The Big House in Somerville and Ross

Abstract

The novels of Somerville and Ross revolve around the Big Houses of the Anglo-Irish gentry. This paper focuses on three of those novels as markers of the changing condition of the Anglo-Irish themselves, from the seeming stability of the late Victorian era through the changes wrought by Land Acts, war and Irish independence. The three novels form an arc in which houses and family fortunes deteriorate. The Big House of Bruff, in The Real Charlotte (1894), exists in a state of sleepy complacency which masks dangerous stagnation; the son of the house is unmarried and directionless, while members of the rising middle class take advantage of his inertia to advance their own interests. The Big House of Mount Music (1919) is in danger of being lost due to the Land Acts; for failing to recognize and prepare for this possibility, the owner is derided for his stupidity and termed a dinosaur. By 1925, when The Big House of Inver was published, the Big House and its owners are depicted in a state of hopeless ruin. The authors’ evolving views are considered in terms of their own circumstances and struggles to save their family homes.