Imprint
- Virago
- Virago
Virago Modern Classics, Fiction, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Classic fiction (pre c 1945), Romance, Historical fiction
*A masterpiece of passion, reticence, and self-denial by one of the twentieth century's greatest writers
Ireland, 1880 and a prosperous, provincial family observes the three great autumnal feasts of the Church. As Teresa Mulqueen lies dying, her family gather round her and beneath this drama another, no less poignant, unfolds. Unmarried daughter Agnes awaits the return of her sister Marie-Rose and brother-in-law Vincent. She adores her sister, but secretly, pasionately, loves Vincent. And their marriage, she knows, is unhappy...Ahead lies a terrible battle between her uncompromising faith and the intensity of her love. In this delicately imagined novel, originally published in 1934, Kate O'Brien lays bare the struggles between personal need and the Catholic faith with the sympathy and insight which is the hallmark of her craft.
More books by Kate O'Brien
Praise for The Ante-Room
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A grave and beautiful story, exquisitely composed and cut to a jewel-like fineness - DAILY TELEGRAPH
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A gem of a novel - TAMSIN HARGREAVES
Kate O'Brien
Kate O'Brien (1897-1974) lived in London and also in Spain, where she developed a passionate and enduring love of Spanish literature and culture. One of the twentieth century's greatest novelists, her fiction broke new ground in Irish writing by focusing on the prosperous Catholic bourgeoisie and by giving central importance to women's struggle for selfhood in a rigidly sex-stereotyped society.
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