Summary of Troubles
In 1919, English Major Brendan Archer travels to Ireland to meet Angela Spencer, a young woman he is engaged to, despite never having formally proposed to her. Angela is a member of an Anglo-Irish Protestant family whose fortunes have diminished in recent years. From the dilapidated Majestic Hotel, owned by the Spencers on the coast of County Wexford, the Major witnesses the skirmishes of the Irish War of Independence and the tensions between his future in-laws, the hotel guests, and the Catholic Irish population of the nearby village of Kilnalough (a fictional village). The decline of the British upper class in Ireland is reflected in the gradual decay of the Majestic Hotel where the Major resides.
Reasons to read Troubles
“Troubles” is a highly symbolic novel that captures the decline of the Anglo-Irish Protestant community in Ireland against the backdrop of the Irish War of Independence. Much of the action takes place within the confines of the decayed hotel. J.G. Farrell was an Anglo-Irish writer who was highly regarded during his short life but is now often overlooked. He is best known for three novels that depict the decline of the British Empire and that are sometimes called his “Empire Trilogy”: “Troubles” (winner of the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in 1971 and the Lost Man Booker Prize in 2010), “The Siege of Krishnapur” (winner of the 1973 Booker Prize), and “The Singapore Grip”.
Setting: County Wexford (Ireland)
Original title: Troubles
Year of publication: 1970
Nr of pages: 480
