Molly Keane

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MK had two distinct phases in her writing career. Between 1926 and 1961 she wrote, under the pseudonym M. J. Farrell, eleven novels and four plays. After almost twenty years of silence, she published further novels and other works under her own name. MK was primarily a satirist, and her ongoing target was the privileged Anglo-Irish world in which she grew up. She has been compared to Elizabeth Bowen , Maria Edgeworth , and Jonathan Swift .
Breen, Mary. “Piggies and Spoilers of Girls: The Representation of Sexuality in the Novels of Molly Keane”. Sex, Nation and Dissent in Irish Writing, St Martin’s Press, 1997, pp. 202-20.
205-6
  • BirthName: Mary Nesta Skrine
  • Nickname: Molly
  • Married: Keane
  • Pseudonym: M. J. Farrell

Milestones

20 July 1904

Mary Skrine (later MK ) was born at Kilnamora in County Kildare, the middle child in a family of five.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Quinn, John, editor. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl. Methuen, 1986.
65
Breen, Mary. “Piggies and Spoilers of Girls: The Representation of Sexuality in the Novels of Molly Keane”. Sex, Nation and Dissent in Irish Writing, St Martin’s Press, 1997, pp. 202-20.
202

1926

At the age of seventeen Molly Skrine (later MK ) published her first novel, The Knight of Cheerful Countenance, under the pseudonym M. J. Farrell.
Chamberlain, Mary, editor. Writing Lives: Conversations Between Women Writers. Virago Press, 1988.
122

By April 1981

Molly Keane published her most successful work, the novel Good Behaviour.
Book Review Index. Gale Research.
4: 2760

4 October 1993

MK and her daughter Sally Phipps published Molly Keane's Ireland: An Anthology.
Welch, Robert, and Bruce Stewart, editors. The Oxford Companion to Irish Literature. Clarendon, 1996.
285
Blackwell’s Online Bookshop. http://Bookshop.Blackwell.co.uk.

22 April 1996

MK died at her home in Ardmore, County Waterford, Ireland, after a fall.
Contemporary Authors. Gale Research, 1962–2025, Numerous volumes.
151
Breen, Mary. “Piggies and Spoilers of Girls: The Representation of Sexuality in the Novels of Molly Keane”. Sex, Nation and Dissent in Irish Writing, St Martin’s Press, 1997, pp. 202-20.
202
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Biography

Birth and Childhood

20 July 1904

Mary Skrine (later MK ) was born at Kilnamora in County Kildare, the middle child in a family of five.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Quinn, John, editor. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl. Methuen, 1986.
65
Breen, Mary. “Piggies and Spoilers of Girls: The Representation of Sexuality in the Novels of Molly Keane”. Sex, Nation and Dissent in Irish Writing, St Martin’s Press, 1997, pp. 202-20.
202

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