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A Drama in Muslin

3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 · rating details · 36 ratings · 5 reviews

A reprint of the first edition written in the 1880s, this is generally considered to be the best version of one of Moore's greatest books. Set in Ireland in the 1880s against a backdrop of Land League troubles in Co. Mayo, and in Dublin, where the social life revolves around the Vice-Regal court in Dublin Castle, this depicts the efforts of a mother trying to catch sociall...more

Paperback, 329 pages

Published December 1st 1981 by Colin Smythe

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Jun 01, 2009 karen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: great-authors-no-one-reads, littry-fiction, table, favorites

mmokay - i put up the publishers description, and now i write a review so jen can use this in her book club. i read this in college so my details are not perfect, but i remember loving it. its about mothers trying to get their daughters married, and the lengths they will go to to accomplish this. its like an old time-y version of cheerleader or beauty pageant moms. there is a lot of scheming and betrayals and backstabbing, but under the guise of these sweet convent girls and their pretty dresses...more

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Jul 21, 2009 Jen rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those seeking a more realistic Jane Austen

Recommended to Jen by: karen

Shelves: chicks-dig-it, classics, like-mother-like-daughter, lit-fic, need-to-review, silver-shelf, sisters-book-club

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Let us now praise karen, for she recommended this book. Realistic Jane Austen was a perfect description. Delightfully surprised by the book. Folded more than my fair share of page corners.

My middle sister was excused from this month's selection because

1. tiny print
2. French phrases
3. no smut
4. she had a baby

My youngest sister liked the book, but not as much as Jane Austen. "Jane Austen is more polite and has more dialogue"

And, as for me, I liked the book-liked that Alice was plain, smart, and l...more

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Oct 18, 2010 Bruce rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Publishing this novel in 1886, Moore begins the story by describing five heroines, members of the Anglo-Irish upper classes, as they are about to graduate from Convent School and begin to make their way in the world, the primary option seeming to be to look for husbands. His descriptions are wickedly satirical; for example, he describes the physical beauties of Olive Barton, then adding, “In the beautiful framework nothing was wanting but a mind. She was, in a word, a human flower - a rose - a c...more Publishing this novel in 1886, Moore begins the story by describing five heroines, members of the Anglo-Irish upper classes, as they are about to graduate from Convent School and begin to make their way in the world, the primary option seeming to be to look for husbands. His descriptions are wickedly satirical; for example, he describes the physical beauties of Olive Barton, then adding, “In the beautiful framework nothing was wanting but a mind. She was, in a word, a human flower - a rose - a carnation that a wicked magician had endowed with the power of speech.” Great individuality of each of the five - Olive, Alice, May, Violet, Cecilia - is instantly established by their speech and appearance, even psychological differences being rapidly delineated. Moore’s descriptions of nature are florid, even Baroque, one senses even tongue-in-cheek. Yet Moore is able poignantly to portray the dilemma of Irish women of their time and class, their lack of opportunity, and their feelings of uselessness for anything but to be wives and mothers. All this is set against a background in County Galway of increasing land agitation among the lower classes; the sense of threat among the landowners to their way of life and indeed to their lives themselves is very real.

The principle and most sympathetic character is Alice Barton, who, with her sister Olive, has returned home to County Galway. Olive is intent only on social events and finding a husband. Alice struggles to tolerate her uncongenial family, chafes under the boredom of her intellectually barren life, and is reluctant to inform her Catholic family about the loss of her faith. Her only friend is the hunchbacked Cecilia, a hater of men, who yearns for and loves Alice with an intense and possessive love. The work is, in fact, a powerful feminist tract, an articulate argument for equality of men and women.

At the end of Chapter 7, Moore creates one of the most elegant contrapuntal conversations I’ve seen written, weaving lines of dialogue from two unrelated and geographically distant conversations together in a marvelous, creative, yet thoroughly understandable way. It is a marvel of writing.

In this novel an interesting picture is presented of the political and social situations in 1882 - the atrocities committed on landowners and their livestock by impoverished supporters of land reform, the superficiality and cultural shallowness of “society” as they try to go about their lives in denial to the extent possible of social unrest, the defensiveness and lack of self-confidence of the Anglo-Irish vis-à-vis the English. Moore pulls no punches and is bitingly critical of his countrymen, expressing his feelings with pointed satire. He also, however, poignantly reveals the pain that results to those trying to live their lives within a social paradigm that is coming to an end. Writing less than a decade after the events, he accurately describes historical movements and events such as the Land League and the Phoenix Park murders of the 1880’s. And Moore plays with important and enduring themes - the rights and social roles of women, class inequities in society, religious fervor and atheism, the stresses of homoerotic desires in a repressive society. This is a work that deserves to be better known today, both as a reflection of the times in which it was written and as a work of art in itself.
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Feb 20, 2013 Zan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I don't know that I would have picked this book up if it hadn't been assigned, but I really enjoyed this portrayal of female society in Ireland in the 1980s. Five friends return to Ireland from school in a convent only to be bombarded with their "coming out" for the Dublin season, pressure to marry advantageously, while Irish politics (the Land League) push in at edge.

It's a bit like a George Eliot/Jane Austen mash-up, if you'll forgive the awkward comparison.

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Sep 08, 2010 ABookGeek rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was an interesting book for a number of reasons. I like Irish history and the book takes place in the 1880's in western Ireland during the activities of the Land League, so there is the historical aspect to it. But the most interesting thing was the picture it painted of the lives of five girls born into the gentry of the West of Ireland. Read the rest of my review here: http://abookgeek-llm.blogspot.com/201...

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About George Augustus Moore

George Augustus Moore was an Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist. Moore came from a Roman Catholic landed family. He originally wanted to be a painter, and studied art in Paris during the 1870s. There, he befriended many of the leading French artists and writers of the day.

As a naturalistic writer, he was amongst the first English-language authors to absor...more

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