy and evil intentions, all proved as this tedious novel gallops towards one of its two denouements: the near-entire obnoxious cast getting off on the pursuit and slaughter of a tired fox cub.
Devoted Ladies? Demented more like.
February 3, 2018
It would have been more fitting if this book had been titled "Despicable Ladies" because Jessica and Jane, along with every other character in the novel, were the most unpleasant I've met in a long time. Even the twin little boys were snot-noses, and the dogs were nasty, too. The touted "humor" in the novel came from scenes like the one where 30-something Piggy (yes, she even referred to herself as The Piggy) gets pummeled on the behind by the boys as she peers into a badger hole. Set in the '30s, the novel has the feel of the Roarin' '20's with drinking and sport occupying every waking moment. I asked for a Molly Keane novel for Christmas, and my daughter gave me two. I feel obligated to at least give the second one a chance to redeem the author's reputation in my eyes, but I am certainly not looking forward to reading it.
January 19, 2020
I think the person who wrote the blurb did not read the book. Jessica and Jane’s relationship is not given that much space in the book. Jessica seems to get forgotten. Sylvester doesn’t really like anyone or anything and there is a lot of the book dedicated to him. It’s just very shallow book.
October 9, 2018
Like PG Wodehouse, if Wodehouse wasn't funny...
did-not-finish
March 26, 2020I tried, I really did but it's just not doing it for me. The people are awful and there aren't enough amusing bon mots to read more.
March 30, 2022
What a delicious book!
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