Good Behaviour by Molly Keane
Published 1981 · 275 pages · 68,750 words · about 5 hours at an average pace · Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
How hard is Good Behaviour to read?
Good Behaviour scores 55 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 48 out of 100
- Keane writes in Anglo-Irish upper-class idiom with period vocabulary and hunting terminology. The language captures a specific milieu with precision.
- Sentence structure: 50 out of 100
- Aroon's narration is polished and self-deceiving, with buried implications in every sentence. The prose is clear but requires reading for subtext.
- Abstraction: 55 out of 100
- The novel stays grounded in the concrete particulars of Big House life. Abstract themes about class, cruelty, and survival emerge through domestic detail.
- Information density: 50 out of 100
- Family history and social structure layer into Aroon's account. Keane trusts readers to piece together what Aroon won't acknowledge.
- Narrative indirection: 60 out of 100
- Aroon is profoundly unreliable, presenting cruelty as kindness and neglect as love. The gap between her account and reality is the novel's subject.
- Symbolic density: 55 out of 100
- The decaying Big House symbolizes the decline of the Anglo-Irish class. Keane makes her setting carry historical and social weight.
- Ironic distance: 65 out of 100
- Devastating irony pervades every page as Aroon misreads her life. Keane exposes the violence beneath "good behaviour" without Aroon's awareness.
- Resolution withholding: 55 out of 100
- The framing narrative establishes an ending before we understand it. Keane circles back to show how Aroon arrived at her present state.
- Structural complexity: 50 out of 100
- The unreliable narration is the primary challenge. Plot unfolds clearly, but meaning requires reading against Aroon's account.
How Good Behaviour is regarded
Good Behaviour holds a literary regard score of 57 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.