Edith Somerville and Violet Martin (a.k.a. Martin Ross) were second cousins who belonged to an elite Anglo-Irish family of the late 19th century. They published their first commercially-successful novel, “The Real Charlotte,” when James Joyce was twelve years old.
Edith Somerville
I wrote an article for Ploughshares Blog that explores connections between the texts of James Joyce’s famous short story “Araby” and Somerville and Ross’s novel “The Real Charlotte.” I observed these synchronicities after having taught the short story at the School of Visual Arts, recognizing what appeared to be echoes of wordings and a few significant plot events. As “The Real Charlotte” emerged a popular novel the same year of the “Araby” bazaar which inspired Joyce’s short story, I began to consider the ways in which the authors’ milieus intersected. Please see my article at this link: http://blog.pshares.org/index.php/transmigrations-in-joyce-and-somerville-ross/
I continue to find these women empowering and a source of inspiration, as they were not only acrobatically witty writers and skilled visual artists, but also ardent environmentalists. Like Zelda Fitzgerald, Somerville and Ross were young women whose background of privilege sometimes lent to flaws in their creative work; unlike Zelda Fitzgerald, they found a niche for themselves that afforded them financial independence and a high level of recognition.
Great thanks to Colm Toibin for introducing the book to me at Columbia and mentoring my research, and to Ellen Duffer at Ploughshares for being a supportive and generous editor.
