This chapter will consider the short fiction published in The Lady of the House, the foremost Irish women's monthly magazine at the turn of the twentieth century. Aimed primarily at readers belonging or aspiring to the middle classes, The Lady of the House (hereafter LOTH) was widely read throughout Ireland, especially in Dublin and Belfast, and carried royal endorsements from both Queen Victoria and Queen Alexandra. Drawing its basic format from successful English magazines of the period like the Woman at Home (1893-1918) and the Queen (1861-1958), LOTH contained a mix of features on fashion, profiles of notable Irishmen and women, and domestic advice. Like its English counterparts, LOTH was in constant dialogue with a middle-class domestic femininity which it sought both to define and reshape.
Situating its analysis within the context of these other features, this chapter will focus primarily on the magazine's short and serial fiction. While some of this work is unattributed, well-known authors including Charlotte Riddell, Katharine Tynan, Florence Stacpoole, Mary E. L. Butler and Clementina Black contributed short stories and serials. Most stories published in LOTH follow plot lines that are relatively conventional for late Victorian romance stories; nevertheless, innovation does occur in terms of both form and subject matter, with some stories featuring, for instance, female friendships or women's employment opportunities. [...] A secondary aim of this chapter, then, will be to trace how the magazine constructs Irish identity and, more specifically, Irish womanhood within its fiction. Balancing these joint concerns, it will focus primarily on three characteristic strands of the magazine's short and serial fiction from its inception in 1890 to the start of the First World War: 'Irish Gothic' fiction featuring Ascendancy characters, stories featuring an urban/rural divide, and, lastly, stories featuring New Woman characters.