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Molly Keane

 
Irish Literature Companion: Molly [Marry Nesta] Keane
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Keane, Molly [Marry Nesta] (née Molly Skrine) (1904-1996), novelist and playwright. Born in Co. Kildare, her mother being Moira O'Neill, she was educated privately. The Knight of the Cheerful Countenance (1926), a first novel, was published under the pseudonym ‘M. J. Farrell’ (being the name on a public house), as were her next ten. She resumed writing under her own name in the late 1970s after a lapse of twenty years. Her fiction is set typically in a big house ambience. Among her novels are: Young Entry (1928), Taking Chances (1929), and Mad Puppetstown (1931)—which is, like Two Days in Aragon (1941), set against the background of the Troubles, 1919-21. In Devoted ladies (1934) Keane attempts to give a detached view through the perspective of an American heroine. Loving Without Tears (1951) and Treasure Hunt (1952) have the character of drawingroom comedies, the latter being based on one of the plays which Keane wrote in association with John Perry. Others are Spring Meeting (1938) and Ducks and Drakes (1941). The first novel to appear under her own name was the black comedy Good Behaviour (1981), followed by Time After Time (1983), which puts the Anglo-Irish gentry face to face with the savagery of modern history. Loving and Giving (1988) narrates the life and death of a heroine haunted by memories.

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Wikipedia: Molly Keane
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Molly Keane (1905 - April 22, 1996)[1] was an Irish novelist and playwright (born Mary Nesta Skrine in Ryston Cottage,Newbridge, County Kildare). She grew up in County Wexford and was educated at a boarding school in Bray, County Wicklow [2]. She married Bobby Keane, one of a Waterford squirearchical family in 1938 [1] and had two daughters. She used her married name for her later novels, several of which (Good Behaviour, Time After Time) have been adapted for television. Between 1928 and 1956, she wrote 11 novels, and some of her earlier plays, under the pseudonym M.J. Farrell.[3] Molly was a member of Aosdána.[4] When her husband died at age 36 [?????citation needed: this age would mean he was 13 when they were married] in 1961, she didn't write again for twenty years. In 1981 she wrote Good Behaviour under her own name; the novel was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize.[5]

After the death of her husband, Molly Keane moved to Ardmore, County Waterford, a place she knew well, and lived there with her two daughters, Sally and Virginia, until she died in 1996. She is buried beside the Church of Ireland church, almost in the centre of the village. [6]

Bibliography

Novels as "M. J. Farrell":

  • The Knight of Cheerful Countenance (1926)
  • Young Entry (1928)
  • Taking Chances (1929)
  • Mad Puppetstown (1931)
  • Conversation Piece (1932)
  • Devoted Ladies (1934)
  • Full House (1935)
  • The Rising Tide (1937)
  • Two Days in Aragon (1941)
  • Loving Without Tears (1951)
  • Treasure Hunt (1952)

Novels as "Molly Keane":

  • Good Behaviour (1981)
  • Time After Time (1983)
  • Loving and Giving (1988) (alternatively titled Queen Lear)

Plays (as "M.J. Farrell"):

  • Spring Meeting (1938)
  • Ducks and Drakes (1942)
  • Treasure Hunt (1949) (on which the novel was later based)
  • Dazzling Prospect (1961)

External links

References

  1. ^ a b Who's Who 1987
  2. ^ Picnic in a Foreign Land by Ann Morrow, Grafton Books 1990
  3. ^ "David Higham Client Entry". http://www.davidhigham.co.uk/html/Clients/Keane. Retrieved 2006-09-16. 
  4. ^ "Information For Writers and Producers of Radio Drama". http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/drama/productions/radio/missed.shtml. Retrieved 2006-09-16. 
  5. ^ "About the prize". http://www.themanbookerprize.com/about/previous/1981.php. Retrieved 2006-09-16. 
  6. ^ Irish Times, 20 August 2008, page 13: An Irishman's Diary, Hugh Oram


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Irish Literature Companion. The Concise Oxford Companion to Irish Literature. Copyright © 1996, 2000, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
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