Treasure Hunt

by Molly Keane, Molly Keane

Sir Roderick's legacy to the younger generation is a host of debts. To the outrage of their elders, Philip and Veronica decide to do the unspeakable and take in paying guests

Genres: Ireland, Fiction, Literature, Modern Classics, Literary Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

Molly Keane (20 July 1904 – 22 April 1996) was an Irish novelist and playwright (born Mary Nesta Skrine in Ryston Cottage, Newbridge, County Kildare). She grew up at Ballyrankin in County Wexford and was educated at a boarding school in Bray, County Wicklow. She married Bobby Keane, one of a Waterford squirearchical family in 1938 and had two daughters. She used her married name for her later novels, several of which (Good Behaviour, Time After Time) have been adapted for television. Between 1928 and 1956, she wrote 11 novels, and some of her earlier plays, under the pseudonym M.J. Farrell . Molly was a member of Aosdána. Her husband died suddenly in 1946, and following the failure of a play she published nothing for twenty years. In 1981 Good Behaviour came out under her own name; the manuscript, which had languished in a drawer for many years, was lent to a visitor, the actress Peggy Ashcroft, who encouraged Keane to publish it. The novel was warmly received and was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize.

After the death of her husband, Molly Keane moved to Ardmore, County Waterford, a place she knew well, and lived there with her two daughters, Sally and Virginia, until she died in 1996. She is buried beside the Church of Ireland church, almost in the centre of the village.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Maryellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Molly Keane again assembles her usual cast of characters in this novel. The crumbling Irish country estate, dreary and damp right down to the furred wallpaper, a family of eccentrics, three generations in all and writing as sharp and direct as always. This time there is a bit of a mystery in the story shrouded in a black comedy of missing rubies. Treasure Hunt is full of quick dialogue and characters so odd you can't help but love, pure Keane all the way.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a fast funny read with a couple of great characters. It’s just a little clunky (maybe from being a play first?) 3.5

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Molly Keane (sometimes known as M J Farrell) first wrote Treasure Hunt as a play, and it is easy to see how the play would have been staged, as the novel retains much of the feel of a play. Characters enter stage left and take up their positions, say their piece and move off, just as on stage.
The story opens following the funeral of Roderick Ryall, brother to Hercules and Consuelo. The three have enjoyed a champagne life style of gambling and carousing in their Irish home of Ballyroden. Following Roddy's death however, dreadful debts incurred by this lifestyle mean things have to change. It is the younger generation, in heir Philip and his cousin Veronica who have to wave the big stick and make the grown up decisions. Like taking in dreaded paying guests from England - while the old guard, Consuelo and Hercules do all they can to thwart them, their escapades smack hilariously of naughty childishness. Aged Aunt Anna Rose, spends most of her time in an eighteenth century sedan chair, fitted with telephone, her "nest" pretending to travel the world. Waited upon by loyal servant William she has long forgotten where she hid her precious rubies - rubies no one is sure ever existed. Into this eccentric household enter Dorothy, Eustace and Yvonne - the PG's - Dorothy wants to leave as soon as she arrives, while Yvonne takes a great interest in young Sir Phillip, Eustace is charmed by Aunt Anna Rose and determines to uncover her story and the rubies.
This is a light charming read, wonderfully eccentric and enormously readable.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I say things like "the midcentury novel is going flat on me" I apparently don't mean midcentury novels like this. Can I just mention how much I still like the Virago Modern Classics? Yes.

M.J. Farrell, i.e. Molly Keane, wrote this book as a play first, then rewrote it as a novel. It's a post-war Irish comedy in which the older, pre-war characters have been pampered to the point of unreality, completely unable to understand that their brother has died and left them broke, while their children scramble to keep them in food and housing. It doesn't sound like much of a comedy. Then you start reading and find out it's all seen through a lens of dry, wry, grey to black humor.

[Martine Geerardyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heerlijke sociale satire , soms erg grappig.

[Litote]

Un véritable petit bijou que cette chasse au trésor qui a pour point de départ les souvenirs d'une vieille dame excentrique. Pourtant, une poignée de rubis serait la solution au désastre financier qui menace Sir Phillip, sa famille et bien entendu le domaine de Ballyroden. Nous sommes dans la campagne irlandaise, à la fin de seconde guerre mondiale, devant les factures et les impayés qui s'accumulent, Sir Phillip décide d'ouvrir quelques chambres pour accueillir quelques hôtes payants. La rébellion des autres membres de la famille, gronde devant cette invasion qu'ils subissent comme une punition. Trois générations et les domestiques cohabitent. Les plus anciens ont eu une vie douce et aisée et ils sont incapables de comprendre qu'ils sont ruinés et se comporte comme des enfants alors que les plus jeunes font tout pour garder la tête hors de l'eau. Le renversement des rôles est tragi-comique.
J'aime beaucoup l'écriture de Molly Keane avec son côté précieux et désuet. Des dialogues rapides et des personnages attachants. Un mystère plane sur cette famille et se dévoile lentement, c'est sarcastique, drôle et surprenant. On a le sentiment d'un retour dans le passé, un peu comme si vous entriez à Downton Abbey mais en imaginant la propriété en ruine, sous la pluie, décrépite et humide. La vie à la campagne est parfaitement rendue, on voit l'importance de la nature, les fleurs, la chasse, la pèche dans leur mode de vie. Il y a un grand nombre de personnages avec lesquels nous devons faire connaissances et comprendre leur particularité, certains ne sont pas sans rappeler les personnages excentriques de En attendant Bojangles. Les personnages féminins sont superbes j'ai eu un coup de cœur pour certaines d'entre elles, leur caractère est riche et l'on comprend petit à petit ce qui se joue réellement dans cette famille. Bonne lecture.
http://latelierdelitote.canalblog.com...

[Noémie Lefèvre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ces gens sont fous ! Il m’aura fallu quelques dizaines de pages avant de rentrer dans ce livre complètement barré. Je m’attendais à un style similaire à celui d’Elizabeth Jane Howard et sa saga des Cazalet, il n’en fut rien. Dans cette fresque d’après-guerre, on y retrouve une vieille famille de l’aristocratie irlandaise défortunée qui n’a d’autre choix que d’accueillir des hôtes payants pour continuer à payer ses factures. Jusque-là, rien de délirant. Mais l’écriture de Molly Keane est incomparable : on rentre dans le cliché de la démesure et de la folie de ces gens qui ne se posent aucune question sur l’argent, les assimilant pour certains à des enfants. Et l’intrigue ne s’arrête pas là, il est annoncé que des rubis seraient cachés dans la propriété depuis des années par la doyenne, une tante qui ne trouve sa place que dans le monde qu’elle s’est créé, voyageant à travers le continent sans sortir de son salon à bord de sa chaise à porteurs aka son wagon de l’Orient Express. Vous m’avez perdu ? C’est le parti pris de cette comédie qui peut parfois partir dans tous les sens, mais retombe toujours sur ses pieds. On s’attache forcément à certains des personnages, on en déteste d’autres.
Mais lorsque s’achèvent les dernières pages, ils nous manqueraient presque un peu…

[Jim Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Molly Keane’s Treasure Hunt takes place entirely within the decaying walls of a country house owned by an Anglo-Irish family that’s run out of funds. The eccentric elders are unable to understand that they can no longer live lives of privileged dissipation while the younger generation desperately tries to put them on a budget and figure out ways to save the family estate. They take on PG’s (Paying Guests) and their first customers are a rich English family who think the Irish countryside will do them good after surviving war-ravaged London. The Irish family’s Aunt Anna Rosie lives in the past, which turns out to have been a lot more traumatic than expected, and she’s forgotten where her wedding rubies were hidden. It’s the family’s only chance of digging themselves out of their hole but they’ve all but given up on locating them. The book is funny and vicious (as you’d expect from Keane), and it could easily be turned into a light English stage comedy.

[Gila Gila · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this novel over the course of an increasingly intoxicated evening. I remember servants, English gardens, fur coats, a great deal of sherry and a family death, though everything really starts there. Where one finishes depends entirely on how much has been imbibed - the book is pleasant enough froth but the ending so cringeworthy that I was grateful there was still an inch or two left in the glass, if not in the bottle.

[Lesmotsdelune · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loufoque et un peu trop descriptif pour moi. Je suis totalement passée à côté.