Loving and Giving

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Deutsch, 1988 - Fiction - 232 pages
In 1914, when Nicandra is eight, all is well in the grand Irish estate of Deer Forest. Maman is beautiful and adored. Dada, silent and small, mooches contendedly around the stables. Aunt Tossie, of the giant heart and bosom, is widowed but looks splendid in weeds. The butler, the groom, the landsteward, the maids, the men--each has a place and knows it. Then, astonishingly, the perfect surface is shattered: Maman does something too dreadful ever to be spoken of. "What next? Who to love?" asks Nicaranda. And through her growing up and marriage her answer is to swamp those around her with kindness--while gradually the great house crumbles under a weight of manners and misunderstanding.

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Contents

Section 1
3
Section 2
23
Section 3
33
Copyright

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About the author (1988)

Molly Keane was born Mary Nesta Skrine in County Kildare, Ireland on July 20, 1904. From 1928 to 1956, she wrote under the pseudonym M. J. Farrell. As Farrell, she wrote 11 novels and several plays including Young Entry, Devoted Ladies, Loving without Tears, Spring Meeting, Ducks and Drakes, Guardian Angel, Treasure Hunt, and Dazzling Prospect. She stopped writing for over 20 years until Good Behaviour was published in 1981 under her married name and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her other later works include Time After Time and Loving and Giving. She died on April 22, 1996.

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