2 ‘She’s nothin’ but a shadda’
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James H. Murphy
Abstract
This chapter identifies an almost campaigning urgency in much of Rosa Mulholland’s fiction in the cause of women’s advancement, energised for much of her career by a progressive optimism. However, this chapter focuses on two late novels, The Return of Mary O’Murrough (1908) and Norah of Waterford (1915). Here the realism that accompanied the optimism of her earlier work gives way to a pessimism concerning the relationship between gender and economics as women struggle for happiness in a world where erotic love and marriage are tied in with material security.
Abstract
This chapter identifies an almost campaigning urgency in much of Rosa Mulholland’s fiction in the cause of women’s advancement, energised for much of her career by a progressive optimism. However, this chapter focuses on two late novels, The Return of Mary O’Murrough (1908) and Norah of Waterford (1915). Here the realism that accompanied the optimism of her earlier work gives way to a pessimism concerning the relationship between gender and economics as women struggle for happiness in a world where erotic love and marriage are tied in with material security.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- List of contributors viii
- Foreword by Lia Mills xii
- Acknowledgements xvii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Works, righteousness, philanthropy, and the market in the novels of Charlotte Riddell 17
- 2 ‘She’s nothin’ but a shadda’ 33
- 3 Nature, education, and liberty in The Book of Gilly by Emily Lawless 49
- 4 Girls with ‘go’ 65
- 5 ‘Breaking away’ 82
- 6 Women, ambition, and the city, 1890–1910 100
- 7 ‘An Irish problem’ 121
- 8 ‘A bad master’ 137
- 9 ‘Old wine in new bottles’? 156
- 10 ‘The blind side of the heart’ 174
- 11 ‘The Red Sunrise’ 191
- 12 Liberté, égalité, sororité 209
- Bibliography 227
- Index 243
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- List of contributors viii
- Foreword by Lia Mills xii
- Acknowledgements xvii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Works, righteousness, philanthropy, and the market in the novels of Charlotte Riddell 17
- 2 ‘She’s nothin’ but a shadda’ 33
- 3 Nature, education, and liberty in The Book of Gilly by Emily Lawless 49
- 4 Girls with ‘go’ 65
- 5 ‘Breaking away’ 82
- 6 Women, ambition, and the city, 1890–1910 100
- 7 ‘An Irish problem’ 121
- 8 ‘A bad master’ 137
- 9 ‘Old wine in new bottles’? 156
- 10 ‘The blind side of the heart’ 174
- 11 ‘The Red Sunrise’ 191
- 12 Liberté, égalité, sororité 209
- Bibliography 227
- Index 243
