Audiobook · read by volunteers
Some Experiences of an Irish R.M.
Martin Ross (1862–1915) · Edith Œnone Somerville (1858–1949)
Read by Andy Minter (1934-2017) · 12 chapters · 7 h 15
About the book
Major Sinclair Yeates has left the army and taken a job as Resident Magistrate in the west of Ireland. He expects a quiet life of paperwork and law. What he gets is a countryside full of horses, hunts, rogues, rents unpaid and neighbours with wonderful stories, none of which can be trusted.
These stories, told with relish by the author cousins Edith Somerville and Violet Martin, who wrote as Martin Ross, follow the major through muddles and misadventures: a day’s hunting in the Curranhilty country, the Lisheen races and one comic disaster after another. Behind the laughter lies a sharp portrait of Anglo-Irish society in the late nineteenth century.
Twelve chapters, about seven hours. A cheerful, bustling collection for listeners who like country comedy, with a distinct Irish flavour.
Introduction
Edith Œnone Somerville (1858-1949) and her cousin Violet Martin (1862-1915) were Anglo-Irish writers who published together, she under her own name and Violet under the pen name Martin Ross. They grew up in Irish landowning families and shared a love of horses, hunting and the countryside. Their collaboration lasted for decades and produced novels, essays and travel writing, as well as the Irish R.M. stories, which are their most popular work.
Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. appeared in 1899 and is the first of three collections about Major Sinclair Yeates, an English former army officer who becomes a Resident Magistrate in the west of Ireland. The stories were first published in magazines and then gathered into volumes. In them the major is the straight man, bewildered and amused by the behaviour of his Irish neighbours and servants, while the real stars are the vivid characters he meets, including the horse dealer Slipper and Flurry Knox.
The comedy depends on the contrast between Yeates’s English expectations and the local reality, and the authors’ dialogue captures the rhythm of Irish speech with great skill. They write as members of the Anglo-Irish gentry, and their point of view is shaped by that class. Readers today will notice the social attitudes behind the humour, but the stories remain among the funniest in the language.
This recording contains twelve chapters and lasts about seven hours, read by a LibriVox volunteer. It is a good choice for a relaxed listen, and the stories are self-contained enough to enjoy one at a time. Fans of P. G. Wodehouse or of Irish literature will find a great deal to enjoy.
Public domain
Martin Ross died in 1915: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
Edith Œnone Somerville died in 1949: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive