Good Behaviour

A BBC 2 Between the Covers Book Club Pick – Booker Prize Gems

By: Molly Keane

Narrated by: Aoife McMahon

A BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK (BOOKER PRIZE GEMS)

'Molly Keane is a mistress of wicked comedy' VOGUE

'She was . . . marvellous' GUARDIAN

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

I do know how to behave - believe me, because I know. I have always known . . .

Behind the gates of Temple Alice, the aristocratic Anglo-Irish St Charles family sinks into a state of decaying grace. To Aroon St Charles, large and unlovely daughter of the house, the fierce forces of sex, money, jealousy and love seem locked out by the ritual patterns of good behaviour. But crumbling codes of conduct cannot hope to save the members of the St Charles family from their own unruly and inadmissible desires. This elegant and allusive novel established Molly Keane as the natural successor to Jean Rhys.

'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' MAGGIE O'FARRELL©1981 The Estate of Molly Keane

Critic reviews

She was . . . marvellous

A fine novel, wickedly alive (Victoria Glendinning)

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

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

Molly Keane is a mistress of wicked comedy

Enchanting (Edna O'Brien)

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

I admired many authors. But Molly, I loved (Diana Athill)

A writer of genius

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

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

Best possible reading of Keane’s acerbic masterpiece

Booker shortlisted novel set in Ireland between the wars. Wonderful depiction of unrequited love, relations between servants and landowners, and the lives of upper-class “daughters at home.”

All around beautiful.

Revenge is a dish best served cold. This is my go to novel when I’m feeling down.

A gem!

What a gem! Truly a masterpiece. It took a few minutes to get used to the reader at first but after that I was thoroughly entranced.

Amusing and well written

Stiff upper lip and good manners disguise dynamics of English family after WW1 . Great dialogue and characterization.

Great all around

Fabulous story and performance:. Chilling look at the culture in an Irish country home before and after WW1.