THE REAL CHARLOTTE

London, England: The Zodiac Press, 1973. Hardcover. Very Good / Very Good. Octavo, 5.5 x 8.4 in., pp. 518. Magenta boards and spine with with repetitive floral design. Gilt title to brown oval panel on spine. Light rubbing to extremities. A few marginal age spots up to page 10. Light rubbing to dustjacket edges. Age-toning to upper 1/4 inch of dustjacket. Price clipped. Edith Anna Œnone Somerville (2 May 1858 - 8 October 1949) was an Irish novelist who habitually signed herself as "E. Œ. Somerville". The eldest of eight children, Somerville grew up in Drishane, Castletownshend, County Cork, She is said to have dominated her sister and brothers in a family where women were encouraged to be bold. She received her primary education at home, and then attended Alexandra College in Dublin. In 1884, she went to Paris for the first of several trips to study art at the Académie Colarossi and Académie Delécluse, and then spent a term at the Westminster School of Art in Dean's Yard, Westminster. At home, riding and painting were her absorbing interests.

In January 1886, she met her cousin Violet Martin, and their literary partnership began the following year. In 1898 Edith Somerville went to paint at the Etaples art colony, accompanied by Violet. There they profited from their stay by conceiving together the stories later gathered in Some Experiences of an Irish R. M., completed the following year. By the time Violet died in 1915, they had published fourteen books together.

Her cousin's death stunned Edith, who continued to write as "Somerville and Ross", claiming that they kept in contact through spiritualist séances. The precise nature of their relationship — whether they were romantic and sexual partners as well as literary collaborators and friends — has been the object of speculation by later writers.

Somerville was a devoted sportswoman who, in 1903, had become master of the West Carbery Foxhounds. She was also active in the suffragist movement. She had exhibitions of her pictures in Dublin and in London between 1920 and 1938, and was active as an illustrator of sporting picture books and children's picture books. She died at Castletownshend in October 1949, aged 91, and is buried alongside Violet Florence Martin at Saint Barrahane's Church, Castletownsend.