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Corrigan
Corrigan is at once a mordant comedy of manners and a very modern morality play. Since her husband's death, the increasingly frail Mrs. Blunt has had only her trips to his grave to look forward to. Her raucous housekeeper's conversation, and cooking, are best forgotten. Nadine, her daughter, is an infrequent, uneasy visitor. Then one day a charming, wheelchair-bound Irishman shows up at Mrs. Blunt's door in search of charitable contributions. Corrigan is an arch manipulator, Mrs. Blunt is his mark, and before long we realize that they are made for each other. As the two grow ever more entrenched, Nadine fears for her mother's safety (or is it for her own inheritance?). With Corrigan Caroline Blackwood takes a long, hard look at our dearly beloved notions of saints and sinners, victims and villains, patrimony and present pleasure—and winks.
319 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
21 people are currently reading
1,500 people want to read
About the author
Caroline Blackwood
16Ìýbooks122Ìýfollowerswas a writer, and the eldest child of The 4th Marquess of Dufferin and Ava and the brewery heiress Maureen Guinness.
A well-known figure in the literary world through her journalism and her novels, Lady Caroline Blackwood was equally well known for her high-profile marriages, first to the artist Lucian Freud, then to the composer Israel Citkowitz and finally to the poet Robert Lowell, who described her as "a mermaid who dines upon the bones of her winded lovers". Her novels are known for their wit and intelligence, and one in particular is scathingly autobiographical in describing her unhappy childhood.
She was born into an Anglo-Irish aristocratic family from Ulster at 4 Hans Crescent in Knightsbridge, her parents' London home. She was, she admitted, "scantily educated" at, among other schools, Rockport School (County Down) and Downham (Essex). After a finishing school in Oxford she was presented as a debutante in 1949 at a ball held at Londonderry House.
A well-known figure in the literary world through her journalism and her novels, Lady Caroline Blackwood was equally well known for her high-profile marriages, first to the artist Lucian Freud, then to the composer Israel Citkowitz and finally to the poet Robert Lowell, who described her as "a mermaid who dines upon the bones of her winded lovers". Her novels are known for their wit and intelligence, and one in particular is scathingly autobiographical in describing her unhappy childhood.
She was born into an Anglo-Irish aristocratic family from Ulster at 4 Hans Crescent in Knightsbridge, her parents' London home. She was, she admitted, "scantily educated" at, among other schools, Rockport School (County Down) and Downham (Essex). After a finishing school in Oxford she was presented as a debutante in 1949 at a ball held at Londonderry House.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
December 7, 2011
Wow. I absolutely loved this book. I swear that whoever chooses what to include in the New York Review Books Classics series handpicks them especially for me, which is nice of them (I'm thinking particularly of Cassandra at the Wedding and Wish Her Safe at Home, which I never would have discovered otherwise). All three focus on the interior monologues of characters (who happen to be slightly deranged), which is my favorite literary device.
August 19, 2022
I tore through this book like a hot knife through butter. It is darkly comic, sinister, and extremely well-written. Loved it!
June 15, 2011
Ultra delish!
May 24, 2021
"Corrigan" is a book about a con, which is so obvious, you figure it out right away. Then you spend two-thirds of the book impatiently waiting for the characters to catch up with you ... only to discover that the person who's been conned is you.
November 3, 2013
I was surprised to see this was published in 1984. It felt 20-40 years older.
Mrs. Blunt is a widow (age unspecified) living in Wiltshire, England in a large house. Her husband, a Colonel, died several years ago and she's still deeply grieving; they had been so close that their daughter, Nadine, often felt excluded. She doesn't do much of anything, except be annoyed by the largeness and loudness of her Irish housekeeper, Mrs. Murphy. One day a handsome man in a wheelchair comes to her door soliciting funds for the St. Crispins hospital/home for the disabled in London. He appears to be about 35, and is known only as Corrigan. Mrs. Blunt takes a liking to Corrigan, is sympathetic to his stories of disability and deprivation, and over the course of weeks and months becomes closer and closer to him. Corrigan asks her to become penpals with his co-resident at St. Crispins, Rupert Sinclair, and she does, revealing more about herself to someone she has never known than she ever does to those closest to her. She sends champagne back with Corrigan to St. Crispins. Mrs. Murphy takes an instant dislike to Corrigan, beyond the fact that she has to lift him into the house each time he visits. Corrigan shows up one day with bandaged hands in a different wheelchair and explains he was in an accident that destroyed his wheelchair; Mrs. Blunt contrives to anonymously donate two thousand pounds to St. Crispins for his new wheelchair and other items.
In the meantime, Nadine Blunt Conroy is living unhappily with her husband Justin, a journalist, and their rowdy twin boys. Justin expects Nadine to run a perfect home, meals cooked on time, dinner parties thrown, the house kept clean, the boys well-behaved, and she's getting a little tired of it. In fact, she has stopped having sex with Justin and moved out of the bedroom and thinks she might want a divorce. She has conversations about her life with her model friend Sabrina (literally, a model).
Soon Mrs. Blunt has remodeled her house with a wheelchair ramp entrance, and done over the whole first floor, installing a bathroom for Corrigan and giving over the entire parlor for his bedroom. He more or less moves in and they eat all their meals together and read poetry and sing songs. She also plants her garden with vegetables that can be donated to St. Crispins, and buys the farm next door because she has a sudden desire to raise dairy cows. She buys a big van so she can drive around to furniture auctions and buy up antiques. She begins to paint. All of this is due to Corrigan's influence.
Finally, Nadine meets Corrigan and, as can be expected, loathes him. She can see that Corrigan is a first-class manipulator and she can't stand to spend time around him.
Mrs. Blunt dies of a heart attack suddenly. Nadine tracks down the address of St. Crispins and finds not a hospital there, but a greasy, disgusting pancake restaurant frequented by surly-looking lowlifes. She sees the fancy ormolu dresser her mother bought standing against a wall. They claim there they've never heard of Corrigan, although as it turns out, the woman serving pancakes - who looks like an old prostitute - is probably Corrigan's mother (whom he had said was dead).
Fortunately for Nadine's nerves, and for the reader, Mrs. Blunt has actually left Corrigan out of her will. Her estate is to be divided among Nadine and Mrs. Murphy, with Nadine getting the house and land. This gives Nadine the freedom to finally leave Justin and move to Wiltshire. We also find out that Mrs. Blunt had been more cognizant of Corrigan's lies and manipulations than we thought; she knew there was no Rupert Sinclair, probably (?) she knew there was no St. Crispins (I'm not clear on that), and she knew that Corrigan actually was not disabled because she could hear him walking around the house at night. She maintained a friendship with Corrigan because she wanted the friendship; it provided her with certain things, with companionship, with a sense of helping someone else, and it got her out of her lethargic grief. After Mrs. Blunt's funeral, we never see or hear from Corrigan again. Nadine decides to let sleeping dogs lie rather than prosecute him for fraud or theft.
Mrs. Murphy, from a moral standpoint, comes off best in the novel. Justin struck me as just as despicable a human as Corrigan, and Mrs. Blunt, Nadine, and Sabrina fell into a large middle, neither admirable nor rogues.
The novel did begin to drag at about the 80% mark. I felt like a good 20 pages could have been cut with no repercussions. There was quite a bit of repetition - conversations, especially with Nadine and Sabrina, that went over the same ground again and again. (Andrew Solomon addresses this repetition in his Afterword.)
Solomon explains that he knew Caroline Blackwood - he had "the pleasure of knowing her" and that she enjoyed duping people, so it was no surprise that she would write such a novel. When your friends dupe you, is that a pleasurable thing? Me, if I have friends who dupe me, no matter how charming they are about it, and Solomon clearly was charmed by Lady Caroline Blackwood, they are not my friends any longer. As is often the case, this is an NYRB afterword which doesn't do justice. Solomon does a relatively decent job of explaining the novel, but he's not convincing on why we ought to like or admire Caroline Blackwood, or how he knew her. How did they become friends, and why?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 25, 2025
"You can tell a man's character from the books you see on his shelves."
September 11, 2022
Very interesting. The author is toying with the reader. What kind of reaction is the reader going to have when presented with the truth? What really is the truth? There are many truths in situations, it’s all in how you view it - with emotion, realism or a mixture of both. Which one are you?
May 5, 2009
A double bind with this one: if you don't read the excellent afterword by Andrew Solomon, the book seems repetitive and poorly constructed: do we really need a scene of a woman throwing herself on a bed in tears to be followed by ten pages explaining how unhappy she is? This type of thing happens throughout the novel.
If, on the other hand, you do read the afterword, which makes a decent case for Blackwood's writing, you know the ending which makes the book unbearable. So, although I didn't enjoy it much, maybe other people will if they know that the flatness and simplicity of the characters, and the repetition and so on are there for a reason which, with a little thought, you can understand after finding out what happens at the end. Or, if you're lazy like me, by reading the Afterword. But for god's sake, don't read it, or the blurb on the back, before you read the book.
Anyway, if you like 19th century drawing room drama, or, in a completely different key, Henry James' psychologising, you'll get something out of this. And if you're interested in formal experiments which don't batter you over the head, you'll get a kick out of the Afterword.
September 14, 2020
An odd story. [Unnecessarily semi-spoiled by the NYRB back cover synopsis...] I’m grateful for the Afterword by Andrew Solomon that did a nice job of explaining Caroline Blackwood’s understated sleight of hand and the extent to which aspects of this book and its characters are reflective of her own personal tastes and experiences (Solomon knew Blackwood personally). She does indeed dupe both her characters and her readers in some interesting and unexpected ways.
November 24, 2021
LOVED IT. Couldn't put it down. Even better the second read.
December 13, 2016
A very clever & intriguing book. Corrigan is a Svengali like character who meets his match in Mrs Blunt. I enjoyed it very much & the afterword by Andrew Solomon was very good.
August 16, 2024
Speechless. Review to come. I have a new favorite author after reading this and The Stepdaughter.
Thank you to NYRB for my gifted copy!
Thank you to NYRB for my gifted copy!
May 8, 2024
Great Granny Webster is Caroline Blackwood's masterpiece; this is dull by comparison. Not that the prose is not as exuberant or witty, it's just that Corrigan is too long. The problem I think is the daughter Nadine, who lacks any spark of humanity, has no affinity with her mother, husband or even her children. Her friend Sabrina is better and I suspect a proxy for Blackwood herself. Generally, that side of the novel is much less engaging and could be cut back. On the other hand, Mrs Murphy, a far more interesting character, could be given more to do. You can certainly admire the conceit: that the aim of the book is to understate and conceal the talents of the principal characters, but that's not compensation enough. Having the full personalities revealed would make for a better book.
November 30, 2022
Separate the art from the home-wrecking Guinness heiress. A book so original it not only invents its own genre but also creates a philosophical approach to being a woman that is very different from anything else I have encountered and of course extremely fucked up. Blackly funny, totally unpretentious, and any parts that I thought were "bad writing" were revealed to be absolutely necessary by the end. Fantastic afterword in NYRB edition that includes anecdote of hubby Rob Lowell chiseling into the wall because he *hears voices* and instead of telling him to stop, Caroline picks up a chisel and joins in.
November 29, 2017
Difficult to gauge exactly how I feel about this one. The ending and its "lesson" is phenomenal and important. There is a perfect balance of satisfaction and challenge in the finale. The lead up however...is tiresomely repetitive. The first eighty pages or so are mired in tedium, but luckly (and unlike most books) each pages gets better and better after that.
October 1, 2024
LOVED this book. So hard to describe why, I just liked the vague creepiness, the uncertainty as to what was really going on, the absolute uniqueness of the storyline. Really well-written, not a word out of place. Looking for more books by this author but they seem to all be out of print and the existing copies really expensive.
July 3, 2021
A psychological novel of surprising depth that's also enjoyable as the prattling domestic comedy of archetypes it pretends to be for the majority of its length. I was proud of myself for discovering the plot twist before the guy in the afterword said he did :)
December 19, 2023
Funny and some great characters
Want to read
February 6, 2025recommended by Clementine
April 6, 2025
Scamming the elderly has never been so unexpectedly charming and thought provoking.
March 29, 2025
Loved this weird little NYRB classic, which felt far ahead of its time and was juicy and delicious.
August 15, 2015
I ought to like Caroline Blackwood's work more than I do. Her rich literary and historical connections - Ulster Anglo-Irish aristocracy with the Guinness fortune no less, wife to poet Robert Lowell and artist Lucien Freud, a distant relation to famed Victorian ghost story generator Algernon Blackwood - seem perfect for those of us who like our Downtown Abbeys a little less cheerfully Anglo and a little more vengefully Irish. And so I gave this Amazon recommendation a try precisely because the plot of a charming but disabled Irishman fundraising for his hospital in the very heart of cottage and garden Southern England seemed like it would yield a good deal of cultural interplay and emotional tension. And that IS there - though not quite in the form I expected - and even the attraction and passion between English widow and the titular character had a sort of perfunctory quality to it. I was amazed to find I was far more engrossed in the plight of Nadine, the daughter caught in a perfect - and perfectly loveless - marriage, who grapples with her own losses under the great shadow of her mother's grief.
It was a great gallop of a read: Amazon delivered it Monday afternoon and it now lies exhausted on my night stand this Wednesday morning.
As for Anglo-Irish families doing each other in with frigid kindness and fine china chipped at the edges: Molly Keane is your only man.
It was a great gallop of a read: Amazon delivered it Monday afternoon and it now lies exhausted on my night stand this Wednesday morning.
As for Anglo-Irish families doing each other in with frigid kindness and fine china chipped at the edges: Molly Keane is your only man.
January 27, 2016
When you are halfway reading it, you get really upset about the last cover blurb, that seems to give away the plot - only it does not.
The fact is that it is quite obvious, from the beginning, that Corrigan is a swindler. So they are not giving anything away (it does crush the small hope one can hope that he is not, but one should not hold small hopes too long, anyway).
The thing is: does Ms. Blunt (who is anything, but blunt), his mark, know that he is a con man? Is she playing along or has she swallowed the bait? That is the main question you should ask yourself before the book ends - so, the blurb, actually, does not spoil the fun.
The other peculiarity of the book is its writer's life; you should really look it up in the internet: not only she was one of Guiness's girls (an heir to the famous brewers), but she was breifly married to Lucien Freud, to say only two of a hundred things she did and went through.
Her feverish life explains why this book is about the plot, not the style.
The fact is that it is quite obvious, from the beginning, that Corrigan is a swindler. So they are not giving anything away (it does crush the small hope one can hope that he is not, but one should not hold small hopes too long, anyway).
The thing is: does Ms. Blunt (who is anything, but blunt), his mark, know that he is a con man? Is she playing along or has she swallowed the bait? That is the main question you should ask yourself before the book ends - so, the blurb, actually, does not spoil the fun.
The other peculiarity of the book is its writer's life; you should really look it up in the internet: not only she was one of Guiness's girls (an heir to the famous brewers), but she was breifly married to Lucien Freud, to say only two of a hundred things she did and went through.
Her feverish life explains why this book is about the plot, not the style.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 19, 2024
A compelling if at first unassuming read. Blackwood pulls you in effectively. Some might find the early sections slow, but I enjoyed it. Characters all well drawn and suitably, or subtly, odd. Nadine and Mrs Blunt, I especially enjoyed. Some nice surprises toward the end. I did think the ramping up of plot developments and pacing might have been faster early to midway, the first half felt like it might have been tightened or sped up a smidge. On the other hand, I thought the last 1/4 or so rushed a bit, through scenes and time periods that might have gotten more time. I understand this was Blackwood’s last book (she wrote nonfiction and novels both), and wasn’t comparatively successful, but I enjoyed it. It wasn’t set in a specific time, but it felt like it might be anywhere from 1950s-1980s when the novel came out. Mrs Blunt and Mrs Murphy felt a bit old fashioned, in a Barabara Pym or Elizabeth Taylor (the novelist not the film star) kind of way. And I love that period and those writers.
February 10, 2013
Everything is not what it looks like in the subtle play between a British colonel’s widow and a crippled Irishman, who becomes a frequent visitor and eventually an inmate in her stylish Wiltshire home. The cultivated Irishman professes high ideals and the widow is soon directing all her energy and capital to his great project of improving a London institution where crippled people are cared for. Her daughter Nadine and her housekeeper Mrs. Murphy however regard Corrigan, the Irishman, with growing suspicion. This is a book that truly rewards the reader who follows the story to its end.
I would like to add here that I became acquainted with the life and works of Caroline Blackwood through a marvelous biography, Nancy Schoenberger’s Dangerous Muse, which I picked up at an antiquarian’s bookshop (Massolit) in Kraków. Lady Caroline Blackwood is every bit as fascinating as the characters of her books.
I would like to add here that I became acquainted with the life and works of Caroline Blackwood through a marvelous biography, Nancy Schoenberger’s Dangerous Muse, which I picked up at an antiquarian’s bookshop (Massolit) in Kraków. Lady Caroline Blackwood is every bit as fascinating as the characters of her books.
January 17, 2009
Utterly satisfying and very acute, especially about the emotional freight carried inside families. A con-man in a wheelchair latches on to a desolate widow (spoilers courtesy of the blurb for the edition that I read), and many lives are changed as a result.
I'd read reviews of the recent biography of Blackwood that made her sound like a very scary woman, and a friend who had met her confirmed that, yes, she could be - but also emphasised that she was well worth reading. So I bought this book but put off reading it because the cover seemed forbidding, but in fact the book was thoroughly engaging, and, in its way, quite cosy. I will be reading more Blackwood.
I'd read reviews of the recent biography of Blackwood that made her sound like a very scary woman, and a friend who had met her confirmed that, yes, she could be - but also emphasised that she was well worth reading. So I bought this book but put off reading it because the cover seemed forbidding, but in fact the book was thoroughly engaging, and, in its way, quite cosy. I will be reading more Blackwood.
October 10, 2011
You might think of it as a sort of mystery or perhaps a comedy, but I'll just say it was a great read. Blackwood developed horrid characters--every last one of them --and then wrings everything she possibly can out of them. She knows families well and their motivations. The plot is about a con game played by a wordsmith; start this novel and expect to be totally involved. Blackwood is a gem of a writer. Andrew Solomon's afterward in the NYRB edition (definitely not an introduction)presents an excellent analysis of the novel.
February 15, 2008
This was an anxious modern-day drawing room type story. I suspect this might be a good choice for some of my friends (Ling, Nancy, Emily?). I can objectively appreciate that the plot was well constructed and has an unlikely ending, even if you read the book jacket. However, I'm not keen on angsty social misunderstandings and regretted relationships, especially since I was on vacation. I donated it to the B&B library before we headed home.
January 20, 2009
This is the second Blackwood book I've read and I must say that while good, it wasn't quite as good as Great Granny Webster. It was still sharp and biting and wittily insightful about familial relationships, but at times it was a little slow and dragged when it should have popped. Still -highly recommended.
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