Daughter of the House

by Catherine Gaskin

Maura's father is a famous barrister, a man of high intellect and exotic personality. It is not Maura's fault she cannot match up to his talents, and in shame she allows herself to be dominated by his character. This story moves from the Essex marshes to London and Ireland.

304 pages, Hardcover

Published December 1, 1989

About the author

Catherine Gaskin (2 April 1929 – 6 September 2009) historical fiction and romantic suspense.

She was born in Dundalk Bay, Louth, Ireland in 1929. When she was only three months old, her parents moved to Australia, settling in Coogee, a suburb of Sydney, where she grew up. Her first novel This Other Eden, was written when she was 15 and published two years later. After her second novel, With Every Year, was published, she moved to London. Three best-sellers followed: Dust in Sunlight (1950), All Else is Folly (1951), and Daughter of the House (1952). She completed her best known work, Sara Dane, on her 25th birthday in 1954, and it was published in 1955. It sold more than 2 million copies, was translated into a number of other languages, and was made into a television series in Australia in 1982. Other novels included A Falcon for the Queen (1972) and The Summer of the Spanish Woman (1977).

Catherine Gaskin moved to Manhattan for ten years, after marrying an American. She then moved to the Virgin Islands, then in 1967 to Ireland, where she became an Irish citizen. She also lived on the Isle of Man. Her last novel was The Charmed Circle (1988). She then returned to Sydney, where she died in September 2009, aged 80, of ovarian cancer.

Reviews

[Anthony Peter · Rating 1 out of 5]

This novel by Catherine Gaskin – not a writer I’ve encountered before – is not, I note, generally admired by Goodreads reviewers who are otherwise well-disposed towards her. I’m gratified by that, as it didn’t grab me either.

I think the problem is the story’s structure. In theory, it’s got the makings of a good romance. Maura de Courcey is the daughter of a successful barrister, Desmond de Courcey, who has risen from a background of genteel impoverishment in Ireland to an immensely comfortable life in London. Desmond is unusually liberal towards both Maura and her brother Chris, but Maura in particular longs to be able to feel free from her sense of obligation towards her father’s professionally demanding but emotionally and materially lavish demonstrativeness towards her. At the same time, she is genuinely fond of him, and understands his need for her to be the lady of his house, his wife having died many years since.

One of Desmond’s long-held wishes is that Maura should marry her cousin Tom, the son of Desmond’s brother Gerald who owns a family property in Ireland. Tom and Maura are friendly, even fond of each other, but there is no romance between them and never has been. Tom regards the projected marriage as one that he would find happily convenient and socially suitable, and Maura knows that.

Things are brought to a head at the beginning of the novel by Maura’s encountering Johnnie Sedley, an American married to Irene, who is idling his life away in Europe before inevitably returning to the family business he is delaying committing to while he hopes he may find something more engaging. Thus his situation is similar to Maura’s, and they fall for each other almost immediately when they meet at an unspecified coastal town where Maura keeps her sailing boat, Rainbird.

This is all established in Chapters 1-3. I felt it had promise in capturing a sense of post-WW2 ennui, or the uncertainties connected with a world still finding its way forward in the early 1950s. But after that, the story became a long succession of will they/won’t they, it’s on/it’s off, I’ll marry Tom/I can’t leave Irene, I must go back to America/I can’t disappoint Desmond etc etc. I found it tedious, and there was too much time spent on recording Maura’s inner confusion, though there was some interesting writing about the nature of love as romance and/or companionship.

Gaskin dwelt quite interestingly on trying to divine and define Desmond’s driving forces towards his children, but I don’t think she ever clarified for herself how they knitted together into a coherent understanding of his character. Was he irrationally jealous or controlling or self-centred or over-protective or conscious of social status – or all these things? But the origins of this complexity of characteristics is never precisely fingered – or they may have been, but I may by that time have been skip-reading.

I felt, in fact, I was reading a novel in need of a good editor. Or one which the author might profitably have set aside and returned to after a few years.

[Katherine Coble · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fatalistic and sad. Well-written but very much of its time.

[Mrs. Kath Mudie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful novel, with an intricate story weaved with characters that come alive in your imagination. I recommend reading it.

[Mrs carole stewart · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am surprised this was written by Catherine Gaskin it is the most boring book I have ever read very dissaointed

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Keeping in mind the year it was written ,1952, by today's standards it was a bit dramatic I think.
I found it a bit monotonous. At least it had a positive ending, but it still seemed sad to me, or maybe
it was the writing style of the author. I haven't read a book by this author in years and I don't know when
I will again.

[Margareth8537 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reasonable Catherine Gaskin but not her best