Somerville, E. OE. / Ross, Martin.

The Real Charlotte.

London / New York, Quartet Books, 1986. 12.5 x 20cm. 344 pages. Original softcover. Excellent condition with only very minor signs of wear to spine. Inscribed with previous owner’s name.

So symbiotic and consummate, as well as mysterious and inexplicable, was the writing partnership of Somerville and Ross that they’re fully regarded as one. The Somerville was Edith Somerville; the Ross was Violet Martin (of Ross in Connemara, hence the name), cousins who, until Ross’s death, in 1915, published several novels. The sparkling series about an Irish RM gives, above all, wonderful renderings of the then Irish vernacular. But it’s The Real Charlotte that may be the best Irish novel, qua novel, of any century. As Anthony Cronin says, Ulysses, which might seem to qualify as “the best”, is a “fictive construction”, while The Real Charlotte is a powerful exemplar of the classic novel as it was, and sometimes still is, written. In Charlotte and her young cousin Francie we get vivid and engaging characters, an acutely depicted milieu (loosely that of the Irish gentry) and a poignant tragicomic plot. But, of course, like all great novels, The Real Charlotte is greater than the sum of its parts. [Anne Haverty, The Irish Times]

• Keywords: 19th Century Literature · Fiction · Irish Author · Irish Literature · Somerville & Ross
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 91170AB

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