Seasons - Softcover

Dillon, Anna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0722130821 ISBN 13: 9780722130827

Publisher: Sphere, 1988

Synopsis

Early-twentieth-century Dublin and the conflict of the 1916 Easter Rising provide the backdrop for the story of a young English girl sent to Ireland to serve as a maid in the household of an English army officer

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

This ambitious but pedestrian historical novel comes to a climax in the tumultuous Easter Rising of 1916, the famously mismanaged revolution enacted in Dublin with tragicomic overtones. Studded with historical names (Yeats, Casement, et al . ) and with details culled from actual interchanges with survivors, the story begins with the not entirely unrequited seduction of Katherine Lundy by her employer, Captain Lewis, an English officer with shadowy connections. When the pregnant Katherine is dismissed by her employer's wife, she is befriended by notorious brothel mistress Bella Cohen, and eventually becomes her successor. As "Madam Kitten," Kather ine is virtual arbiter of Dublin's nighttown, her well-appointed house an oasis of gentility frequented by the ruling class, as well as a sanctuary for her and her son. Disruption surfaces with the reappearance of Katherine's first love, Dermot Corcoran, an idealistic journalist committed to the cause of the Irish Brotherhood. After their marriage, Katherine, determinedly apolitical and pragmatic, attempts to save her husband's life in an abortive alliance with her old nemesis, the English captain. Except for Katherine, who grows from naive servant girl to self-confident woman with a piquantly illicit trade, the characters are one-note, and the cadence of the ill-fated rebellion is muted.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

From the turn of the century through the Easter Rising, Seasons offers a glimpse of Dublin and the Irish people during a period of growing economic and political misery and frustration. Centering on the experiences of Katherine Lundy, newly arrived from England as the story opens and entering service with the magnetic, ruthless governement agent John Lewis, the novel paints a realistic portrait of the city's inhabitants and the squalid tenement conditions too many are forced to endure. Over the years the paths of Lewis, Katherine, and crusading reporter Dermot Corcoran run parallel and occasionally intersect through a series of circumstances which climax on Easter Monday, 1916. A well-written, involving novel. Recommended.
- Judith A. Gifford, Salve Regina Coll. Lib., Newport, R.I.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Sphere
• Publication date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0722130821
• ISBN 13: 9780722130827
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 512