The Girls of Ennismore
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4.2 • 100 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
For fans of HBO’s The Gilded Age, explore the dazzling world of America’s 19th century elite in this lush, page-turning saga…
As Ireland enters the twentieth century, two girls—close friends yet from different worlds—navigate their journeys into womanhood in this sweeping novel.
On a June morning in 1900, Rosie Killeen crosses the road that divides her family's County Mayo farm from the estate of Lord and Lady Ennis. Barely eight years old, Rosie joins the throng of servants who maintain the “big house.” But even more momentous for Rosie ins her chance meeting with the Ennis's lonely young daughter, Victoria Bell.
Though the children of the gentry seldom fraternize with locals, Lord Ennis arranges for Rosie to join in Victoria's school lessons. For Rosie, the opportunity is exhilarating yet isolating. Victoria's governess objects to teaching a peasant girl, while the other servants resent Rosie's escape from life below stairs. To complicate matters further, Rosie finds herself growing closer to Victoria's older brother, Valentine.
The girls' friendship is interrupted when Victoria is sent to Dublin for the coming season. But Ireland is changing too. The country's struggle for Home Rule, the outbreak of the Great War, and a looming Easter rebellion all herald a new era. And for Rosie, family loyalty, love, friendship and patriotism will all collide in life-changing ways, leading her through heartbreak and loss in search of her own triumphant independence.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The lives of Rosie Killeen, from a poor Irish farmhouse, and Victoria Bell, from the wealthy manor serviced by Rosie's family, are forever altered when an act of kindness is the catalyst for Rosie becoming Victoria's study companion. Against the backdrop of early-20th-century Ireland, Falvey, an Irish native now living in the U.S., brings authenticity to the class struggles and political clashes that impact the lives of these two young girls whose friendship is ever tested by the gap in their backgrounds. As Rosie gets educated and comes to learn the privileges and responsibilities of the upper class, and Victoria becomes more intrigued by the life of her new companion as well as by those who service her home, each woman finds herself a fish out of water. World events, from the sinking of the Titanic to the outbreak of the Great War and the movement toward Irish independence, seep into their lives, and the two women make choices that challenge their relationship. Rosie leaves the Bell household and strikes out on her own, working for the Gaelic League, a major organization behind the nationalist movement in Ireland. Victoria abandons employment in a private clinic to work in a general hospital, where she is more fulfilled by her work there. Not incidentally, each is romantically drawn to someone outside of her class. Falvey, adept at combining vivid historical detail and rich characterization, brings closure to Rose's and Victoria's amorous predicaments with brio and simplicity as the women eventually reunite in friendship.
Customer Reviews
Predictable
I kept saying to myself, ….”well, of course he/she/they did…”..
Finished it. And that’s all she wrote.