Molly Keane’s Good Behaviour: From ‘Temple Alice’ to ‘Gull’s Cry’

Activity: Talk or presentationInvited talk

Description

Though born in Kildare Molly Keane (1904-1996) lived much of her life in Ardmore, County Waterford. In a literary career spanning six decades she wrote eleven novels and four plays under the pseudonym M. J. Farrell and four novels using her own name. A contemporary and friend of writer Elizabeth Bowen, Keane was a caustic observer of Ascendancy Irish life earning her a nomination for the prestigious Man Booker Prize in 1981 following the publication of Good Behaviour earlier that year. Taking Good Behaviour as a core text this lecture considered why Keane’s work is often cited as sounding the death knell of the Anglo-Irish way of life.
Period22 Feb 2018
Held atWexford Library Service, Wexford County Council, Ireland
Degree of RecognitionRegional

Keywords

  • Molly Keane
  • Irish Literature
  • Good Behaviour