A review by atg
The Real Charlotte by Edith Œnone Somerville

5.0

Excellently written. Very dark novel but with much humour. The scene is set in rural Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century. The characters: the landed gentry, the land agent, soldiers in the British army, respectable middling farmers and lower landed society and one or two servants. Interestingly the landowners are the most noble while nearly everybody else is foul or petty to a lesser or greater degree. Despite the stereotyping the characters are extremely well developed as is the plot and the prose is a sheer pleasure to read.