REREAD: Pixie O’Shaughnessy
Jan. 7th, 2017 01:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllPixie O’Shaughnessy: Mrs George de Horne Vaizey. The Religious Tract Society, Thirteenth Edition
It’s nearly 20 years since I bought and, presumably, first read this book. I decided to reacquaint myself with the character having purchased ‘More about Pixie’ in 2016 and got my opportunity over the Christmas holidays - the book features a striking New Year's Eve party. Before I reread it, I expected to have a bit to say about the figure of the Irish schoolgirl in English boarding school stories, of whom Pixie (short for Patricia Monica de Vere O’Shaughnessy) is an early and important type, but to be honest, I think that’s a subject for proper research to be undertaken by someone with a better grasp of Anglo-Irish history and literature than ‘meself’. The O’Shaughnessys and the baby of the family, Pixie, who is sent to England to become a little less wild and a little more educated, represent ‘the Irish character’ – emotional, dramatic, imprudent with money - as depicted by and for the English.
What struck me more though – Wikipedia dates the book at 1902, my copy has an inscription dated 1952 although I’m sure it’s older than that – is how Pixie’s time at school is also a forerunner for the stereotypical girls own story. We start off at Pixie’s home of Castle Knock and learn how her mother’s last wish was for the family to do the best it could for ‘the baby’ and so, aged 12, arrayed in cobbled together hand-me-downs but as proud as a queen, Pixie sailed forth to shake up the lives of 29 more staid maidens in Surbiton.
She is a Remarkable New Girl, impertinent without meaning to be, because she is used to attention and being made a fuss of by her elders, utterly honest, kind and volatile. There’s a French mademoiselle (whose English is not quite as atrocious as Pixie’s French, but is not faultless). There’s a special prize, voted for by the girls, for, essentially, the nicest girl in the school (guess who wins?) There’s also a trial where Pixie is mistakenly believed to have done something dishonourable when keeping her word means that she can’t clear her name.
We then follow Pixie home for the Christmas holiday, having invited Mademoiselle, who would otherwise spend it alone at school. Therese is curious to discover whether the family lives up to Pixie’s artless tales about their doings – they do! Pixie is the only ugly one in their midst, although those who love her don’t mind that. One of her sisters is named Bridget (THE name for the Irish girl in school stories – and I’m not just thinking of Biddy O’Ryan, but only recently I encountered one in Doris Pocock’s 'Nan of Northcote'.) The family is close to rack and ruin, but only the oldest children know this, while their father, the Major, has not stinted on his horses to pay more mundane bills. Yet they contrive to have a lively time until tragedy strikes. I was interested that they seem to be Protestants, as does Therese, which seems unlikely.
Now, it’s not entirely the Girls Own type of later years – the family’s fortune is not saved by Pixie finding lost family treasure, but through the family Beauty, Joan, Esmerelda for short, marrying a millionaire despite herself. That is the type of plot machination that you’re more likely to come across in older girls’ literature, like 'The Mystery of Alton Grange'.
As it isn’t entirely clear whether the change in the family’s fortune – oh, and it’s an English millionaire, which I’m sure someone else could expand upon – would lead to the family sticking with the plan of an extended stay in Paris proposed at one point by Mademoiselle for Pixie, or if Pixie will be able to stay at the school that loves her so, as some of her family will now be living in London. I’ll look forward to finding out in the sequel.
[Edited for typos and consistency 11/12/22.]
It’s nearly 20 years since I bought and, presumably, first read this book. I decided to reacquaint myself with the character having purchased ‘More about Pixie’ in 2016 and got my opportunity over the Christmas holidays - the book features a striking New Year's Eve party. Before I reread it, I expected to have a bit to say about the figure of the Irish schoolgirl in English boarding school stories, of whom Pixie (short for Patricia Monica de Vere O’Shaughnessy) is an early and important type, but to be honest, I think that’s a subject for proper research to be undertaken by someone with a better grasp of Anglo-Irish history and literature than ‘meself’. The O’Shaughnessys and the baby of the family, Pixie, who is sent to England to become a little less wild and a little more educated, represent ‘the Irish character’ – emotional, dramatic, imprudent with money - as depicted by and for the English.
What struck me more though – Wikipedia dates the book at 1902, my copy has an inscription dated 1952 although I’m sure it’s older than that – is how Pixie’s time at school is also a forerunner for the stereotypical girls own story. We start off at Pixie’s home of Castle Knock and learn how her mother’s last wish was for the family to do the best it could for ‘the baby’ and so, aged 12, arrayed in cobbled together hand-me-downs but as proud as a queen, Pixie sailed forth to shake up the lives of 29 more staid maidens in Surbiton.
She is a Remarkable New Girl, impertinent without meaning to be, because she is used to attention and being made a fuss of by her elders, utterly honest, kind and volatile. There’s a French mademoiselle (whose English is not quite as atrocious as Pixie’s French, but is not faultless). There’s a special prize, voted for by the girls, for, essentially, the nicest girl in the school (guess who wins?) There’s also a trial where Pixie is mistakenly believed to have done something dishonourable when keeping her word means that she can’t clear her name.
We then follow Pixie home for the Christmas holiday, having invited Mademoiselle, who would otherwise spend it alone at school. Therese is curious to discover whether the family lives up to Pixie’s artless tales about their doings – they do! Pixie is the only ugly one in their midst, although those who love her don’t mind that. One of her sisters is named Bridget (THE name for the Irish girl in school stories – and I’m not just thinking of Biddy O’Ryan, but only recently I encountered one in Doris Pocock’s 'Nan of Northcote'.) The family is close to rack and ruin, but only the oldest children know this, while their father, the Major, has not stinted on his horses to pay more mundane bills. Yet they contrive to have a lively time until tragedy strikes. I was interested that they seem to be Protestants, as does Therese, which seems unlikely.
Now, it’s not entirely the Girls Own type of later years – the family’s fortune is not saved by Pixie finding lost family treasure, but through the family Beauty, Joan, Esmerelda for short, marrying a millionaire despite herself. That is the type of plot machination that you’re more likely to come across in older girls’ literature, like 'The Mystery of Alton Grange'.
As it isn’t entirely clear whether the change in the family’s fortune – oh, and it’s an English millionaire, which I’m sure someone else could expand upon – would lead to the family sticking with the plan of an extended stay in Paris proposed at one point by Mademoiselle for Pixie, or if Pixie will be able to stay at the school that loves her so, as some of her family will now be living in London. I’ll look forward to finding out in the sequel.
[Edited for typos and consistency 11/12/22.]
