ࡱ> >@=%` bjbjNN .&,,-J-L-L-L-L-L-L-$.h+1p-p--ZJ-J- УK$"J--0-1F:11~p-p--dd $d  The Book of Irish Writers, Chapter 38 - Amanda McKittrick Ros 1860-1939 My chief object of writing is and always has been, to write if possible in a strain all my own. This I find is why my writings are so much sought after. My works are all expressly my own pleasingly peculiar, not a borrowed stroke in one of them. This was how Amanda McKittrick Ros assessed her own work in 1927. The peculiarity of the work is evident - but its pleasing quality is in the eye of the beholder When Anna Margaret McKittrick was born in Drumaness in Co. Down few would have known what would be unleashed on the literary world. Her father was a headmaster in the local school and she was educated at home. She would later claim that she started her first novel, Irene Iddesleigh, when she was 12 and had finished it by the age of 15. The novel is about the rise and spectacular fall of Irene Iddesleigh. At the end, her life is summarised in a eulogy. Thus were laid to rest the orphan of Colonel Iddesleigh, the adopted daughter and imagined heiress of Lord and Lady Dilworth, what might have been the proud wife of Sir John Dunfern, the unlawful wife of Oscar Otwell, the suicidal outcast, and the despised and rejected mother. In her 20s Ros went to Dublin to undertake teacher training. As part of her course she was appointed as monitor in a school in Larne. She returned there after qualifying and married Andrew Ross, the Larne stationmaster. Its Andrew Ross that we have to thank for the creation of Amanda McKittrick Ros. In 1897, his 10th wedding anniversary gift was to arrange for Irene Iddesleigh to be privately printed in Belfast. A copy found its way to a humorous writer in London called Barry Pain who reviewed it, ironically, as the book of the century. Ros never forgave Pain. Her second novel, Delina Delaney, appeared in 1898 and contained an attack on Pain - which she would continue for the next 20 years. When he died she wrote: Why should all such rodents of State Have scope to nibble genius great? Ros answered all her critics, often at length and always with vituperative energy. Her response to an American critic was that: He seems to have been conceived in a mental Hospital, then Breathed his first air somewhere about Slum St judging by his low-bred bombs Possibly only lawyers annoyed her more than critics, but she was prepared to argue with almost anyone. When her husband retired she converted part of their house into two shops, one of which she ran and the other she rented out. She then spent several years in dispute with both her own customers and the other shopkeeper. Regardless of what she thought of Barry Pain, his review brought Ros to the attention of literary London and gave her cult status. Amanda Ros societies were founded and many of the great and the good corresponded with her. As she said: Lords, Ladies, Earls, Countesses and Ambassadors are my chief patronisers. In fact I hold letters concerning my works from all crowned heads except the Czar of Russia and the Emperor of Austria. I dont say this in a spirit of boasting Her novels are conventional in terms of their plots. They dont stray far from the basic story of an innocent, orphaned heroine at the mercy of dastardly villains. What distinguishes them is their over the top quality and Ross prose style: She knew all the forms of vice to which the human flesh and mind are heir and to continue a career of evil she bought Modesty Manor, adopting the nom-de-guerre of Pear. It was soon visited by all the swanks of seekdom within comfortable range of her rifling rooms of ruse and robbery, degradation and dodgery. In case youre wondering, weve just been told that the villainess, Madame Pear, has established a brothel in Belfast to which she has lured the heroine Helen Huddleson. This is from her third novel, Helen Huddleson, which she worked on for years, but which appeared only after her death. Another novel, Six Months in Hell, was unfinished, possibly because she couldnt work out whether its principal target should be lawyers, critics, or clergymen. After Andrew Rosss death in 1917 Amanda was now in her late fifties - she remarried in 1922, but was again widowed 11 years later. By this stage she had seen her novels reprinted in both Britain and America, and had considered whether she might try for the Nobel Prize. She was almost eighty when she died, still convinced of her own greatness: I expect I will be talked about at the end of 1000 years. %HIA  ;K*v+.3"45N'qrs辨 h1cht+h1ch1cCJH*OJQJ^JaJmH sH +h1ch1c6CJOJQJ^JaJmH sH (h1ch1cCJOJQJ^JaJmH sH (h_5>*CJOJQJ^JaJmH sH .h1ch1c5>*CJOJQJ^JaJmH sH .HIA B p q T u71$7$8$H$^7gd1c 1$7$8$H$gd1c 1$7$8$H$gd1cuvEF23"#$%&NO&'rs71$7$8$H$^7gd1c 1$7$8$H$gd1cs71$7$8$H$^7gdth1ch1c5>*OJQJ+hthN6CJOJQJ^JaJmH sH ,1h. 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