The Last September

The Last September (1929) is an Anglo Irish modernist novel by Elizabeth Bowen. The novel follows Lois Farquar, a young Anglo Irish woman, and her family and friends during one summer at Danielstown, the country house and estate of her uncle and aunt, Sir Richard and Lady Naylor. Their story takes place during the Irish War of Independence.

This guide uses the 2000 Random House reprint of the 1929 edition.

Content Warning: The source material portrays war and revolution, including themes of violence, colonialism, and cultural displacement.

Plot Summary

The Last September opens with the arrival of Mr. Hugo and Mrs. Francie Montmorency to Danielstown, the country house where Sir Richard and Lady Naylor live with Lois Farquar, Sir Richard’s niece, and Laurence, Lady Naylor’s nephew. The novel is split into three sections, each named for the arrival or departure of certain characters. The novel’s action takes place during the Irish War of Independence and depicts the lives of the Anglo Irish inhabitants of Danielstown (and the local town, Clonmore) as they live under the threat of violence and the inconveniences of having English troops in the area.

The first to arrive are Mr. and Mrs. Montmorency; Hugo is an old friend of Sir Richard’s who has not lived in the area for many years. Francie has suffered from illnesses and is treated as an invalid of sorts. When they meet Lois, everyone staying in the house contemplates Hugo’s youthful, unrequited love for Laura, who is Lois’s mother and Sir Richard’s sister. The Montmorencys learn that Lois is a somewhat distracted and naïve young girl, and Laurence is a lazy, opinionated Oxford student who is not allowed to discuss his own politics at Danielstown, since they are of the “wrong” kind. Both long for something exciting and character-defining to happen to them during the summer.

At the beginning of the visit, Francie shares her worries over their safety in the area with fighting going on, particularly their safety outside the house at night. The Naylors dismiss her concerns and criticize the English and other parts of Ireland for spreading exaggerated stories about the danger in Ireland. The Naylors, their neighbors, and the soldiers with whom they socialize tend to limit their discussions to mundane topics, pretending as best they can that they are living their normal, pre-war lives. When they do discuss the war, they often speak in veiled terms. Some characters’ thoughts, however, reveal the risks and the residents’ failure to understand those dangers, such as when two young girls hope Gerald Lesworth, an English soldier with whom they are friendly, will not be shot while walking home but then think how interesting they would become if they knew someone who was shot. The Anglo Irish residents of the area occupy themselves with social visits, tennis parties, and walks around the countryside.

During this time, Francie hears the rumors of an attachment between Lois and Gerald and she sees evidence of the attachment, at least on Gerald’s side. She speaks of it to Lady Naylor, who stubbornly insists Francie must be mistaken. She insists Lois cannot marry a lowly soldier; an officer might be acceptable, but no one below that status. Lois herself struggles with her relationship with Gerald. She knows how he feels about her, but his feelings sometimes make her feel uncomfortable. However, she wants to feel something more definite for him. She feels unsure and struggles to determine what she truly wants from life (as opposed to what is expected of her as an upper-class young lady).

Lois and the Naylors become preoccupied in Part 2 with the arrival of Miss Marda Norton, an old family friend who is Anglo Irish but lives in England at the moment. Her arrival changes both Lois and Hugo Montmorency in certain ways. Hugo develops an unrequited obsession with Marda, transferring his decades-old affection for Laura to Marda, despite his seemingly doting care for his wife. Lois changes by finding another young woman with whom she can build a friendship; she shares her paintings with Marda, and they bond over feeling as if Danielstown has a sort of “fatality” about it.

The climax of Part 2 is Lois’s and Marda’s discovery of a sleeping IRA soldier in an abandoned mill while Hugo waits outside to continue their countryside walk. The soldier holds the two women at gunpoint and warns them to stop walking about and to enjoy the time they have in their homes, hinting at the increasingly frequent destruction of country homes in Ireland. A scuffle occurs, and the man fires his gun – the girls claim to Hugo it was an accident – and wounds Marda’s hand. The girls pressure Hugo into leaving the man alone and not telling anyone about what happened. Marda, not wishing to give her English fiancé more reason to think badly of Ireland, tells everyone that she had an accident. Lois feels that they experienced a sudden intimacy, but that intimacy quickly fades away in the banal realities of everyday life. Marda returns to England only a few short days after her arrival.

Part 3 starts with a dance at the home of one officer and his wife, to which Lois and several other local girls are invited. At the dance, Lois encounters Mr. Daventry, an officer who is far less refined than the others and who suffers from shell shock as a result of his experiences in Ireland.

In the darkness outside the dance, Gerald asks Lois to marry him, and she agrees. She has begun to feel more for him, especially after her near-death experience with Marda, and she recognizes that she feels safe with him. When Lois tells Lady Naylor, not wishing to keep secrets, Lady Naylor dismisses Lois’s feelings for Gerald and claims Lois knows nothing about love as Lady Naylor understands it.

Lady Naylor conspires to meet Gerald in town, away from both Lois and Francie, who supports Lois and Gerald’s relationship. She speaks obliquely, using critiques of the “rumored” (but true) relationship between another local girl, Livvy, and another soldier to make clear to Gerald her disapproval of his and Lois’s relationship. She makes clear that she thinks he cannot support Lois, and she asks him to have an honest conversation with Lois. Francie finds them at the end of the conversation and suspects Lady Naylor of interfering in her niece’s affairs.

Gerald, now feeling as if he does not deserve Lois and cannot provide for her, breaks off their engagement. This hurts Lois, who shows more emotion than she does in the rest of the novel. She expresses that she does not need Gerald to understand her, only to love her, and she shares that she feels safe with him. Despite her cries, the engagement is off.

The next day, the town receives the horrible news that someone has been killed. British soldiers’ wives cry, wondering why they ever came to Ireland. Mr. Daventry goes to Danielstown to break the news of Gerald’s death to Lois and her family. Lois is struck with grief and yet struggles to feel much of that grief in the face of her family’s stagnant, superficial lives. Lady Naylor claims sorrow over the event and takes it upon herself to write to Gerald’s mother.

Mr. and Mrs. Montmorency leave; Laurence and Lois both leave for European travels, while Sir Richard and Lady Naylor stay on at Danielstown. The following winter, Danielstown and two other local Big Houses are burnt down by the IRA.