The story of Elizabeth Bowen’s “The Last September” unfolds at the fading country estate of Sir Richard and Lady Myra Naylor, Danielstown. Set against the backdrop of the Irish War of Independence in the early 1920s, the novel is chiefly concerned with the character of Lois Farquar, the Naylors’ 19-year-old niece, who comes to live with them following the death of her parents. As Lois faces the struggles of emerging from adolescence into adulthood her emotional uncertainty reflects the broader struggle of Ireland as the nation collectively grapples with its own search for identity. As the summer draws to a close, the Naylors and their guests largely continue their social routines, yet are plagued by a sense that their era, like the social season, is coming to an end. The dwindling grandeur of the country estate mirrors the broader sense of decay that belies the Anglo-Irish aristocracy as a whole. “The Last September” is as much a reflection on this mood, of uncertainty in the face of change, for the characters and the country, as it is about anything else.
