Good Behaviour

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

De: Molly Keane

Narrado por: 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 (P)2021 Hachette Audio UK

Great all around

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

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.

Happy I Found It!

Thank you to the “Read Like the Wind” column in the New York Times. Without it I would never have discovered this author or book. As others have mentioned, the narrator took some getting used to but is excellent.