Behind the gates of Temple Alice, the aristocratic Anglo-Irish St Charles family sinks into a state of decaying grace. To Aroon, unlovely daughter of the house, sex and love seem locked out by the rituals of good behaviour. But crumbling codes of conduct cannot hope to save the family.
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Review
'A fine novel, wickedly alive' -- VICTORIA GLENDINNING, SUNDAY TIMES
'A masterpiece' -- Bookseller
'An extraordinary tour de force' -- VOGUE
'Enchanting' -- EDNA O'BRIEN, OBSERVER
'May well become a classic among English novels' -- NEW YORK TIMES
'A masterpiece' -- Bookseller
'An extraordinary tour de force' -- VOGUE
'Enchanting' -- EDNA O'BRIEN, OBSERVER
'May well become a classic among English novels' -- NEW YORK TIMES
Book Description
*A brilliant comic novel about Anglo-Ireland that was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
*'A mistress of wicked comedy' MALCOLM BRADBURY, VOGUE
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 30 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This blackest of black comedies ranks alongside Ford's 'The Good Soldier' as a merciless portrait of the emotionally repressed landed gentry in the early part of the twentieth century. Its naive narrator, Aroon, recalls a life straitjacketed by 'good behaviour' - that code of manners peculiar to her class - and it is left to the reader to see through her blind misinterpretation of events and piece together a story of tragic self-delusion. It is all done flawlessly with wit and panache and the lightest touch, and I can't recommend it highly enough.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This beautifully written book evokes a sense of time and place -but nothing is what it seems. From the children's nanny's flirtation with the master of the house, to the secret "love that dare not speak it's name" between the narrator's brother and the handsome schoolfriend - there are subdued and dangerous secrets. Layer upon layer of scandalous behaviour is unravelled, softly, cleverly and always subtle - good behaviour is a theme that the characters in this book certainly never adhere to! It's truly wonderful!
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A multilayered portrait of a young girl coming of age. Nothing is as it seems - a mother who is anything but motherly, a brother who is gay, the brother's friend whom the main character Aroon St Charles believes loves her, runs off with a school chum. All these set backs for Aroon are deftly or naively excused under the guise of "Good Behaviour" It's only when the family home is left to Aroon by her father does she feel redeemed in any way. A simple story, however each time I read it I find more about the characters. Perhaps the best example of characterisation I have ever read, and as a social history of the landed class in Ireland - unsurpassable!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing
This book is a slow read and eventually I gave up. There is very little story, and rather dull. I was expecting more from it.
Published 3 months ago by Tolstoy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Couldn`t put it down.
Unusual book, thought it was odd at first the way it was written but I continued as it was our book club of the month.
Thoroughly enjoyed the read.
Thoroughly enjoyed the read.
Published 4 months ago by Lamb
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bought this book for my daughter
I bought this book for my daughter for Christmas, and I am hoping that she will enjoy reading it, the cover was a great hit! Read more
Published 4 months ago by Carol-Anne Abbink
5.0 out of 5 stars
fab
This is one of my most favourite books of all time and so I very often give it to people for presents
Published 4 months ago by MR. T. W. Hayton
4.0 out of 5 stars
'Dark, complex, engaging'
Set amid an increasingly impoverished Irish family of the early 20th century, we follow narrator Aroon through her early life. Read more
Published 4 months ago by sally tarbox
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Behaviour an upper class trait.
This is a most amusing story of the Irish upper class in the early part of the C20th. A contender for the Booker prize I highly recommend it.
Published 5 months ago by Susanna
5.0 out of 5 stars
Anglo-Irish Etiquette
Molly Keane wrote for years under a pseudonym before deciding in 1981, when she was in her late 70s, to publish this delightful tale of the fading Irish Protestant ascendancy in... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Alexis Paladin
4.0 out of 5 stars
YOUTHFUL AUTOBIOGRAPHY
I enjoyed this novel.It tells of the youth of a landed daughter in an Anglo-Irish setting.It was a well written and moving book. Read more
Published 12 months ago by bibliophile
5.0 out of 5 stars
A painful story wonderfully crafted
Aroon St Charles, aged 57, tells us of the first thirty years or so of her life. She was born before the first World War into an Anglo-Irish Protestant landed family living near... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Ralph Blumenau
5.0 out of 5 stars
My favourite book in a fine new cover
'Good Behaviour' is my favourite Molly Keane book. Keane wrote under her own name, and, earlier as M J Farrell. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Morganlefay
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