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Good Behaviour - Virago Modern Classics (Paperback)
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Good Behaviour - Virago Modern Classics (Paperback)

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£9.99
Paperback 304 Pages
Published: 23/01/2025
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We kept our heads above the morass, stifled screaming despairs only by the exercise of Good Behaviour.

Behind the gates of Temple Alice, the aristocratic St Charles family is sinking into a state of decaying grace. Aroon, the unlovely daughter of the house, silently longs for affection - which she receives neither from her icy mother nor her hunting-obsessed father. The fierce forces of sex, money, jealousy and love seem stifled by the rules of good behaviour. But no crumbling codes of conduct can save the members of the St Charles family from their own dark secrets and repressed cruelties . . .

Introduced by Maggie O'Farrell

'Molly Keane is a mistress of wicked comedy' VOGUE

'Dark, complex, engaging . . . a wonderful tour de force' MARIAN KEYES

'I have read and re-read Molly Keane more, I think, than any other writer. Nobody else can touch her as a satirist, tragedian and dissector of human behaviour' MAGGIE O'FARRELL

'I really wish I had written this book...You read it with mounting horror and hilarity' HILARY MANTEL

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
ISBN: 9780349019604
Number of pages: 304
Weight: 240 g
Dimensions: 198 x 126 x 24 mm


MEDIA REVIEWS

She was . . . marvellous - Guardian

A fine novel, wickedly alive - Victoria Glendinning, Sunday Times

Molly Keane's Good Behaviour presents a character whose own strict Christian code wreaks havoc on all those around her. Though she herself tells the tale, we somehow see her morality's disastrous consequences. Hilarious and sinister - New York Times

I really wish I had written this book. It's a tragi-comedy set in Ireland after the First World War. A real work of craftsmanship, where the heroine is also the narrator, yet has no idea what is going on. You read it with mounting horror and hilarity as you begin to grasp her delusion

I have read and re-read Molly Keane more, I think, than any other writer. Nobody else can touch her as a satirist, tragedian, and dissector of human behaviour. I love all her books, but Good Behaviour and Loving and Giving are the ones I return to most

Keane's distinctive blend of elegant savagery and deep affection . . . its human relationships tortured like bonsai by good form, its open-hearted, sensual passion for horses, dogs and landscape - Evening Standard

Molly Keane is a mistress of wicked comedy - Vogue

Enchanting - Edna O'Brien, Observer

Dark, complex, engaging . . . a wonderful tour de force - Marian Keyes

Wily, shrewd, and terribly sad all at the same time: the story of a soul shrivelling against cool, dark, shiny backgrounds - Kirkus Reviews

I admired many authors. But Molly, I loved - Diana Athill

A writer of genius - Wall Street Journal

Good Behaviour includes very little good behaviour, featuring instead delicious and deleterious accounts of illicit sex and wild high jinks, and a mother-daughter duo who can scrap with the best of them - Vulture

A witty, black comedy of manners, Good Behaviour is a memorable novel by an Irish writer whose only equal is Elizabeth Bowen - Bookseller

An extraordinary tour de force of fictional presentation... a masterpiece... a technically remarkable work, as sharp as a blade... Molly Keane is a mistress of wicked comedy. - VOGUE

A witty, black comedy of manners, GOOD BEHAVIOUR is a memorable novel by an Irish writer whose only equal is Elizabeth Bowen. - BOOKSELLER

A fine novel, wickedly alive - Victoria Glendinning, SUNDAY TIMES

Enchanting - Edna O'Brien, OBSERVER

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“pitch black comedy”

Molly Keane was a wonderful writer, elegant, intelligent and precise. She paints a complete and complex picture of a family, their friends and lovers and a world so brilliantly it's suprising this book isn't... More

Paperback edition
Helpful? Upvote 59

“Between The Covers - Series 3 Book”

Well before this book had been selected for Between The Covers Series 3 I had never heard of it or indeed of Molly Keane, it's author.
This is from the booker prize list of previous years so I obviously started... More

Paperback edition
Helpful? Upvote 9

“Weirdly wonderful horror story of human behaviour.”

A good read.
If as a reader, you need to like the main protagonist in what you're reading, this ain't the book for you. If you need, at least, someone in the book to like and see them win through during the... More

Paperback edition
Helpful? Upvote 7

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