Troubles by J. G. Farrell
"Troubles" by J. G. Farrell is a novel set in a decaying hotel called the Majestic, located on the Irish Sea, and reflects the tumultuous backdrop of Ireland's transition towards a republic. The story revolves around Brendan Archer, who arrives to reconnect with his fiancée Angela Spencer, the daughter of the hotel's Anglo-Irish owner, Edward Spencer. As Archer navigates the bizarre and eccentric world of the hotel’s residents, including Angela's elusive presence and a host of peculiar characters, he becomes increasingly aware of the sociopolitical chaos surrounding them. The narrative captures Archer's confusion and war-induced fragility amid rising tensions, sporadic violence, and the decline of British rule in Ireland.
The novel intertwines themes of love, loss, and the absurdity of class structures, as Archer's romantic pursuits lead to unexpected outcomes, including a connection with Sarah Devlin, a Roman Catholic girl. The story escalates as peasant uprisings threaten the Spencers and their hotel, forcing Archer to confront both personal and societal crises. "Troubles" is notable for its blend of comedy and tragedy, showcasing Farrell's unique approach to imperialism and the intricacies of human relationships against a backdrop of historical decline. As such, it serves as a poignant exploration of identity and change in a rapidly evolving Ireland.
Troubles by J. G. Farrell
First published: 1970
Type of work: Comic realism
Time of work: 1919-1921
Locale: Ireland
Principal Characters:
Brendan Archer , the protagonist, a British majorAngela Spencer , his Anglo-Irish fianceeEdward Spencer , her father, the owner of the Majestic HotelRipon Spencer , Angela’s brotherSarah Devlin , a neighborhood Roman Catholic girlEvans , the tutorMurphy , the butler
The Novel
The setting of Troubles is a dilapidated hotel on the Irish Sea, owned by a fierce Anglo-Irishman, Edward Spencer, who has neither the money nor the will to repair the rambling, rotting, three-hundred-room structure. The inhabitants of the hotel, his daughter Angela Spencer, his son, his young twins, a group of elderly ladies, and an ever-increasing horde of cats, are so preoccupied with their own survival in the collapsing building that they are only incidentally aware of the collapse of English rule in Ireland, which is to conclude with the establishment of Ireland as a republic only one year after the end of the novel.
The events of Troubles are seen through the somewhat bemused consciousness of Brendan Archer, who comes to Kilnalough to see Angela, to whom he became engaged three years before, after a slight acquaintance. His initiation into life at the Majestic Hotel leaves him confused. Told to choose a room, he finds one which seems reasonably pleasant, though dusty; unfortunately, he has no sheets, and before long he has a more serious problem, a decaying sheep’s head in his closet. As the days proceed, Angela disappears, and he cannot seem to find out where she is. Inquiries of the servants are met with a language he cannot understand, and he is too well-bred to bother his host. For a man with war nerves, the atmosphere at the Majestic is not ideal, what with a blind grandmother mysteriously appearing out of dark recesses, cats creeping out of homes inside the overstuffed furniture, and occasional terrorist shots and explosions. Archer settles into life at the Majestic, however, patiently waiting for Angela to recover. After two weeks of uncertainty, he goes to Dublin, only to be recalled to Kilnalough with a telegram announcing Angela’s death. Evidently, he was supposed to have known that she had leukemia. So ends Archer’s first Irish romance.
Archer’s second Irish involvement is more intense. Himself rather colorless and uncertain, Archer is naturally drawn to Sarah Devlin, a Roman Catholic girl who at first appears to be crippled but later leaves her wheelchair. The letters which Sarah writes to Archer in London, full of sparkling Kilnalough gossip, draw him back to the rural Irish village and to her. Throughout the rest of the novel, he pursues her, only to be refused the night of the ball because he is too agreeable. Ironically, she marries a Black and Tan captain, rough, crude, and anti-Irish, who could hardly be accused of being too dully pleasant.
As the novel progresses, the terrorist activities become more serious. The occasional shot or barroom fight gives way to attacks on the persons and the property of the English landowners. In the second part of the book, titled “Troubles,” the Spencer estate is besieged by starving peasants, who demand that the land be given to them, refuse to plant crops when it is not, and even irrationally burn crops which Spencer generously promised to donate to them. As threats proceed to acts, the elderly population of the Majestic dwindles. Meanwhile, unhappily, Spencer and Archer have destroyed most of the cats, who have made the upper floors of the hotel a giant litter box but who are promptly replaced by defiant rats. After a great, unsuccessful ball, deserted by the guests before the caterers could prepare the scheduled breakfast, all the residents except Archer leave the hotel. For his stubbornness, Archer almost pays with his life. Captured by Sinn Fein, he is buried in the sand to drown. Fortunately, the last elderly ladies have returned to the Majestic because their train was halted; it is they who find and rescue Archer. Abandoned, the hotel is burned by the seemingly loyal butler, Murphy. The two plot lines fuse in the final scene, when Archer returns to the ruins to rescue the statue of Venus, which he has shipped to England, the only woman whom he succeeds in taking home from Ireland.
The Characters
Brendan Archer is both the protagonist and the observer in the novel. As the protagonist, he is attempting to carry off a bride; as the observer, he is attempting just as desperately to understand the mad environment in which both of his prospective brides live. Much of the humor of the novel comes from the collision between the well-bred, war-shocked, proper Major Archer and the irrational characters of Kilnalough, who assume that he understands what is going on and seem to feel no compulsion to explain anything to him.
Without exception, all the characters except Archer are eccentrics. Edward Spencer is a fire-breathing landowner given to sudden enthusiasms, such as experiments in a hotel which is falling down around him. His son Ripon Spencer is a lusty, mindless young man with the manners of a peasant; his young twin daughters find amusement in dressing a boy in their dead sister’s clothes. Sarah Devlin is an unpredictable flirt, whose attitudes toward the men around her change from moment to moment but whose charm enables her to insult them with impunity. The various elderly residents are brilliantly differentiated but all somewhat out of touch with reality. Even two characters who seem to be minor prove to be complex and important: the pale tutor Evans, who exhibits his venomous hatred of the Spencers when he kills the grandmother’s cat and again when he is found by Archer slobbering his loathing of the dancers below him, and the butler Murphy, who exhibits his unsuspected antipathies when he moves through the hotel spreading gasoline over the cats, who think he is their friend, filling the shoes of the ladies he pretended to serve so loyally, and at last joyfully setting afire the place where he worked for so long. If Archer finds it difficult to understand the people of Kilnalough, at least he realizes that he does not really know them. The Anglo-Irish, like most people in a hierarchical society, mistake the pretended loyalty of their subordinates for the real thing. They believe that they know them, while they are being consistently deceived.
Critical Context
Troubles was the first of J. G. Farrell’s major novels, following three books in which he had not yet dealt with the subject which was to make his reputation, that of the fall of British imperialism. After this Irish novel, Farrell wrote The Siege of Krishnapur (1973), which won for him the Booker Prize, set in Victorian India at the time of the Sepoy Mutiny. Like Troubles, this novel dramatized a society which could’nt see that it was deteriorating.
The final novel completed before Farrell’s accidental death was The Singapore Grip (1978), in which Singapore’s fall to Japan is seen as yet another loss of empire; Brendan Archer of Troubles reappears in this book. At his death, Farrell left unfinished another nineteenth century Indian novel, which was posthumously published as The Hill Station (1981).
As one of the major writers of the literature of imperialism, Farrell is unique in tone. On a subject which has turned writers such as V. S. Naipaul to gloomy and violent realism, Farrell has preserved a comic touch, partly because his characters have the eccentric quality of traditional English satire and partly because their actions, based on blind certainties, inevitably have consequences which may be hilarious or sad, but which are always ironic. It is this black comedy, applied to the fall of a social system, which is Farrell’s alone.
Bibliography
Busch, Frederick. Review in Saturday Review. LIV (September 24, 1971), p. 38.
Levin, Martin. Review in The New York Times Book Review. LXIV (September 12, 1971), p. 48.
Lopez, J. B. Review in Library Journal. XCVI (September 15, 1971), p. 2790.
Mercier, Vivian. Review in The Nation. CCXIII (November 8, 1971), p. 472.
The Times Literary Supplement. Review. January 22, 1971, p. 85.