— TÁIN BO CUALNGE. ENLÈVEMENT DU TAUREAU DIVIN ET DES VACHES DE COOLEY. Pp. 190. (Paris: Champion). En livraisons. 1907-9.

“La plus ancienne épopée de l’Europe occidentale traduite par H. d’A. de J., Membre de l’Institut, Prof. au College de France, avec la collaboration de MM. Alexandre Smirnoff et Eugène Bibart.”

KAVANAGH, Rev. M.

— SHEMUS DHU; the Black Pedlar of Galway. (Duffy). 2s. [London: 1867]. Very many editions. Still in print. (N.Y.: Benziger). 0.60.

Life in and about Galway during Penal times. The peasantry are portrayed as well as the citizens and the upper classes. The plot is somewhat rambling, yet the book is interesting. In Allibone this is said to be by Maurice Dennis Kavanagh, LL.D., called to the Bar at the Middle Temple, 1866.

KEARY, Miss Annie. B. at Bilton Rectory, nr. Wetherby, Yorkshire, 1825. Her father, a Galway man, was rector of the parish. She wrote many novels, Early Egyptian History, The Nations Around, Heroes of Asgard, &c. She had very little personal knowledge of Ireland. D. 1879.—(D.N.B.). See Memoir of Annie Keary, by her sister, 1882.

— CASTLE DALY: The Story of an Irish House thirty years ago. Pp. 576. (Macmillan). 3s. 6d. [1875]; often reprinted. Fourth ed., 1889. (Philadelphia: Porter). 1.00.

Period: the Famine years and Smith O’Brien rising. The sufferings of the people sympathetically described. The Young Ireland movement dwelt on both from an English and an Irish standpoint. All through the book constant contrast between English and Irish characters, showing their incompatibility, and on the whole the superiority of the English; yet the book shows sympathies with Home Rule, to which one of the chief characters is converted. There are some descriptions of scenery in Connemara.

KEEGAN, John.

— LEGENDS AND POEMS. Pp. 552. (Sealy, Bryers). 3s. 6d. 1907.

Memoir of Author by D. J. O’Donoghue, pp. v.-xxxiii. He was a self-educated Midlands peasant, who lived in the first half of the last century. This miscellany consists of (a) Six tales of the Rockites, the brutal doings of a secret society that flourished about 1830; (b) Legends and tales of the peasantry of Queen’s County and North Munster; (c) Pp. 289-446, “Gleanings in the Green Isle,” a series of letters written in 1846 to Dolman’s, a London Catholic magazine, which deals with Irish country life, and are interspersed with stories; (d) Pp. 493-552, Poems.

KEIGHTLEY, Sir Samuel R. B. Belfast, 1859. Son of S. Keightley, of Bangor, Co. Down. Ed. Queen’s Coll., Belfast. Contested Antrim as Indep. Unionist (1903), and S. Derry as Liberal (1910). Member of Senate of Queen’s Univ. Resides in Lisburn, Co. Antrim. Other works:—A King’s Daughter, The Cavaliers, Heronford, &c.

— THE CRIMSON SIGN. Pp. 189. (Hutchinson). 6s., and 6d. (N.Y.: Harper). 1.50. [1894].

Adventures of a Mr. Gervase Orme, “sometime lieutenant in Mountjoy’s (Williamite) regiment of foot,” previous to and during the siege of Derry. The story is told with great verve, and is full of romantic and exciting adventure. There is little or no discussion of politics, and no bitter partisan feeling.

— THE LAST RECRUIT OF CLARE’S. (Hutchinson). (N.Y.: Harper). 1.50. [1897]. 1908.

A stirring and exciting story of the Irish Brigade in Jacobite days, told in bold, dashing style. Strong pro-Jacobite feeling. Part of the story takes place at Kilmallock, Co. Limerick, the rest on the Continent—Tournay, Fontenoy, &c. Madame de Pompadour is one of the historical personages.

— THE PIKEMEN. Pp. viii + 311. Well illustrated. (Hutchinson). 6s. 1903.

The supposed “narrative of Rev. Patrick Stirling, M.A., of Drenton, Sangamon Co., Ill., U.S.A., formerly of Ardkeen, Co. Down,” telling his experiences in the Ards of Down (district between Strangford Lough and the sea) during the rising. Presbyterian-Nationalist bias. Strong character study. Faithful descriptions of scenery. The study of the Government spy is especially noteworthy.

— A BEGGAR ON HORSEBACK. Pp. 319. (Long). 1906.

A swaggering young bravo—a faint imitation of Barry Lyndon—tells his adventures in Dublin and on the Continent in the days of the drinking, gambling, out-at-elbows squireens (end of eighteenth century). The hero is thus described:—“I should like to have seen the man who at cards, drinking punch, riding or selling a horse, deludhering a woman, or winging his man had any advantage of Rody Blake” (p. 12). A facetious, swashbuckler tone is adopted throughout.

— RODY BLAKE.

The preceding book seems to have been publ. also under this title, or possibly this is a sequel, but I failed to come across it, in spite of much research.

KELLY, Eleanor F. Resides in Dublin. She is a constant contributor to Catholic periodicals here and in the States.

— BLIND MAUREEN; and other Stories. Pp. 160. (Washbourne). 2s. n.d. (1913).

Ten short stories reprinted from The Catholic Fireside, and other Catholic magazines. High moral tone, characterisation good, dialogue (often in dialect) natural. St. Antony plays a prominent part. “The Fate of the Priest Hunter” is a tale of 18th century persecution in Ireland.

— OUR LADY INTERCEDES. Pp. 210. (Washbourne). 2s. 6d. 1913.

Twelve stories, several of which are Irish, devoted to showing the care of the Blessed Virgin for those who invoke her. One relates to Cromwellian times, but for the most part the stories relate to the present time.

— THE THREE REQUESTS; and other Stories. Pp. 192. (Duffy). 3s. 6d. 1914.

Twelve little stories, Irish in subject. The interest of the story is always quite subordinate to the religious and moral interest. The tales deal with answers to prayer (two of them are about prayers to St. Antony), the evils of emigration, and of proselytism, the reward of charity, &c., one is a ghost-story. They are told with great simplicity.

KELLY, Peter Burrowes. 1811-1883. B. Stradbally, Queen’s Co. Took an active part in politics, and was a noted speaker. Died in Dublin.

— THE MANOR OF GLENMORE; or, The Irish Peasant. Three Vols. (London: Ed. Bull). 1839.

Scene: Stradbally, in the Queen’s County. Most of the personages of the tale and many of its incidents are real. The country is very well described; the book has many interesting incidents; peasant life is pictured with knowledge and sympathy. The last year of the agitation for Catholic Emancipation is the period dealt with. The famous Clare election is described, and there is a character sketch of Dr. Doyle (“J.K.L.”). It criticised strongly the Protestant ascendancy and landlord party, dwells upon the doings of Orangemen and of Whiteboys, and the attempts to reconcile the two factions.

KELLY, William Patrick. B. 1848. Son of John Kelly, of Mount Brandon, Graigue, Co. Kilkenny. Ed. Clongowes Wood College and R.M.A. Woolwich. Late R. Artillery. Lives in Harrogate. Has written seven or eight other stories, chiefly semi-historical adventure stories.

— SCHOOLBOYS THREE. Pp. 320. (Routledge). 3s. 6d. Eight illustr. (good). [1895]. Several new eds.

A story of school-boy life at Clongowes Wood College in the early ’sixties, told in a pleasant and picturesque style, and, almost all through, with frank fidelity to reality. It is full of lively incident. Was highly praised by the leading literary reviews.

[KEMBLE, Ann]; “Ann of Swansea.”

— GERALD FITZGERALD; an Irish Tale. Five Vols (!). (London: Newman). 1831.

Gerald, whose Catholic wife has deserted him, lives in an old half-ruined family castle, near Armagh. The book is an interminable (1698 pp.) series of petty scandals and flirtations, gossip, and matchmaking among the titled persons living in “Doneraile Castle,” and “Lisburn Abbey.” The insipid affairs of an out-of-date beau monde. This Author also wrote Uncle Peregrine’s Heiress, Conviction, Guilty or not Guilty, and many other stories.

KENNEDY, Patrick; “Harry Whitney.” Born in Co. Wexford, 1801. In 1823 he removed to Dublin, and for the greater part of his life he kept a bookshop in Anglesea Street. His sketches of Irish rural life as he had known it are told with spirit, and with a kind of photographic literalness and exactness. They are very free from anything objectionable. Dr. Douglas Hyde, speaking of his folk-lore, says that “many of his stories appear to be the detritus of genuine Gaelic folk-stories filtered through an English idiom and much impaired and stunted in the process. He appears, however, not to have adulterated them very much.” In the Pref. to Evenings in the Duffrey he says (and the remarks apply to his other books), “On all other points [viz., than the matrimonial fortunes of his hero and heroine] there is not a fictitious character, nor incident in the mere narrative, nor legend related, nor ballad sung, which was not current in the country half a century since. The fireside discussions were really held, and the extraordinary fishing and hunting adventures detailed, as here set down.” He died in 1873.

— LEGENDS OF MOUNT LEINSTER. Pp. 283. 16mo. (Dublin). 1855.

Title of a miscellany published under pseudonym of “Harry Whitney.” Contains: “Three Months in Kildare Place,” “Bantry and Duffrey Traditions,” “The Library in Patrick Street”; in all nine sketches, four of which are stories supposed to be told at fireside of Wexford farm-house. Careful picture of manners and customs. No. 1 is a story of the time of Brian, c. 1001 A.D. 3. A love-tale of the days of Sarsfield. 6. Penal days, a hunted priest.

— FICTIONS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 1859.

— LEGENDARY FICTIONS OF THE IRISH CELTS. (Macmillan). [1866]. Several eds. since.

Over 100 stories, given, for the most part, “as they were received from the story-tellers with whom our youth was familiar.” They are derived from the English-speaking peasantry of County Wexford. They include “Household Stories” (wild and wonderful adventures), “Legends of the Good People” or fairies, witchcraft, sorcery, ghosts and fetches, Ossianic, &c., legends, and “Legends of the Celtic Saints.” All these are in this book published for the first time. All through there is an interesting running comment, introductory and connective. The book is hardly suitable for children.

— THE BANKS OF THE BORO. Pp. 362. (M’Glashan & Gill). 2s. [1867]. New ed., 1875, &c.

Into the tissue of a pleasant and touching story of quiet country life in North-west Wexford the Author has woven a collection of tales, ballads, and legends, some of which are of high merit. They contain a wealth of information on local customs and traditions. Incidentally, Irish peasant character is truthfully painted in all its phases—grave, gay, humorous, and grotesque. The moral standard is very high throughout. There are many vivid descriptions of scenery. The whole is told in a simple, pleasant, genial style. The Author tells us that the chief incidents, circumstances, and fireside conferences mentioned in the book really occurred.

— EVENINGS IN THE DUFFREY. Pp. 396. (M’Glashan & Gill). 2s. 1869.

A kind of sequel to the Banks of the Boro. The adventures of the hero, Edward O’Brien, are continued, the story being, as before, interspersed with legends and ballads. It has the same good qualities as the earlier book, the tone being again thoroughly healthy.

— THE FIRESIDE STORIES OF IRELAND. Pp. 162. 32mo. (M’Glashan & Gill). 1s. 6d. 1870.

“A good book” (Douglas Hyde in Beside the Fire). Fifty tales, chiefly fairy and folk-lore, but of very varied types, full of local colour and interest. Many of them are of the kind found in the folk-tales of all nations, but have an unmistakably Irish (not stage-Irish) savour. Moreover, they are told with vivacity, quaintness, and sly humour. A good selection, suitable for readers of any age or class.

— THE BARDIC STORIES OF IRELAND. Pp. 227. (M’Glashan & Gill). 2s. [1871].

Fifty-eight stories, founded, some on pagan myth, others on historical traditions of great families. All were originally found in poetic form, and many of them retain much of their poetic qualities. Many are told with a singular humorous naïveté. In all the language is simple but very adequate and dignified. They are free from anything that would make them unsuitable for the young.

— THE BOOK OF MODERN IRISH ANECDOTES. Pp. 192. 12mo. New ed. (Gill). 6d. Has passed through several editions and is still in print. 1913.

“Has no higher ambition than that of agreeably occupying a leisure hour.”—(Pref.). “It has entered into the present writer’s purpose to draw the attention of his readers to the principal events in the history of his country since the Revolution of 1691.”—(Pref.). Anecdotes of Swift, Sheridan, Curran, Moore, O’Connell, &c. Stories of duelling, gaming, hunting, shooting, acting, electioneering, drinking. Taken from such Authors as R. R. Madden, W. J. Fitzpatrick, Sir John Gilbert, Sir Jonah Barrington, Hon. Edward Walsh, &c., &c. Free from coarseness, and practically free from the Stage-Irishman. In the new ed. there are about 200 proverbs transl. from the Irish and an Index.

KENNEDY, Rev. John J.

— CARRIGMORE; or, Light and Shade in West Kerry. Pp. 128. (Office of Chronicle: Wangaratta). 1909.

KENNY, Mrs. Stacpoole. D. of J. R. Dunne, of Ennistymon, Co. Clare, and wife of T. H. Kenny, of Limerick, near which city she resides.

— JACQUETTA. Pp. 227. (Washbourne). 2s. 6d. (N.Y.: Benziger). 0.75. 1910.

Scene: Kilrush, Co. Clare, and London. The story of an Irish-Australian girl who comes to live in Ireland with her uncle, Dr. Desmond. She had contracted an unhappy marriage, but believed her husband dead. The story tells how she finds him, and the fate that overtakes him. There is also the love-story of Dr. Desmond. In the end all is well with uncle and niece.

— LOVE IS LIFE. Pp. 317. (Greening). 6s. 1910.

The heroine, Iseult Dymphna Macnamara, whose mother was French, lives at the Court of Louis XIV. at the time when James II. held his exiled Court at St. Germain. She loves the son of Sarsfield, but is forced by circumstances into a loveless marriage with a noble and chivalrous Frenchman, St. Amand, whom the king had chosen for her. St. Amand goes off to the wars (Steenkirk and Landen), and meantime the king pursues Iseult with amorous attentions. To avoid them she flies to Ireland. Here we get a glimpse of the Penal days in Co. Clare. All comes right when Iseult comes to love her husband. Brightly and entertainingly told.

— CARROW OF CARROWDUFF. Pp. 331. (Greening). 6s. 1911.

Scene: West County (obviously Clare). The hero, son of an unpopular landlord, whose cattle have been houghed and otherwise maimed, goes, in spite of warnings, to a wake among the tenantry. This wake is described as a scene of savagery. On his return he is “shot at” and wounded, and there comes to nurse him a young nun with whom, before her entrance into religious life, he had fallen in love. It turns out that she had entered the convent in a moment of pique. The hero accordingly proposes, and they are married by the death-bed of his father, who has fallen a victim to the League.

— THE KING’S KISS. Pp. 288. (Digby, Long). 6s. 1912.

A kind of sequel to Love is Life. How Iseult, who tells the story, buys the life of her cousin Harry Macnamara by a kiss given to Louis XIV. This, though innocent on her part, was the beginning of her troubles. Her enraged husband rides post-haste to Versailles to tell Louis what he thinks of him. St. Armand disappears, and Iseult almost dies of fever; but through a whole series of plots and court intrigues and exciting adventures things right themselves at last. James II., the Duchess of Tyrconnell, and many other historical persons play a part in the romance.

— OUR OWN COUNTRY. Pp. 142. (Duffy). 2s. 1913.

Sequel to Carrow of Carrowduff, with same personages. Several interwoven love stories—in particular that of an English Protestant gentleman (converted in the course of the tale) with Mrs. Monsel, a widow, mother-in-law to Corona Carrow, who tells part of the story. The dénouement has a deep religious interest, which indeed is the chief interest of the whole book.

— DAFFODIL’S LOVE AFFAIRS. Pp. 320. (Holden & Hardingham). 6s. 1913.

A story of life among gentlefolk. Scene: near Carlingford and in London. D.’s mother, of a good but impoverished family, has five daughters on her hands, and the way in which these are married off, partly owing to her matchmaking exertions, forms the burden of the story. For the most part it is a light and vivacious story of social life and flirtations, but an element of tragedy is introduced in one of the subsidiary love-stories, that of D.’s sister Kit, who was thus punished for a flirtation carried on with Sir Dermot de Courcy while his wife was still alive.

— MARY: A Romance of West County. Pp. 273. (Washbourne). 2s. 6d. 1915.

On leaving her convent school in Dublin, Mary goes home to realise for the first time that her father not only cares little for her but dislikes her (her birth had cost her mother’s life). But in the long run she wins his love. There is a double love story—her own and that of her madcap, slangy, tomboy cousin Benigna. The Author is persistently vivacious and sprightly (calling in slang to her assistance) in a way that might irritate. There is no repose or quiet beauty about the style.

KENNY, Louise.

— THE RED-HAIRED WOMAN: Her Autobiography. Pp. 400. (Murray). 6s. 1905.

The interest centres in an old county family of Thomond, the O’Currys. Characters typical of various conditions of life in Ireland: an unpopular, police-protected landlord, a landowner with an encumbered estate, an upstart usurer, faithful retainers, evicted tenants, etc. (N.I.R., Dec., 1905).

KENNY, M. L.

— THE FORTUNES OF MAURICE CRONIN. Three Vols. (Tinsley). 1875.

A very long novel with a very complicated plot and without a trace of brightness or of humour. The plot turns chiefly on a case of mistaken identity. Maurice returns from soldiering in India to find that he is really heir to the estates of the Grace family, and can marry Mary Grace, his cousin, whom his putative mother had thought to be his sister. No national interest. Date 184-. Places such as Deverell’s Chase, Desmond’s Tower, Rathcroghan, are mentioned.

KERR, Eliza.

— SLIEVE BLOOM. Pp. 153. (Wesleyan Conference Office). Three illustr. 1881.

A little non-controversial Methodist story for young people. Tells (in the present tense throughout) how May and Willie lived a very poor life with their maternal grandmother, but by the coming of their father’s mother were raised to better circumstances. Nice descriptions of Mountmellick, the Bog of Allen, and Slieve Bloom.

— KILKEE. Pp. 193. (Wesleyan Methodist School Union). Third ed. 1885.

A moral and religious (but not controversial) tale. Adventures of two boys near the Pollock Hole Rocks, Kilkee, the scenery around which is well described. On all occasions the boys quote Scripture texts, and the piety of the personages concerned is constantly insisted on.

— KEENA KARMODY, &c.: A Tale. Pp. 192. (Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School Union). 1887.

Also The Golden City, Hazel Haldene, and four or five others.

KETTLE, Rosa Mackenzie.

— ROSE, SHAMROCK, AND THISTLE. Pp. 286. (Fisher, Unwin). 6s. 1893.

“A Story of two Border Towers.” Rhoda Carysfort, an Irish girl, comes to live with her English cousins, and eventually marries a Scotch laird. Except for the heroine’s nationality there is nothing Irish about the story, though the Author’s sympathies are with Ireland. The tone is very “respectable” and somewhat prim. It seems intended as a book of instruction for girls.

KICKHAM, Charles J. B. Mullinahone, Co. Tipperary, 1828. Began early to write for nationalist papers—The Nation, The Celt, The Irishman, The Irish People. Most of his contributions were verse, but to The Shamrock he contributed his chief novels. He threw himself into the Fenian movement, was arrested along with John O’Leary, and sentenced to fourteen years’ penal servitude. His health never recovered from this period of prison. He died in 1882 at Blackrock, near Dublin. See the short Life by J. J. Healy, publ. 1915 by Messrs. Duffy. Besides the novels mentioned below, Kickham wrote the following short stories:—“Poor Mary Maher” (a sad tale of ’98); “Never Give Up,” “Annie O’Brien,” “Joe Lonergan’s Trip to the Lower Regions” (Irish life in the fifties, dealing largely with land troubles); “White Humphrey of the Grange: A Glimpse of Tipperary fifty years ago”; “Elsie Dhuv” (a story of ’98, full of incident, much of it humorous). These tales have been collected for publication in the near future by Mr. William Murphy, of Blackrock. K. knew thoroughly and loved intensely his own place and people. He had wonderful powers of observation and a great fund of quiet humour.

— SALLY CAVANAGH. (Duffy). 2s. [1869]. (N.Y.: Benziger). 0.75. New ed. 1902.

Kickham’s first story. Contains in germ all the great qualities of Knocknagow. We feel all through that it is the work of a man of warm, tender, homely heart—a man born and bred one of the people about whom he writes. It is a simple and natural tale of love among the small farmer class. Sally Cavanagh’s tragedy is due to the combined evils of landlordism and emigration. Some of the saddest aspects of the latter are dwelt upon. The book is quite free from declamation and moralizing, the events being left to tell their own sad tale. Perhaps the noblest characters in the book are the Protestant Mr. and Mrs. Hazlitt. There is no trace of religious bigotry. There are touches of humour, too—for example, the love affairs of Mr. Mooney and the inimitable scene between Shawn Gow and his wife.

— KNOCKNAGOW. Pp. 628. (Duffy). 3s. 6d. [1879]. Upwards of 14 eds. since. (N.Y.: Benziger). 1.25.

One of the greatest, if not the greatest, of all Irish novels. Yet it is not so much a novel as a series of pictures of life in a Tipperary village. We are introduced to every one of its inhabitants, and learn to love them nearly all before the end. Everything in the book had been not only seen from without but lived by the Author. It is full of exquisite little humorous and pathetic traits. The description of the details of peasant life is quite photographic in fidelity, yet not wearisome. There is the closest observation of human nature and of individual peculiarities. It is realism of the best kind. The incidents related and some of the discussions throw much light on the Land Question. The Author does not, however, lecture or rant on the subject. Occasionally there are tracts of middle-class conversation that would, I believe, be dull for most readers.

— FOR THE OLD LAND. Pp. 384. (Gill). 2s. [1886]. New ed. 1914. (N.Y.: Benziger). 0.75.

Main theme: the fortunes and the sufferings of an Irish family of small farmers under the old land system. The peasant’s love of home and the bitter sadness of emigration are brought out in the unfolding of the tale. All through there runs a love-tale told with the Author’s usual restraint, simplicity, and delicate analysis of motive. There is a humorous element, too, amusing bailiffs and policemen furnishing much of it. Constable Sproule driving home the pigs is capitally done. Rody Flynn is a grand old character, evidently sketched from life.

— THE PIG-DRIVING PEELERS.

Appears in one of the “Knickerbocker Nuggets,” entitled “Representative Irish Tales.” Compiled, with Introd. and notes by W. B. Yeats. (N.Y.: Putnam). Two Vols. n.d.

KING, Richard Ashe; “Basil,” “Desmond O’Brien.” The Author is (1914) Staff Extension Lecturer of Oxford and London Universities. Has contributed a good deal to the Cornhill and to the Pall Mall Gazette, and is reviewer for Truth. Has written, besides the books noticed here, Love the Debt, A Drawn Game, A Coquette’s Conquest, and many others. Also a life of Swift. B. Co. Clare. Ed. at Ennis Coll. and T.C.D. He gave up in the eighties his living in the Church of England and began contributing to Freeman’s Journal, Truth, &c. “He is,” says W. P. Ryan in his The Irish Literary Revival, “intensely Celtic, but too candid to overlook the Celt’s failings.” For some time in the eighties he lived in Blackrock, Co. Dublin. See Mrs. Hinkson’s Reminiscences of Twenty-five Years, pp. 282-3.

— THE WEARING OF THE GREEN. Pp. 299. (Chatto & Windus). 2s. 6d. 1886.

A story of the course of true love, in which the lovers are long kept apart by many untoward happenings. The writer’s sympathies and the characters of his story are Protestant, yet there is no hostility to Catholics, and one of the pleasantest characters in the book is Father Mac. One of the minor incidents of the story is connected with the Fenian conspiracy. The chief interest of the book lies, perhaps, in the drawing of the lesser characters. In his delineation of all the English personages the Author is unsparingly caustic. The book is brightly written; the conversation particularly good; there is a vein of sarcasm throughout, and plenty of incident. The author evidently sympathises with Irish grievances, and is proud of his country.

— BELL BARRY. (Chatto). 2s. 1891.

“An exciting story, laid in I., then in Liverpool, and in part aboard a liner. The Irish servants and other minor characters ... provide a good deal of humorous talk.”—(Baker).

— A GERALDINE. Two Vols. 1893. (Ward & Downey).

A story of almost contemporary life, largely concerned with land troubles in Ireland. The heroine, a very attractive character and a woman of great resourcefulness, is the daughter of a rack-renting squireen, and is a contrast to the remainder of the family, which is weak, idle, and selfish. Other unpleasant characters are a villainous attorney and a bigoted and pedantic clergyman. Some of the duties which the R.I.C. have to perform are severely commented upon. The Author takes the popular side. The incidents are related with spirit and humour.

KING, Toler.

— ROSE O’CONNOR: A Story of the Day. Pp. 173. (Chicago: Sumner). Second ed. 1881.

Rose O’C. and Tim Brady love each other. Tim has to go to America. Meanwhile the famine years come in Ireland. Rose’s family is reduced to extremities, and she is compelled to promise marriage to Tim’s rival in order to save it. But Tim returns in the nick of time. Locality not indicated. Purpose, to contrast the tyranny of landlordism with the refinement and gentleness of the Irish peasantry. The tone is Catholic, but not aggressively so.

KINGSTON, W. H. G.

— PETER THE WHALER. Pp. 252. (Blackie: Library of Famous Books). 1s. Full size. Cloth. One Illustr. At present in print.

Peter associates with low company in his Irish home and gets into such scrapes that he has to be sent to sea. The rest is a fine series of adventures such as boys love. Here and there a good moral lesson is slipped in, not too obtrusively. K. was a great writer for boys. Allibone enumerates 161 of his works.

KNOWLES, Richard Brinsley. 1820-1882. B. Glasgow. Son of the dramatist, James Sheridan Knowles, a Cork man who ended as a Baptist preacher. Was at first a barrister, but took up journalism as a profession. In 1849 he became a Catholic. In 1853 sq. ed. of Illustrated London Magazine. Glencoonoge originally appeared as a serial in the Month.

— GLENCOONOGE. Three Vols. (Blackwood). 1891.

Three threads of romance skilfully intertwined, the chief of which is the love story of an English girl of gentle birth and a splendid young Irish peasant. The scene is an inn in a valley somewhere on the South-west coast. The valley as described bears a strong resemblance to Glengarriff. The story is eminently sane and natural, reading like a record of real events. It is full of human interest, and is written in a style unaffected yet charmingly literary. There are some good portraits—the Protestant Rector, the lovable Father John, Conn Houlahan, the hero, Old Mr. Jardine, the O’Doherty. The description of an Irish Sunday is one of the most beautiful in fiction. The book shows understanding sympathy for Irish characteristics and ideals.

[KNOX, Rev. J. Spencer]; “An Irish Clergyman.”

— PASTORAL ANNALS. Pp. 397. (London: Seeley). [1840]. Second ed., 1841.

Contents:—“The Sick Parish,” “The First Death,” “The Sermon,” “The Warning,” “The Private Still,” “The Pluralist,” “The Inn,” “The School,” “Ribbonism” (a very unfavourable picture of bailiffs, process-servers. Very fair towards Catholics); “The Night,” “The Starving Family,” “The Birth,” “The Soup Shop” (Famine of 1817), “Death by Starvation,” “The Confessional” (a plea for private confession), “Family Worship,” “Tithe Setting,” “Lough Derg” (facetious in tone. Lough D. pilgrimage = “a scene of mockery and dissoluteness”). A series of studies—for the most part careful and sympathetic—of peasant life as seen by a liberal-minded and kindly Protestant Rector. The part of Ireland dealt with would appear to be Donegal.

“LAFFAN, May,” see HARTLEY.

LALOR, Desmond.

— LOUGHBAR. Pp. 252. (Stockwell). 6s. 1914.

Adventures, not of a very remarkable kind, of a young doctor in the W. of Ireland, locality indefinite. He is presented with a practice, and a furnished house. There is a ghost, but he is not a real one, and rather commonplace. The whole thing is very couleur de rose, everybody being nicely married off, and the descriptions do not give the impression of things seen.

LANE, Elinor Macartney.

— KATRINE. (Harper). 6s. 1909.

“An Irish-American love-story with scenes of planters’ life in South Carolina. The Authoress has a keen appreciation of the psychology of the Irish character, and in her portrayal of Dermott MacDermott and Katrine Dulany, she successfully indicates the lights and shades of that puzzling combination of mysticism and practicality.”—(Irish Times).

LANGBRIDGE, Rev. Frederick. Rector of St. John’s, Limerick. Chaplain district asylum. B. Birmingham, 1849. Ed. there, and at Oxford. D.Litt., T.C.D., 1907. Has publ. many volumes of poetry, and some plays.—(Who’s Who).

— MISS HONORIA. Pp. 216. (Warne: Tavistock Library). 1894.

Sub-t.: “A tale of a remote corner of Ireland,” viz., “Carrowkeel,” a seaside village. Miss Honoria, a woman of 32, full of piety and zeal, the prop of the parish, has never known love till she meets Sebert, to whom she becomes engaged, Sebert writes beautiful letters from London. Miss H. goes there to find Sebert making love to her niece “Daisy.” H. stands aside, and S. marries Daisy. They return to Ireland, where S. makes love to a poor girl. She is drowned. H. dies, and S. becomes an East End missionary. There is much sentiment. Some pretty descriptions of scenery, and some good minor characters—“Kevin Kennedy” and “Corney the Post.”

— THE CALLING OF THE WEIR. Pp. 304. (Large print). (Digby, Long). 1902.

A love story of Protestant middle classes. Scene: near the Shannon Weir and Falls of Donass, Co. Limerick. Two girls become engaged to two men rather through force of circumstances than for love. Problem: are the circumstances such as to justify Mary in marrying the man she does not love. In a strange way it comes about that each girl marries the other’s fiancé, and finds happiness. Not without improbabilities, but lively and piquant in style. Irish flavour and humour provided by Mrs. Mack, the housekeeper, and Constable Keogh. By same Author: The Dreams of Dania, Love has no Pity, &c.

— MACK THE MISER. Pp. 125. (Elliott Stock). 1907.

A tale of middle class Protestant life in Limerick, turning on the vindication of the supposed miser’s character by a young girl. The tendency of the book is moral and religious.

LANGBRIDGE, Rosamond. Dau. of preceding. B. Glenalla, Donegal. Brought up and ed. privately in Limerick. Has contributed short stories and articles to the Manchester Guardian and to other periodicals. Her attitude towards Ireland has been expressed in a fine passage worthy to be quoted. “Nationalist by sympathy and inclination, but not by contact or association, and belonging to no particular party or clique she [the Author] believes in Ireland as the Land of Spiritual Happiness; as the Land which has kept itself innocent, religious, and vividly individualistic, in face of the wave of undistinguishable sameness which is engulfing all national idiosyncrasy, and tends towards becoming the Esperanto of the soul. Ireland she believes in as the Child-Soul amongst nations, not to be deceived or bought, but perceiving and desiring with incorruptible ingenuousness those things which alone make individual, as well as national life worth while: Faith and Freedom before Subordination and Sophistication, and the Traffic of the Heart to the Traffic of the Mart.” Their necessary brevity must give to the following notes an impression of want of sympathy. They scarcely do full justice to all the qualities of the books.

— THE FLAME AND FLOOD. Pp. xii. + 339. (Fisher, Unwin; First Novel Library). 1903.

A love-story. The lovers marry other people not for love. It is only the presence of a child that prevents the heroine from leaving her husband for her lover. There are accordingly curious situations, but nothing positively immoral in the tone. The story is well constructed. Scene: partly in Ireland, partly in England.

— THE THIRD EXPERIMENT. Pp. 300. (Fisher, Unwin). 1904.

The scene is laid amid very low class society in an Irish town. The interest centres in a young girl who is reared on charity, but finally marries a fairly respectable tradesman. The personages of the story seem to be Protestants, but religion is scarcely touched on. The brogue is very thick, but the stage Irishman humour is absent. There is a persistent attempt to study types and characters.

— AMBUSH OF YOUNG DAYS. Pp. vii. + 344. (Duckworth). 1906.

The scene is laid in a temperance hotel. The central character is a young girl, daughter of proprietor, who is given to telling out the truth in a most unnecessary and inconvenient manner. The lodgers come prominently into the story, and the heroine ends by marrying one of them.

— THE STARS BEYOND. Pp. vii. + 375. (Nash). 1907.

A problem novel dealing with an ill-assorted marriage—the wife’s name (symbolic) is “Vérité,” the husband’s “Virtue”; hence the clash. Religion enters largely into the book. Types of Irish Protestant clergy. The writer’s sympathy seems to waver between Catholicism and Protestantism, but the heroine rejects both. The servants’ talk in conventional brogue.

— IMPERIAL RICHENDA. Pp. 313. (Alston Rivers). 6s. 1908.

Scene: a small watering-place near Dublin. A fantastic comedy, somewhat vulgar in places, but on the whole amusing, abounding as it does in bright dialogue, and in absurdly comical situations. Some shrewd strokes of satire are aimed at Dublin Society, and there are piquant sayings on other subjects. The central figure is a young lady who takes a situation as waitress in a small hotel. Her character is so equivocal that the book cannot be recommended for general reading.

LARMINIE, William. B. 1849, in Co. Mayo. D. at Bray, 1900. Was many years in the Civil Service. He is better known as a poet, Author of Glanlua and Fand, than as a folk-lorist.

— WEST IRISH FOLK-TALES AND ROMANCES. Pp. xxvi. + 258. (Elliot Stock). 3s. 6d. 1898.

Taken down, by the editor, between 1884 and 1898, word for word in Irish from peasants in Galway (Renvyle), Mayo (Achill), and Donegal (Glencolumbkille and Malinmore), and translated literally. Interesting introduction on the origin and sources of folk-lore. At the end are some remarks on phonetics, which do not show a deep knowledge of the Irish system of orthography, and specimens of the tales in Irish written phonetically. The book is primarily for folk-lorists and some naturalistic expressions render it unsuitable reading for the young. There are eighteen stories in all.

N.B.—The Author tells us (introduction) that besides the tales in this book, he has in his possession many others not yet published. This collection, a large one, is preserved in safety, but still awaits publication.

“LAUDERDALE, E. M.”; Mrs. Moore.

— TIVOLI. Pp. 278. (Cork: Guy). 1886.

A family story (landlord class) laid first at Deer Park, near Cork, afterwards in England, whither the family retires to be out of the Land League agitation. This last is referred to with evident aversion. The interest turns largely on a mystery of identity. The Author knows the Cork district well, and describes localities accurately. Her sympathies are clearly not nationalist. The religious attitude is one of tolerance.

LAWLESS, Hon. Emily. B. in Ireland, 1845. Eldest d. of Lord Cloncurry. Came to know the W. of Ireland through her associations with the home of her mother’s family. Her mother was a Miss Kirwan, of Castle Hackett, Co. Galway. See Miss Lawless’s Traits and Confidences for some memories of her childhood. She went a good deal among the people in her natural history excursions. She had wide knowledge of Irish history, as her volume on Ireland in the History of the Nations Series bears witness. She wrote several books besides those here noted. D. 1913. For a good article on her see Nineteenth Century, July, 1914.

— HURRISH. Pp. 342. (Methuen). [1886]. 1902.

Scene: a wild and poverty-stricken district in Clare. A view of the bad days of the ’eighties by one to whom the Land League stands for “lawlessness and crime.” The people are depicted as half-savage. The story is a gloomy one, full of assassinations and the other dark doings of the Land League. The picture it gives of an Irish mother will jar harshly on the feelings of most Irishmen. The Irish dialect is all but a caricature. Yet the story met with an immediate and extraordinary success. In a vol. publ. by Mr. Gladstone in 1892, Special Aspects of the Irish Question, he says of Hurrish, “She has made present to her readers, not as an abstract proposition, but as a living reality, the estrangement of the people of Ireland from the law.... As to the why of this alienation, also, she has her answer (p. 309 of first ed.), ‘The old long-repented sin of the stronger country was the culprit.’ She thinks there was a sin, a deep sin, and (so I construe her) an inveterate sin, but a sin now purged by repentance.”

— WITH ESSEX IN IRELAND. Pp. 298. (Methuen). 6s. [1890]. New ed., 1902.

A narrative of Essex’s Irish expedition, 1599, purporting to be related by his private secretary. Pictures Elizabethan barbarity in warfare. It has a strange element of the uncanny and supernatural. Hints at the spell that Ireland casts over her conquerors. Written in quaint Elizabethan English which never lapses into modernness.

— GRANIA: the Story of an Island. (Smith, Elder). 3s. 6d., and 2s. 6d. [1892].

A sympathetic picture of life in the Aran Islands, where existence is a struggle against the elements. There are typical characters, such as Honor, the saintly and patient, with her eyes on the life beyond, and Grania, young and impetuous, and longing for joy as she battles with the endless privations of her stern lot, and the lover, Irish alike in his goodness and in his vices. The success of this book exceeded even that of Hurrish. Swinburne thought it “just one of the most exquisite and perfect works of genius in the language” (in a letter).

— MAELCHO. Pp. 418. (Methuen). 1s. (N.Y.: Appleton). 1.50. [1895]. 1905.

Gloomy picture of misery and devastation during the Desmond rebellion. An English boy escaping from a night attack finds refuge in a Connemara glen among the native Irish (O’Flaherties), hideous wretches of savage appearance and uncouth tongue. Then comes a confused account of the melodramatic struggles of Fitzmaurice and his wild followers against the English, noble, steady, and civilized. There is a vague impression throughout of an Irish race without ideals or religion, inevitably losing ground, moved by no impulse but love of strife and cringing superstition. But the cruelties of the English at the time are not in any way slurred over.

— TRAITS AND CONFIDENCES. Pp. 272. (Methuen) 6s. 1897.

A volume of stories and sketches, founded for the most part on fact. Some are autobiographical episodes of childhood. There is an incident of ’98, an incident of the Land War, and two episodes of Irish history, the story of Geroit Mor, Earl of Kildare, and that of Art Macmurrough, told in vivid, romantic style without political bias. Again, there are extremely interesting “memories” of the Famine of 1846-7. On pages 142-150 is a remarkable description of Connemara. The story-telling is full of vivacity and picturesqueness, reminding one of French storytellers, such as Daudet. The book is filled from first to last with Ireland.

— THE BOOK OF GILLY. Pp. 285. (Smith, Elder). Four illustr. by Leslie Brooke. 1906.

Scene: a small island in Kenmare Bay. Gilly is an eight-year-old boy sent to Inishbeg for a few months by his father, Lord Magillicuddy, who is in India. The book makes a marvellous pen-picture of life and scenery in this remote corner of Ireland.

LAWLESS, Emily, and Shan F. BULLOCK.

— THE RACE OF CASTLEBAR. Pp. 364. (Murray). 6s. 1914.

The story of Humbert’s invasion of Ireland in 1798, as seen by the narrator, an Englishman named Bunbury, fresh come to Ireland. B. is represented as an honest, unprejudiced, if somewhat phlegmatic personage. The historic events are presented with great vividness and vigour. The Authors aim at painstaking objectivity. On the one side the sufferings of the Catholics and the harsh treatment of the rebels are painted in strong colours. The portraits both of the rebel leaders and of the Orangemen are far from flattering. The narrative is largely based on that written at the time by Dr. Stock, the excellent Protestant Bishop of Killala. Bunbury is made to spend some weeks at his palace.

LEAHY, A. H. B. in Kerry in 1857. Is a Fellow of Pembroke Coll., Cambridge.

— THE COURTSHIP OF FERB. Square 16mo. Pp. xxix. + 100. (Nutt). 2s. Two illustr. by Caroline Watts. 1902.

Vol. I. of Irish Saga Library. Elegantly produced in every way. An English version of Professor Windisch’s German translation of an old Irish romance from the Book of Leinster (twelfth century). The verse of the original is translated here into English verse, the prose into prose. “In the verse-translations endeavour has been made to add nothing to a literal rendering except scansion and rhyme.”—(Pref.). The tale itself is a kind of preface to the great Tàin. It is not of very striking merit, but is told in simple, dignified language. The translation reads very well. A literal translation of all the poetry is given at the end.

— ANCIENT HEROIC ROMANCES OF IRELAND. Two Vols. Small 4to. Vol. I., pp. xxv. + 197. Vol. II. pp. ix. + 161. (Nutt). 8s. net. 1905.

Contents: Vol. I. “The Courtship of Etain”; “MacDatho’s Boar”; “The Death of the Sons of Usnach” (Leinster Version); “The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn”; “The Combat at the Ford” (Leinster Version). Vol. II. “The Courtship of Fraech”; “The Cattle Spoil of Flidias”; “The Cattle Spoil of Dartaid”; “The Cattle Spoil of Regamon.” The Preface deals with Irish Saga literature in general and in particular with the sagas here translated. Each piece is preceded by a special Introduction dealing with its sources and character. At the end of Vol. I. (pp. 163-197) are copious notes explaining difficulties and giving literal translations. At the end of Vol. II. is a portion of the Text of “The Courtship of Etain,” with interlinear translation. Elsewhere the Text is not inserted. The book is “an attempt to give to English readers some of the oldest romances, in English literary forms, that seem to correspond to the literary forms which were used in Irish to produce the same effect.”—(Pref.). The translation is partly in prose, partly in verse. The former is dignified and fully worthy of the subject, literal and yet in literary English. The verse does not seem to us to reach as high a level. It is very varied as to metre, yet the poetic spirit seems to be wanting.

N.B.—The theme of “The Courtship of Etain,” though not coarse or prurient, is such as to render it unfit for the young.

LEAHY, Walter T.

— COLUMBANUS THE CELT. Pp. 455. (Philadelphia: Kilner). $1.50. 1913.

The eventful career of the great St. Columbanus (d. 615) in the form of fiction. Father Leahy bases his story on the narrative of Jonas, a monk of Bobbio, who wrote the founder’s life about the middle of the seventh century. But some of the incidents (notably the incipient love story) are unhistorical. The Author does little to reproduce the colour and “atmosphere” of these distant times. He even falls into somewhat glaring anachronisms. Yet much is done to make the story interesting.

LEAMY, Edmund. B. Waterford, 1848, and educated there. Was for many years in Parliament as M.P. for Waterford and afterwards for Kildare. Was a kindly man and a delightful story-teller, beloved of children. He died in 1904.

— IRISH FAIRY TALES. Pp. xix. + 155. [1889]. New ed. (Gill). 2s. 6d. With Introd. by Mr. John E. Redmond, M.P., and Note by T. P. G. Delightful Illustr. by George Fagan. Cr. 8vo. Handsome art linen binding. 1906. (N.Y.: Benziger). 0.90.

Sources of inspiration: O’Curry and Joyce. Child audience aimed at throughout. Hence naïveté in style. At times there is a simple, sweet beauty of language, and some passages, especially in the last tale, of true prose poetry. Some useful notes at end.

— THE FAIRY MINSTREL OF GLENMALURE. Pp. 48. 4to. (Duffy). 1s. Cover design and many very pretty illustrations by C. A. Mills.

Adventures of Irish children in an Irish fairyland of giants and little old men and little old women. Told in refined and graceful style, quite free from brogue, for very little children, with here and there an unobtrusive moral.

— BY THE BARROW RIVER, and Other Stories. Pp. 281. (Sealy, Bryers). 3s. 6d. Portrait. 1907.

Twenty dramatic, exciting stories, including several good ghost stories, tales of the exploits of the Irish Brigade, of early Ireland, of tragedy, and of comedy. By a capital story-teller. The book would make an excellent present or prize.

— GOLDEN SPEARS, and other Fairy Tales. (N.Y.: Fitzgerald). Cover design in colours by Corinne Turner. 1911.

This is simply a new American ed. of Irish Fairy Tales.

LEE, Aubrey.

— A GENTLEMAN’S WIFE. Pp. 328. (Edinburgh: Morton). 6s. 1904.

Part I. tells how a peasant girl is, after a week’s acquaintance, enticed from her home by a man who, it transpires, is already married. In Part II. their daughter, adopted by a saintly English clergyman, learns her parentage on the morrow of her engagement. She releases her betrothed; but a year afterwards marries a charming elderly baronet (the “gentleman” of the story). The first part is rather coarse. The book is witty, the plot well worked out, some of the characters most amusing; the end unexpected. By the same Author: John Darker.

LEFANU, J. Sheridan. B. in Dublin, 1814. Ed. T.C.D. Contributed largely to Dubl. Univ. Magazine, of which he became ed. and owner, as well as of the Dublin Evening Packet and Evening Mail. D. 1873. His chief power was in describing scenes of a mysterious or grotesque character, and in the manipulation of the weird and the supernatural.

This Author also wrote Uncle Silas, In a Glass Darkly, The Tenants of Malory, Willing to Die, The Rose and Key, The Evil Guest, The Room in the Dragon Volant, A Chronicle of Golden Friars, Checkmate, The Watcher, Wylder’s Hand, All in the Dark, Guy Deverel, Wyvern Mystery, &c. Nearly all published by Downey & Co. Messrs. Duffy publ. a set of eight of his novels at 3s. 6d. each.

— THE COCK AND ANCHOR: A Tale of Old Dublin. Pp. 358. (Duffy). 3s. 6d. [1845]. 1909.

A dreadful story of the conspiracy of a number of preternaturally wicked and inhuman villains to ruin a young spendthrift baronet, and to compel his sister to marry one of themselves. The threads of the story are woven with considerable skill. The tale, a gloomy one throughout, reaches its climax in a scene of intense and concentrated excitement. The time is the Viceroyalty of the Earl of Wharton, the story ending in 1710, but, except for the incidental introduction in one scene of Addison, Swift, and the Viceroy himself, the events or personages of the time are not touched upon. There are some slight pictures of the life of the people of the period, but of Ireland there is nothing unless it be the talk of some comic Irish servants.

— THE FORTUNES OF COL. TORLOGH O’BRIEN. Pp. 342. (Routledge). 3s. 6d. Twenty-two Plates by Phiz. [Anon.: 1847]. Several other eds. 1904.

Reckoned among the three or four best Irish historical novels. Main theme: the efforts of the hero, an officer in the Jacobite army, to regain possession of his estates in Tipperary, which are held by the Williamite, Sir Hugh Willoughby, whose daughter O’Brien loves. There are many minor plots and subordinate issues, among them the unscrupulous and nearly successful conspiracy against Sir Hugh. The history is not the main interest, but there is an account of the causes of Jacobite downfall, descriptions of James’s Court at Dublin, and a fine description of Aughrim. There are excellent pictures of scenery, and some skilful though roughly drawn character sketches. The action closes shortly after the Treaty of Limerick.

— THE HOUSE BY THE CHURCHYARD. (Duffy). 3s. 6d. [1863].

“A sensational story with a mystery plot based on a murder. Black Dillon, a sinister and ingenious ruffian, is a grim figure of melodramatic stamp. The setting gives scenes of social life in a colony of officers and their families near Dublin.”—(Baker, 2).—Chapelizod.

— THE PURCELL PAPERS. Three Vols. (Bentley). 1880.

Short stories collected and ed. by Mr. A. P. Graves, with short memoir of the Author prefixed. For the most part they are either rollicking comic stories, told in broad brogue, or tales of mystery and terror in the vein of this Author’s longer novels. Examples of the former are:—“Billy Malowney’s taste of love and glory” and “The Quare Gander.” These are not meant as “stage-Irish” ridicule, but as pure fun. Examples of the latter type:—“Passages in the Secret History of an Irish Countess” and “A Chapter in the history of a Tyrone family.” There are also pure adventure stories, such as:—“An Adventure of Hardress Fitzgerald, a Royalist Captain.” All are admirably told. All but one are of Irish interest. They were originally contributed to the Dublin Univ. Magazine.

LENIHAN, D. M.

— THE RED SPY: A Story of Land League Days. Pp. 236. (Duffy). 3s. 6d. n.d. (in print).

Appears to be largely autobiographical. A story of Land League days, full of incident. The interest chiefly turns on the interplay of plot and counterplot, in which the various parties—the moonlighters, the Castle, and Parnell’s followers—figure. The centre of all the plots is McGowan, the “Red Spy,” a secret service agent of the Castle. The scene shifts from America to Ireland—Dublin, Kildare, the Kerry border (good description), Lisdoonvarna. Types well studied—the genial landlord Col. O’Hara; the sporting squire Sir Thady Monroe; the weak-minded oppressor Sir Richard A—; the American journalist, &c. The “Red Spy” in real life was “Red Jim” McDermott.

LEPPER, J. H.

— CAPTAIN HARRY. (Sealy, Bryers). 6d. 1908.

“Tale of Parliamentary Wars, introducing the principal characters who took part on the Royalist and the Parliamentary sides.”

— FRANK MAXWELL. (Sealy, Bryers). 6d. Paper.

Adventures of an Irish Puritan planter’s son, who by an unlucky series of accidents finds himself on the royalist and Irish side just before the rebellion of 1641. The central incident of the story is the journey of one Hugh O’Donnell to Glasgow, where he meets Charles secretly, and is returning as Viceroy when he is wrecked, and Frank Maxwell along with him, on the coast of Antrim. The Irish are, on the whole, represented as rather bloodthirsty and barbaric, especially “Hugh O’Donnell.” A good “adventure” book.

LESTER, Edward.

— THE SIEGE OF BODIKE: A Prophecy of Ireland’s Future. Pp. 140. (London: Heywood). 1886.

A political skit written from a strongly Tory standpoint, in which the Author tells us how he would deal with the Irish question. The time is 188-, yet an imaginary Fenian rebellion is described. Kilkenny falls into the hands of the enemy, and a bomb is dropped from a balloon on Bodike, a village in Kilkenny. The whole is wildly improbable, but it is probably meant to be so.

LETTS, W. M. A granddaughter of Alexander Ferrier, Esq., of Knockmaroon Park, Co. Dublin, where she spent many summers. She resides in Blackrock, Co. Dublin. Ed. at St. Anne’s, Abbots Bromley, and Alexandra College, Dublin. Has written Diana Dethroned, Christina’s Son, The Rough Way (Wells, Gardner), short Irish stories for children in the Month and other periodicals. She is coming to be very well known as a poet, and has written some plays for the Abbey Theatre.

— THE MIGHTY ARMY. Pp. 128. (Wells, Gardner). 5s. net. Ill. by Stephen Reid. 1912.

Stories from the lives of saints, including St. Columba.

LEVER, Charles. Born (1806) in Dublin, of English parentage; graduated at T.C.D. Wrote much for the National Magazine, the D.U. Magazine, Blackwood’s, the Cornhill, &c. Consul in Spezzia, 1858, and at Trieste, 1867. Here he died in 1872. Is by far the greatest of that group of writers who, by education and sympathies, are identified with the English element in Ireland. He was untouched by the Gaelic spirit, was a Tory in politics, and a Protestant. “His imagination,” says Mr. Krans, “did not enable him to see with the eyes of the Catholic gentry or the peasantry. He knew only one class of peasants well—servants and retainers, and he only knew them on the side they turned out to their masters. Most of his peasants are more than half stage-Irishmen.” He had no sympathy with the religious aspirations of Catholics, and his pictures of their religious life are sometimes offensive. These are his limitations. On the other hand, his books are invariably clean and fresh, free from vulgarity, morbidness, and mere sensationalism. His first four books overflow with animal spirits, reckless gaiety, and fun. It has been well remarked by his biographer, W. J. Fitzpatrick, that his genius was much more French than English. After Hinton he is more serious, more attentive to plot-weaving, and to careful character-drawing. His books give a wonderful series of pictures of Irish life from the days of Grattan’s Parliament to the Famine of 1846. Many of these pictures, though true to certain aspects of Irish life, create a false impression by directing the eye almost exclusively to what is grotesque and whimsical. Lever’s portrait gallery is one of the finest in fiction. It includes the dashing young soldiers of the earlier books; the comic characters, an endless series; diplomatists, doctors, lawyers, politicians, usurers, valetudinarians, aristocrats, typical Irish squires, adventurers, braggarts, spendthrifts, nearly all definite and convincing. See Art, in Blackwood, Apr., 1862, and in Dubl. Rev., 1872, Vol. 70, p. 379. Also Edmund Downey’s book, Charles Lever: his Life and Letters. Many of Lever’s novels were originally published in shilling monthly parts, with two illustrations by “Phiz” (Hablot K. Browne), and had as great a vogue as those of Dickens. There have been many editions since by Routledge (3s. 6d.) and Chapman & Hall (2s.), with and without illustrations, but the finest ever issued is:—

— COMPLETE NOVELS. Edited by the Novelist’s Daughter. Thirty-seven Vols. (Downey). Publ. £19 18s. Cloth. 1897-9.

The only complete and uniform ed. of Lever. Contains all the original steel engravings and etchings by “Phiz” and Cruikshank, and many ill. by Luke Fildes and other artists. Ed. and annotated by means of unpublished memoranda found among Author’s papers. Lever’s prefaces are printed, and bibliographical notes appended to each story.

— HARRY LORREQUER. Pp. 380. (N.Y.: Dutton). 1.00. [1839].

The first of Lever’s rollicking military novels. The hero is a dashing young English officer, who comes to Cork with his regiment, and there passes through what the Author calls “a mass of incongruous adventures. Such was our life in Cork, dining, drinking, riding steeplechases, pigeon-shooting, and tandem-driving.” The book abounds in humorous incidents, and is packed with good stories and anecdotes. All sorts of Irish characters are introduced. There are sketches of Catholic clerical life in a vein of burlesque. The latter part of the story takes the reader to the Continent (various parts of France and Germany), where we meet Arthur O’Leary, afterwards made the hero of another story. Mr. Baker describes the book well as “very Irish in the stagey sense, very unreal.”

— CHARLES O’MALLEY. Pp. 632, close print. (N.Y.: Putnam). 1.00. [1841].

From electioneering, hunting, and duelling with the Galway country gentry, the scene changes to Trinity, where the hero goes in for roistering, larking, and general fast living with the wildest scamps in town. Then he gets a commission in the dragoons, and goes to the Peninsula (p. 147). There he goes through the whole campaign, and ends by viewing Waterloo from the French camp. Throughout, the narrative is enlivened by the raciest and spiciest stories. The native Irish, where they appear, are drawn in broad caricature. “Major Monsoon” was the portrait of a real personage, and so was the tomboy Miss “Baby Blake.” “Mickey Free” is the best known of Lever’s farcical Irish characters.

— JACK HINTON. Pp. 402. (Boston: Little, Brown). 5.00. [1843].

Adventures of a young English officer who arrives in Ireland during the Viceroyalty of the Duke of Grafton. The hero’s Irish experiences include steeplechasing, fox-hunting, “high life” in Dublin, a glimpse of society life in the Castle, love, duelling, and murder. But Lever wrote the book to show how Irish character and Irish ways differed wholly from English, and he represents Hinton as constantly having his prejudiced English eyes opened with a vengeance. This novel contains some of Lever’s most famous characters: Corny Delaney, Hinton’s body servant; Mr. and Mrs. Paul Rooney, parvenu leaders of Dublin society; Father Tom Loftus, Lever’s idea of the jolly Irish priest; Bob Mahon, the devil-may-care impecunious Irish gentleman; most of all Tipperary Joe. “For these,” says the Author (Pref.,) “I had not to call upon imagination.” Tipperary Joe was a real personage. For the last 100 pages the scene shifts to Spain, France, and Italy. Throughout, event succeeds event at reckless speed. There are some scenes of Connaught life, and a fine description of a meeting of “The Monks of the Screw.”

— TOM BURKE OF “OURS.” Pp. 660. (N.Y.: Dutton). [1844].

The early scenes (150 pp.) of Tom’s life (told throughout in the first person) take place in Ireland. Lever tells us (Pref.) that he tried to make Tom intensely Irish before launching him into French life. Tom enlists, but in consequence of a quarrel with a fatal ending has to fly the country. He goes to France, then under the First Consul, and joins the army. Military, civil, and political life at Paris is described with wonderful vividness and knowledge. These form a background to the exciting and dramatic adventures and love affairs of the hero. Then there is the Austerlitz campaign fully described; then life at Paris in 1806. Then the campaign of Jena. Finally, we have a description of the last campaign that ended with the abdication at Fontainebleau. The portrait of Napoleon is lifelike and convincing. Lever throws himself thoroughly into his French scenes. A pathetic episode is the love of Minette, the Vivandière, for Tom, and her heroic death at the Bridge of Montereau. Darby the Blast is a character of the class of Mickey Free and Tipperary Joe, yet quite distinct and original. The scene near the close where Darby is in the witness-box is a companion picture to Sam Weller in court, and is one of the best things of its kind in fiction.

— ARTHUR O’LEARY. Pp. 435. (N.Y.: Dutton). 1.00. [1844].

Rather a collection of stories of adventure than a novel. Lever has worked into it many of his own experiences in Canada, and also at Göttingen. There is a good deal about Student life in Germany. Many stories (of the Napoleonic wars chiefly) are told by the various characters all through the book. Some contemporary critics thought this the best of Lever’s books.

— ST. PATRICK’S EVE. Pp. 203. (Chapman & Hall). illustr. by “Phiz.” (N.Y.: Harper). [1845].

A short and somewhat gloomy tale of a period that Lever knew well—the pestilence of 1832. Scene: borders of Lough Corrib. The life described is that of the small farmer and the peasant struggling to make ends meet. Faction-fighting is dealt with in the opening of the tale, and the relations between landlord and agent and tenantry, at the period, are described with insight. “When I wrote it, I desired to inculcate the truth that prosperity has as many duties as adversity has sorrows.” It is far the most national of Lever’s stories, and there is a depth of feeling and of sympathy in it that would surprise those acquainted only with Charles O’Malley and Harry Lorrequer.

— THE O’DONOGHUE. Pp. 369. (Routledge). [1845].

Scene: Glenflesk (between Macroom and Bantry) and Killarney. Period: from just before to just after the French expedition to Bantry. The O’Donoghue, poor and proud, is intended as a type of the decaying Catholic gentry of ancient lineage, living in a feudal, half-barbaric splendour, beset by creditors and bailiffs whom fear of the retainer’s blunderbuss alone kept at a distance. Mark O’Donoghue, proud, gloomy, passionate, filled with hatred of the English invader, wears a frieze coat like the peasants, sells horses, hunts and fishes for a livelihood. He joins the United Irishmen, who are represented as making an ignoble traffic of conspiracy, and takes part in Hoche’s attempted invasion. Other characters are: Kate O’Donoghue, educated abroad; Lanty Lawler, horse-dealer, who supplies plenty of humour; in particular Sir Marmaduke Travers, a well-meaning but self-sufficient Englishman, who, knowing nothing of Ireland, makes ludicrous attempts to better his tenants’ condition. “I was not sorry to show,” says Lever (Pref.), “that any real and effective good to Ireland must have its base in the confidence of the people.” For this book Lever was bitterly accused of Repeal tendencies.

— THE MARTINS OF CRO’ MARTIN. Pp. 625. (N.Y.: Harper). 1856. [1847].

Scene: chiefly Connemara; the novel opening with a fine picture of the old-time splendours of Ballynahinch Castle, the seat of the “Martins.” For awhile the scene shifts to Paris during the Revolution of 1830. The story illustrates the practical working of the Emancipation Act. Martin is a type of the ease-loving Irish landlord, “shirking the cares of his estates, with an immense self-esteem, narrow, obstinate, weak, without ideas, and with a boundless faith in his own dignity, elegance, and divine right to rule his tenants” (Krans). Rejected by his tenantry at an election he quits the country in disgust, leaving them to the mercies of a Scotch agent. Lever pictures vividly the sufferings of the people both from this evil and from the cholera, drawing for the latter upon his own experiences when ministering to cholera patients in Clare. He says of the people that “no words of his could do justice to the splendid heroism they showed each other in misfortune.” Mary Martin is one of Lever’s most admirable heroines. There is a fine study, also, of a young man of the people, son of a small shopkeeper in Oughterard, who, by his sterling worth, raises himself to the highest positions.