Circle of Friends (novel)

Circle of Friends (novel)
Circle of Friends  
Author(s) Maeve Binchy
Country Ireland
Language English
Genre(s) Novel
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN 978-0385341738
Followed by The Copper Beech

Circle of Friends is a 1990 novel by Maeve Binchy. It is set in Dublin and the fictitious town of Knockglen in rural Ireland during the 1950s, and centres around a group of university students.

Contents

Characters

As with her previous novels, Binchy writes about a large cast of characters:

  • Benny Hogan - a sensitive, ungainly country girl from Knockglen.
  • Eve Malone - a convent-raised orphan related to the Anglo-Irish Westward family.
  • Nan Mahon - a beautiful, ambitious girl from a working-class Dublin family who seeks to marry into wealth.
  • Jack Foley - a handsome, popular doctor's son who falls in with with Benny.
  • Aidan Lynch - a likeable young man with a sense of humour who dates Eve.
  • Simon Westward - Eve's first cousin and a member of the Protestant Anglo-Irish ascendancy class.
  • Heather Westward - Simon's younger sister, who becomes attached to Eve.
  • Sean Walsh - an odious young man who works for Benny's father and assumes he will marry into the family business.
  • Mother Francis - the head of St. Mary's who brought up Eve Malone, whom she regards as a daughter.
  • Kit Hegary - mother of Frank Hegarty who died in a motorcycle accident on his first day of university. She takes in Eve and gives her accommodation enabling her to attend university.

Plot

Large-boned, soft-featured Benny, an adored only daughter, and Eve, the wiry orphan brought up by the nuns, are best friends in the small fictitious Irish town of Knockglen. On their first day at University College Dublin, an accident brings the pair together with fellow students Nan Mahon and Jack Foley, and new friendships are quickly forged. But beneath their carefree student existence, trouble is brewing for the circle of friends. Benny, the good-natured clown of the group, always seems to draw the short straw in life, while Nan, selfish and very attractive, takes what she wants without expecting to pay for it. And Eve, intensely loyal to Benny, and resentful of Nan’s careless optimism, becomes obsessed with the need to avenge Benny’s disappointments.

References

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Circle of Friends — may refer to: Circle of Friends, a novel by Maeve Binchy Circle of Friends (1995 film), a film based on Binchy s novel Circle of Friends (film), a 2006 made for TV movie Outside of a Small Circle of Friends , a song on the Phil Ochs album… …   Wikipedia

  • Circle of Friends (1995 film) — Circle of Friends Theatrical release poster Directed by Pat O Connor Written by …   Wikipedia

  • Circle of Three —   …   Wikipedia

  • Circle of Magic — For the novels by James D. Macdonald and Debra Doyle, see Circle of Magic (Macdonald and Doyle novels). Circle of Magic is a quartet of fantasy novels by Tamora Pierce, set in Emelan, a fictional realm in a pseudo medieval and renaissance era. It …   Wikipedia

  • Trainspotting (novel) — Trainspotting   …   Wikipedia

  • Sunset High (novel series) — Sunset High was a 12 novel series for girls, created by Linda A. Cooney and written by Cooney and several ghostwriters, that focused on life at a fictitious high school in Los Angeles, it was published in the 1980s by Fawcett Publications under… …   Wikipedia

  • Ulysses (novel) — infobox Book | name = Ulysses orig title = translator = image caption = 1922 first edition cover author = James Joyce cover artist = language = English series = genre = Novel, Modernism, Stream of consciousness publisher = Sylvia Beach release… …   Wikipedia

  • The Millstone (novel) — The Millstone is a novel by Margaret Drabble. First published in 1965, it is about an unmarried, young academic who becomes pregnant after a one night stand and, against all odds, decides to give birth to her child and raise it herself.Plot… …   Wikipedia

  • Bedelia (novel) — Infobox Book | name = Bedelia title orig = translator = image caption = Cover of the 2005 edition author = Vera Caspary illustrator = cover artist = country = United States language = English series = genre = Crime novel publisher = Blakiston… …   Wikipedia

  • The Green Knight (novel) — infobox Book | name = The Green Knight image caption = author = Iris Murdoch cover artist = country = United Kingdom language = English genre = publisher = Chatto Windus release date = 1993 media type = Print pages = 472pp isbn = ISBN 0701160306… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”