The Real Charlotte (published 1894)

This is generally held to be Somerville and Ross's best work. It is a serious novel, set in Victorian Ireland. Charlotte Mullen, the anti heroine is a plain woman who seems jolly and pleasant but with a vicious streak that she hides. She inherits a house and a small property from her elderly aunt.. and she has had an education in running a farm and breeding horses, because her father was bailiff to the Dysart estate and she helped him in his work. Her aunt, when dying, felt guilty about Charlotte's cousin, Frances Fitzpatrick, who sometimes visited the country house... and who was from a family that was "shabby genteel", well born but having no money. Francie has spent much of her life living in Dublin, with relatives who were also poor but who gave her a home. She mixed with poorer Protestants and Catholics in the city and she had little or no education - or refined manners. She was good natured but thoughtless and silly. Charlotte also has lower class origins, that she doesn't like to talk about. The maternal side of her family were Catholic and poor. However she has connexions with the upper classes in the area, because she is a Protestant and an intelligent woman who makes the most of her opportunities. Lady Dysart, the leading lady in hte neighbourhood likes her. She is good friends with Roddy Lambert, who is now the bailiff for the Dysart estate, Bruff.. who used to work under her father. Roddy like her is rather vulgar but manages to keep in with the upper class. He and Charlotte had the beginnings of a romantic relationship but Roddy married a woman who had a small fortune of her own, and she settled her money on him for life. Lucy, his wife is a silly but good hearted woman who is devoted to Roddy, and she has made friends with Charlotte, who advises her on handling her marriage. He is a flirt who likes girls and she often worries about his relationships with local women who are pretty. Charlotte secretly despises Lucy for being so devoted to her husband.