What do you think?
Rate this book
Without My Cloak
When Anthony Considine creeps into Mellick town with a stolen horse in 1789, it sets the destiny of his family for decades to come. By the 1850s, through thrift and hard work, his son Honest John has made the Considines a leading Mellick family. In turn, his son Anthony builds a fine house in the country for his wife and children—most especially for his adored son Dennis. Little does he know that when Dennis grows up he will threaten the toil of generations with his love for a peasant girl. A stirring family saga of divided loyalties and individual freedom; of matches made and lost; and of the constraints of religion and family pride.
509 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1931
17 people are currently reading
307 people want to read
About the author
Kate O'Brien
48 books55 followersKathleen Mary Louise "Kate" O'Brien, was an Irish novelist and playwright.
After the success of her play, Distinguished Villa in 1926, she took to full-time writing and was awarded the 1931 James Tait Black Prize for her novel Without My Cloak. She is best known for her 1934 novel The Ante-Room, her 1941 novel The Land of Spices and the 1946 novel That Lady. Many of her books dealt with issues of female sexuality — with several exploring gay/lesbian themes — and both Mary Lavelle and The Land of Spices were banned in Ireland. She also wrote travel books, or rather accounts of places and experiences, on both Ireland and Spain, a country she loved, and which features in a number of her novels. She lived much of her later life in England and died in Canterbury in 1974; she is buried in Faversham Cemetery.
The Glucksman Library at the University of Limerick currently holds a large collection of O'Brien's personal writings. In August 2005, Penguin reissued her final novel, As Music and Splendour (1958), which had been out of print for decades. The Kate O'Brien weekend, which takes place in Limerick, attracts a large number of people, both academic and non-academic.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
After the success of her play, Distinguished Villa in 1926, she took to full-time writing and was awarded the 1931 James Tait Black Prize for her novel Without My Cloak. She is best known for her 1934 novel The Ante-Room, her 1941 novel The Land of Spices and the 1946 novel That Lady. Many of her books dealt with issues of female sexuality — with several exploring gay/lesbian themes — and both Mary Lavelle and The Land of Spices were banned in Ireland. She also wrote travel books, or rather accounts of places and experiences, on both Ireland and Spain, a country she loved, and which features in a number of her novels. She lived much of her later life in England and died in Canterbury in 1974; she is buried in Faversham Cemetery.
The Glucksman Library at the University of Limerick currently holds a large collection of O'Brien's personal writings. In August 2005, Penguin reissued her final novel, As Music and Splendour (1958), which had been out of print for decades. The Kate O'Brien weekend, which takes place in Limerick, attracts a large number of people, both academic and non-academic.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 12, 2016
This is not in the same category as The Land of Spices, and the novel's ending (as well as a number of stilted passages throughout the book) mar its overall effectiveness, but O'Brien's marvelously evocative prose--particularly in her description of New York City in the second half of the nineteenth century, which makes me want to investigate whether she might have been influenced by Willa Cather's East-Coast fiction--made it well worth reading.
September 27, 2019
This is an eloquent and stirring novel. It was written by Irish author Kate O’Brien in the early 1930s, and it covers a family of Irish merchants through the years 1860 to 1877.
It begins with the first Anthony Considine, a horse thief, coming into a beautiful Irish valley, and settling down there. But it’s his son, Honest John, who becomes established. He begins a forage business, makes a good amount of money, and becomes a bulwark of society in the little town of Mellick. His Catholic faith sustains him, and his seven children flank him. The book mostly concerns this next generation, and the one that follows.
The recurring theme of the book is the tension between individual desires and social pressure, and love is one of the catalyst that brings these tensions to the surface. There are two doomed love affairs in the book. One is that of Honest John’s daughter Caroline, who falls in love outside her cold, respectable marriage. The other is that of Honest John’s grandson Denis, who chooses someone who doesn’t fulfill the requirements of his social class.
Kate O’Brien is very adept in discussing physical love, without being graphic, without an awkward line. She doesn’t describe the ins and outs, as it were, but rather the emotional qualities of frustrated and fulfilled desire. She sees desire as pivotal to happiness, and indeed to sanity. In Caroline’s case, sex without satisfaction is unbearable, especially as time passes. In Denis’ situation, the author shows a wide range of different kinds of desire, including the hypnotic quality of first love.
Modern sensibilities tend to thrash these things out more openly. In this novel, many things go without saying. And Kate O’Brien finds ways to allude to all these subtle, non-verbal forms of communication.
There’s lots of beautiful writing, and the Irish valley really comes to life. For instance:
One evening of long-drawn light, a swan came sweeping up the stream, going northwards, past him, with the gentle tide. Denis leant out to watch her, holding himself very quiet as if she were music that he heard. The water curved ahead of her in a long, slow sweep. She took it on its crest, the track she knew. Two oars of water streamed behind her, wide and noiseless, from her folded wings. Her unstained whiteness blazed against the light that it was fleeing from, then dropped with distance into a gradual merging with the silver stream, then vanished. It was as if a ghost had passed, or was still passing. It seemed to Denis that the water that her movement had scarcely troubled held something of her now though she was gone – an echo, a trail of decoration. >
It begins with the first Anthony Considine, a horse thief, coming into a beautiful Irish valley, and settling down there. But it’s his son, Honest John, who becomes established. He begins a forage business, makes a good amount of money, and becomes a bulwark of society in the little town of Mellick. His Catholic faith sustains him, and his seven children flank him. The book mostly concerns this next generation, and the one that follows.
The recurring theme of the book is the tension between individual desires and social pressure, and love is one of the catalyst that brings these tensions to the surface. There are two doomed love affairs in the book. One is that of Honest John’s daughter Caroline, who falls in love outside her cold, respectable marriage. The other is that of Honest John’s grandson Denis, who chooses someone who doesn’t fulfill the requirements of his social class.
Kate O’Brien is very adept in discussing physical love, without being graphic, without an awkward line. She doesn’t describe the ins and outs, as it were, but rather the emotional qualities of frustrated and fulfilled desire. She sees desire as pivotal to happiness, and indeed to sanity. In Caroline’s case, sex without satisfaction is unbearable, especially as time passes. In Denis’ situation, the author shows a wide range of different kinds of desire, including the hypnotic quality of first love.
Modern sensibilities tend to thrash these things out more openly. In this novel, many things go without saying. And Kate O’Brien finds ways to allude to all these subtle, non-verbal forms of communication.
There’s lots of beautiful writing, and the Irish valley really comes to life. For instance:
One evening of long-drawn light, a swan came sweeping up the stream, going northwards, past him, with the gentle tide. Denis leant out to watch her, holding himself very quiet as if she were music that he heard. The water curved ahead of her in a long, slow sweep. She took it on its crest, the track she knew. Two oars of water streamed behind her, wide and noiseless, from her folded wings. Her unstained whiteness blazed against the light that it was fleeing from, then dropped with distance into a gradual merging with the silver stream, then vanished. It was as if a ghost had passed, or was still passing. It seemed to Denis that the water that her movement had scarcely troubled held something of her now though she was gone – an echo, a trail of decoration. >
August 17, 2015
Maybe three and a half. Not one of my top favourites of hers.
July 11, 2017
I picked this old book up at a book sale because of the title and original hardback cover. O'Brien tells the saga of the wealthy Catholic Considine family, who run a large forage selling business. We meet all the children of the old man, Honest John who originally came into town on a stolen horse. It is rather slow going and I have to admit I am not that drawn to many of the male characters, until we get to Denis. The women succumb to their roles as wives and mothers, and old aunties, one dying in child birth and another in an unhappy marriage tries to run away, but returns to her family. There are intimations of homosexuality in a couple of the brothers, but we have to guess about them, it was published in 1931! Now the story is the story of Denis, the favored son who does not fit the Considine mold. He is a natural landscape architect and intellectual. I will read on . . . night time reading so I don't get far before I fall asleep.
October 10, 2009
I found this book very disappointing. Whilst there is a desire to find out what happens to the characters, I never really cared about them. Previously I read her book "That Lady" and was so impressed with it that I took this off my mooching shelf. Unfortunately after the first couple of chapters I have succumbed to the desire to skim through it and find that on reflection I can't be bothered to go back and reread it properly. That would never be the case with "That Lady" which held me enthralled from first to last and I dearly wish I had not given away!
This one is much more in the mould of the Forsythe Saga, a huge family history, although it only covers three generations, and the first of those very cursorily.
This one is much more in the mould of the Forsythe Saga, a huge family history, although it only covers three generations, and the first of those very cursorily.
September 3, 2011
Re-read this after many years and highly recommend it. Reminiscent of Radcliffe Hall's The Unlit Lamp, it's a slow read, not easy going... but an amazing exploration of the complexities and dynamics that rule families and the claustrophobia some members feel.
Kate O Brien has written some extraordinarily brilliant books and this is not the strongest - some fans will struggle if they are expecting another Land of Spices, but it's worth the patience. If you've never read Kate O Brien, I'd probably recommend starting with Land of Spices.
Kate O Brien has written some extraordinarily brilliant books and this is not the strongest - some fans will struggle if they are expecting another Land of Spices, but it's worth the patience. If you've never read Kate O Brien, I'd probably recommend starting with Land of Spices.
November 5, 2015
I love the way O'Brien writes about the inner workings of a middle class Irish family as the class level evolves and their struggles increase. It is a longer read, but actually reads at a faster pace than you would think. The movement of the novel's action is drama and emotionally based. The characters are very intriguing and very Irish.
December 10, 2010
It took me FOREVER to get through this. I found it very slow goving - kind of an Irish Forsyte Saga but with a more modernist style. The last 50 pages of the novel though are astounding - both beautifully written and incredibly moving and subtle.
August 21, 2011
I decided to read this book when I was studying in Limerick, Ireland (Mellick=Limerick) and happened across Kate o'Brien's home. I greatly enjoyed it, perhaps more so because I was living where it is set.
October 19, 2011
The wealthy merchant Considine Family of Mellick, Ireland, 1789-1877. It focuses on various family members throughout the years, as they deal with Victorian Catholicism and the expectations of their great family.
August 24, 2012
Really enjoyed this, by far the best of Kate O'Brien's novels, in my opinion, most of her others seem very cold and unemotional in comparison, but in this one she describes the characters with real understanding, and they're not all filled with Catholic angst!
June 13, 2024
This was overall an enjoyable read.
The ending was left very open which was disappointing.
The ending was left very open which was disappointing.
January 28, 2025
I think if the book had been shorter I would have upped my rating by 1 star. As it is, the novel was good, but it was exceedingly long – 469 pages. For a book to be that long, it had better be pretty damn good and have a story to tell that would justify that length. I don’t feel thus book cleared that bar, but that is my opinion.
Synopsis from the back cover of my Virago Modern Classics re-issue:
• Described by J.B. Priestley as a “peculiarly beautiful and arresting piece of fiction” this, Kate O’Brien’s first novel, won the Hawthornden and James Tait Black prizes on publication in 1931. A stirring family saga, it opens in 1789 when Anthony Considine creeps into the town of Mellick with a stolen horse. By the 1850s, through thrift and hard work, his son Honest John has made the Considines a leading Mellick family. In turn his son, Anthony, builds a fine house in the country for his wife and children—most especially his adored son Denis, little knowing that when Denis grows up he will threaten the toil of generations with his love for a peasant girl. This is an enduring portrait of one family’s strengths and weaknesses; of matches made and lost for respectability; of the constraints of Catholicism; of divided loyalties; and of individual freedom threatened by the pride of the Considine name.
I had to construct a table of sorts because there were so many names to keep track of. Honest John had 8 children and six of them had a husband or a wife which figured into the novel, plus possibly their children. It was hard at times to keep track of them all.
I have read three other books of Kate O’ Brien and liked two of them quite a bit:
• Mary Lavelle (1936) — I gave it 4.5
• The Land of Spices (1942) — I gave it 4 stars
• The Last of Summer (1943) — I gave it 2 stars
Review:
• Reviewer liked it a lot... https://laurasmusings.wordpress.com/2...
Synopsis from the back cover of my Virago Modern Classics re-issue:
• Described by J.B. Priestley as a “peculiarly beautiful and arresting piece of fiction” this, Kate O’Brien’s first novel, won the Hawthornden and James Tait Black prizes on publication in 1931. A stirring family saga, it opens in 1789 when Anthony Considine creeps into the town of Mellick with a stolen horse. By the 1850s, through thrift and hard work, his son Honest John has made the Considines a leading Mellick family. In turn his son, Anthony, builds a fine house in the country for his wife and children—most especially his adored son Denis, little knowing that when Denis grows up he will threaten the toil of generations with his love for a peasant girl. This is an enduring portrait of one family’s strengths and weaknesses; of matches made and lost for respectability; of the constraints of Catholicism; of divided loyalties; and of individual freedom threatened by the pride of the Considine name.
I had to construct a table of sorts because there were so many names to keep track of. Honest John had 8 children and six of them had a husband or a wife which figured into the novel, plus possibly their children. It was hard at times to keep track of them all.
I have read three other books of Kate O’ Brien and liked two of them quite a bit:
• Mary Lavelle (1936) — I gave it 4.5
• The Land of Spices (1942) — I gave it 4 stars
• The Last of Summer (1943) — I gave it 2 stars
Review:
• Reviewer liked it a lot... https://laurasmusings.wordpress.com/2...
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews