Cashelmara

This was Susan Howatch's second saga novel. It was based on the history of the Plantagenet kings, Edward I, Edward II and Edward III. Howatch lived in Ireland for some years and set her novel in Ireland after the Famine -. Edward De Salis is an older man who is a landlord... He owns land in England but also has an estate in Ireland. He tries to help his Irish tenants, in the aftermath of the Famine. He lost his wife, Eleanor, who had given him several daughters and a son, Patrick. Edward marries again at an elderly age, to an American cousin, Marguerite who is only 18. She and he have 3 more children...but Edward's son Patrick, who is his heir, is weak and rather foolish and he wonders if the boy will ever be able to manage his estates and fulfil his social duties. Edward dies, and Patrick (Edward II) inherits. He marries Marguerite's niece from America. Sarah is also rather extravagant and foolish, and before long, their marriage begins to go wrong. Patrick is basically homosexual and he finds it hard to be a husband to Sarah...although they do have 4 children. However Patrick ends up losing his English estate because he gambles and mismanages his property, and the couple have to sell up and their only house is now Cashelmara. Patrick becomes friendly with Hugh MacGowan, his Scottish bailiff's son. He had earlier had a close friendship with Derry Stranahan, a young orphan whom Edward had taken in and educated. But Derry was killed by Irish rebels. Now he finds himself falling in love with MacGowan. Sarah is unhappy and angry that Patrick neglects her and has lost a lot of their fortune, and she turns to one of the tenant farmers, Maxwell Drummond, a young Irishman who is married with a family. She is increasingly scared of Patrick and Hugh McGowan. McGowan has threatened her life, and she decides that her best bet is to seek help from her family in America. She goes back to America, with Maxwell, and seeks refuge with her brother, a wealthy WASP stockbroker. However he disapproves of her affair with Drummond, and she goes to live with her lover away from New York. They are happy but Sarah wants to go back to her children and get them out of Patrick's and McGowan's clutches, and Drummond wants to go back to Ireland. M/F