The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ireland in Fiction, by Stephen J. Brown, S.J.

[12] In a contribution to I.B.L. for Sept., 1915, Mr. Edmund Downey unhesitatingly assigns the book to the late Edward Moran, brother of the present Ed. of The Leader.

— SPRIGS OF SHAMROCK; or, Irish Sketches and Legends. Pp. 134. (Browne & Nolan). 6d. 1900.

“The little books show how full of charm and fascination the holiday resorts of Ireland really are.”—(Lady’s Pictorial).

RUSSELL, T. O’Neill; “Reginald Tierney.” B. near Moate, Co. Westmeath, 1828. Son of Joseph Russell, a Quaker. Was devoted from about 1858 till the end of his life to the revival of the Irish language. During the Fenian movement he was an object of suspicion. He emigrated, and spent thirty years in U.S.A. Returning in 1895, he threw himself heart and soul into the Gaelic Revival. D. 1908.

A rather rambling tale of the troubles of a pair of lovers. Scene: first, the Lake district of Cavan and Westmeath, where we have a glimpse of squireen life. Afterwards the backwoods north of Albany, U.S.A. Both light and shade of American colonist life depicted. There are many laughable episodes in the book.

Famine in 1814 and following years, as background for a story full of incident, humour, and pathos, with faithful pictures of many sides of Irish life—the emigrant ship, a wedding, relations of good and bad landlords with tenants. Altogether on the side of the peasant. Original title:—The Struggles of Dick Massey; or, the battles of a boy, by “Reginald Tierney.”

RUSSELL, Violet. Is the wife of George Russell, “A.E.,” Ed. of the Irish Homestead and a well-known poet.

— HEROES OF THE DAWN. Pp. 251. (Maunsel). 5s. Sixteen black and white drawings and four coloured illustr. by Beatrice Elvery. n.d. [1913].

Stories of the Fionn cycle, drawn from Standish O’Grady’s Silva Gadelica and from the Transactions of the Ossianic Society, and retold, with a pleasant simplicity and directness, for children. “I would have you see in them,” says the dedication, “a record of some qualities which the heroes of ancient times held to be of far greater worth than anything else—an absolute truthfulness and courtesy in thought and speech and action; a nobility and chivalry of mind, &c....” But the Author leaves the reader to draw his own moral and does not force it on him. The illustrations are charming, and the whole book is produced with great artistic taste.

A romance of the Land League, but not too much taken up with politics. Nationalist. Introd. by William O’Brien, M.P.

— STARLIGHT THROUGH THE ROOF. Pp. 240. (Downey). 1895. Under pseudonym “Kevin Kennedy.”

Scene: an inland village of Munster (presumably in Co. Tipperary). A tale of peasant life—Utopian reforms realized by a returned emigrant, opposed by land agents and a landlord’s priest; partial conversion of the latter to the people’s side; arrest of reformer on false charge of murder; breaking open of prison, and rescue, &c. An early and crude effort in fiction. Pleasant, emotional style. Very strong Nationalist bias.

A simple little tale of life in an Irish village, showing knowledge of the country-folk and of their ways of thought and speech; also a thorough understanding of children. The Author is Miss M. Younge, of Upper Oldtown, Rathdowney.

SADLIER, Mrs. James,[13] née Madden. Born at Cootehill, 1820. D. 1903. In 1844 she went to Canada, where the rest of her life was spent. Between 1847 and 1874 she wrote frequently for the principal Catholic papers in America. In 1895 she received the Laetare Medal. “Each of her works of fiction had a special object in view, bearing on the moral and religious well-being of her fellow Irish Catholics.” She says: “It is needless to say that all my writings are dedicated to the one grand object: the illustration of our holy Faith by means of tales or stories.” Her sympathies are strongly nationalist. Besides the books here noticed, she also published The Red Hand of Ulster, and a large number of religious works. Flynn of Boston publishes a uniform ed. of her works at 0.60 each vol. Many of them were, naturally, originally published by the firm of her husband, James Sadlier.

[13] i.e., Mary A. Sadlier, to be carefully distinguished from Anna T. Sadlier, her daughter, born in Montreal. The latter has written nearly as much as her mother, but her works are not concerned with Ireland.

— THE FATE OF FATHER SHEEHY. Pp. 178 + appendix 76. (Duffy). 1s. 6d. Still in print. [c. 1845]. (N.Y.: Benziger). 0.60.

The story (true, though told in form of fiction) of how the heroic patriot-priest was judicially murdered at Clonmel in 1766 by the ascendancy faction, backed by the Government. Appendix by Dr. R. R. Madden, giving full details of the trial, depositions of witnesses, &c.

Story of two Irish emigrant boys left orphans in the States, and their struggles with temptations against their Faith. One is a model boy; the other goes off the track, but is brought back again. A moral and religious story, full of Catholic faith and feeling. It might, however, be not unreasonably considered somewhat “goody-goody.”

Peasant life in Famine times. Written with a strong sympathy for the sufferings of the people, and with admiration for their virtues. There is a good deal about the proselytism or “souperism” that was rife at the time. The evils of landlordism, resulting in evictions, &c., are depicted. There is no love interest.

— THE BLAKES AND FLANAGANS. Pp. 391. (N.Y.: Kenedy). 60 cents. net; and (Duffy) 2s. 6d. [1855]. 1909.

Life among lower middle class Irish in New York, showing in a somewhat satirical way, evil effects of public school education. The moral purpose, though fairly evident, does not detract from the naturalness of the story. The conversation is particularly lifelike.

— THE CONFEDERATE CHIEFTAINS. Pp. 384. Demy 8vo. (Gill). 4s. Many editions. [1859]. Still in print. (N.Y.: Benziger). 0.60 net.

A romance of a popular kind, without great literary pretensions, giving a good picture of the events of the time, written from a Catholic standpoint, and sympathising with the Old Irish party led by O’Neill, who is the hero of the tale. All the chief men of the various parties figure in the narrative. Full expression is given to the Author’s sympathies and dislikes, yet without, we believe, historic unfairness.

— BESSY CONWAY; or, The Irish Girl in America. Pp. 316. (N.Y.: Kenedy). 60 cents. net. Print rather poor. n.d. [1861].

Theme of story: influence of religion on character. Object (as stated in Pref.): to point out to Irish girls in America (especially servants) “the true and never-failing path to success in this life, and happiness in the next.” Bessy, daughter of Tipperary farmer, leaves for America. She finds when on board that Henry Herbert, son of her father’s landlord, a Protestant, is without encouragement from her, following her through love. The story tells how a change came over the wild young man, how he became a Catholic, and married Bessy; how the two of them made their fortunes in N. Y., and how Bessy came home just in time to stop the eviction of her father in the Famine year. Readable, with touches both of humour and of pathos. Highly moral and religious in tone.

— THE RED HAND OF ULSTER; or, the Fortunes of Hugh O’Neill. (London and Dublin), c. 1862.

Mentioned in most lists of this Author’s works, but not in British Museum Library.

Story of Irish society in the ’sixties. The “hermit,” who tends the graves and monuments on the Rock of Cashel, is a sort of Irish “Old Mortality,” and is a storehouse of legend and tradition. The story is by no means a tame one: there is a murder mystery, and sensation, though the latter does not degenerate into melodrama.

— THE DAUGHTER OF TYRCONNELL: a Tale of the Reign of James I. Pp. 160. (Duffy), 1s. (N.Y.: Kenedy). 60 cents, net. [1863]. Still in print.

Sufferings of Mary O’Donnell, daughter of the exiled Earl of Tyrconnell, at the hands of James I., who adopted her and wished her to marry a Protestant. She dresses as a man and escapes to the Continent, where she enters a convent. Founded on a tradition recorded in MacGeoghegan’s History of Ireland. James is painted in very dark colours; Mary is almost too good for real life.

— CON O’REGAN; or, Emigrant Life. Pp. 405. (N.Y.: Kenedy). 60 cents. [1864]. 1909.

A powerful anti-emigration novel, depicting the hardships of Irish emigrants in the New England states in the ’forties. Thoroughly Catholic and sympathetic to the Irish, but does not conceal their faults.

— THE OLD HOUSE BY THE BOYNE. Pp. 319. (Gill). 2s. 6d. [1865]; also (London) 1888. New ed., 1904. (N.Y.: Benziger). 0.60.

Scene: Drogheda. Many descriptions of old historic spots, and much legendary lore. There is a love interest, also, but the book is hardly up to the Author’s usual standard. At the outset of the book Drogheda is well described.

— THE HEIRESS OF KILORGAN. Pp. vi. + 420. (N.Y.: Kenedy). 60 cents. [1867]. New ed., 1909.

“A slight and very simple thread of fiction connects throughout the series of historical sketches constituting these ‘Evenings with the old Geraldines.’”—(Pref.). The plan is similar to that of Hibernian Nights Entertainments (Ferguson), q.v. At Kilorgan, near the Maigue, in Co. Limerick, dwell a poor family of descendants of the Geraldines. They are visited by an Englishman, who has (without their knowledge) bought the old place in the courts. Every night of his stay a story is told, the intervals being filled in by somewhat insipid love episodes, long poems (by Mrs. Hernans, Longfellow, Gerald Griffin, &c.), and songs. The stories are a series of episodes from Geraldine history from Gerald FitzWalter in Wales to the Sugán Earl, c. 1598, together with a few miscellaneous romantic stories. They are simply and interestingly told. Some are hardly for children. An Appendix gives some Geraldine documents.

— MACCARTHY MÓR. Pp. 277. (N.Y.: Kenedy). [1868]. At present in print. n.d.

Life and character of Florence MacCarthy Mór based on his Life and Letters by Daniel M’Carthy. M’Carthy is said by the Author (Pref.) almost to merit the name of the Munster Machiavelli. The book presents a striking picture of the struggles of the great families of the day to preserve faith and property amid the petty persecutions of the government and the intrigues of rivals. Chief events introduced: battles of Pass of Plumes, Curlew Mountains, and Bealanathabuidhe. Elizabeth, Cecil, Burleigh, the Northern Earls, the “Sugán” Earl, Sir Henry Power, &c., appear incidentally. The scene varies between the Killarney district, West Carbery, the Council Chamber of Elizabeth, and the Tower. The episode of the marriage of the daughter of MacCarthy Mór to Florence MacCarthy Reagh forms the theme of Miss Gaughan’s The Plucking of the Lily, q.v.

A tale of the Claddagh, the famous fishing village beside Galway city. Its manners and ways are described in detail and with fidelity. Tells how the beautiful daughter of the chief fisherman is wooed and won from all competitors by a wealthy young merchant of the city. The plot is well sustained and interesting, though somewhat complicated and hampered by digressions.

— MEG McINTYRE’S RAFFLE, and Other Stories. Two Vols. (Boston: Small & Maynard). $1.25 each. 1896.

“Studies of the poorest classes in a great city, the pathos often ghastly in its intensity. The title-story is an Irish idyll.”—(Baker, 2).

SAVAGE, Marmion W. 1805-1872. B. Dublin. Ed. T.C.D. He was a government official in Dublin for some years, and at that time wrote for Dubl. Univ. Magazine. In 1856 he went to London, and there edited several periodicals. He was a witty and clever novelist, very popular in his day. Wrote also Bachelor of the Albany, My Uncle the Curate, Reuben Medlicott, A Woman of Business.

— THE FALCON FAMILY. (Chapman & Hall). [1845]. (Ward, Lock). New ed., 1854.

“The best known and choicest of the author’s numerous stories. It is intended as a satire on the leaders of the Young Ireland Party; and some of the satire is very keen and amusing, but as political pictures his sketches are no better than caricatures.”—(Read). John Mitchel, reviewing it (The Nation, 13th Decr., 1845), calls it “another of those pamphlet-novels that infest the literary world ... though too obviously the production of an Irishman, is as obviously intended and calculated for the English market.... We have had some opportunities of acquaintance with the men the writer attempts to satirize, and do unfeignedly declare that we have never met (them).... In short, this book is a very paltry and ill-conditioned performance.”

“A tragic plot, with sketches of Irish life, and unpleasant specimens of humanity in the rector and rector’s wife in the Protestant community of Tuleen. Old Micky Hogan, the sexton, is depicted with humour.”—(Baker, 2). By the same Author: The Wings of the Morning.

— MICKY MOONEY, M.P. Pp. 250. (Bristol: Arrowsmith). Illustr. by Nancy Ruxton. 1902.

Career of the hero from bog-trotter to M.P. As a background, a vulgar and absurd caricature of Irish life. Humour throughout of a very broad kind. Characters speak in an impossible brogue.

O’Connell is the hero, but there are a multitude of characters, chiefly of the ruling classes. Politics are much discussed, the Author’s sympathies being pretty clearly on the Catholic and Nationalist side. Scene partly in Ireland, partly in England, where the reader listens to speeches in the House of Lords.

“The purport of the Author is to reveal the varied charm and grace of a delightful Irish girl’s character between the ages of thirteen and eighteen or so.... A vital, significant portrait.”—(T. Litt. Suppl.). Scene: partly at “Castlemorne,” partly in a big English school near Liverpool.

A very slight story centering in the landing of the French at Killala in 1798. Adventures of two small English boys. An interesting but one-sided glimpse of some of the episodes of the time. For boys.

— THE CLUTCH OF CIRCUMSTANCES; or, The Gates of Dawn. Pp. 333. (Black). Frontisp. 1908.

An Arthurian romance, with Finola, daughter of Cormac, King of Leinster, as heroine. She is married to a brutal husband, but in the end is united to her true love. Not, however, without passing through a long series of adventures, rescues by knights errant, escapes, &c. Has all the usual elements of the romantic chanson de geste—tourneys, rose-gardens, adventures in the green-wood. Told in highly romantic manner, but with the romance is blended a curious element of the modern problem novel.

— IRISH WITCHCRAFT AND DEMONOLOGY. Pp. 256. (Hodges & Figgis). 5s. net. 1914.

A very competent piece of work from a scientific point of view. From the point of view of fiction it is full of weird and uncanny stories, gleaned from all sorts of sources.

Author says in Pref.: “For myself I cannot guarantee the genuineness of a single incident in this book—how could I, as none of them are my own personal experience. This at least I can vouch for, that the majority of the stories were sent to me as first or second-hand experiences by ladies and gentlemen whose statement on an ordinary matter of fact would be accepted without question.” The names of some contributors are mentioned. The stories are classified partly according to locality, partly according to the type of ghost in question. A final chapter gives a kind of Apologia for the book. Index of place names. The telling is, perhaps, a little monotonous and dull.

SHAND, Alexander Innes. 1832-1907. A Scotchman who interested himself in the Irish land question and wrote Letters from the West of Ireland, 1884. Other novels of his were Against Time and Shooting the Rapids.

The influence of a good and sweet-natured woman on selfish men, with the Land League agitation in Co. Galway for a background. The peasantry are depicted as wild and lawless and mere tools of the Land League, but as capable of much good. The shooting of landlords is sheer barbarism, no attempt being made by the Author to set forth its causes. The plot is furnished by the efforts of the hero, Capt. Martin Neville, to trace the murderer of a previous owner of the Kilcarra estate, and also by the story of his love for his cousin Ida, or rather hers for him. There is much about the relations between landlord and tenant.

— NEATH SUNNY SKIES: Stories of the Co. Waterford. Pp. 123. (Waterford News). 6d. 1912.

SHEEHAN, Canon Patrick A., D.D. B. 1852. Educated at St. Colman’s, Fermoy, and Maynooth. Spent two years (1875-77) on English mission in Devonshire. Parish Priest of Doneraile from 1895 till his death in 1913. His books deal chiefly with Catholic clerical life in Ireland—a subject which he was the first to deal with from within. He brought to bear on the features and problems of Irish life a deeply thoughtful and cultured mind. He did not indulge in thoughtless panegyric of Irish virtues, but touched firmly, though sympathetically, upon our national shortcomings and failings. His ideals are of the loftiest, yet never of an unsubstantial and airy, kind. His style is influenced too much perhaps in his earlier books by his very wide reading in many literatures, but particularly in Greek, German, Italian, and English. Besides the novels mentioned here, he has published two books of studies and reflections, viz., Under the Cedars and the Stars, and Parerga; also a book of poems, Cithara Mea, and a selection of Early Essays and Lectures.

Story of life in a secondary school, near Dublin, nominally controlled by the clergy, but in reality left to the care of a grinder of more than doubtful character. A most uncatholic worldliness prevails at Mayfield, and the standards of conduct and of religion are very low. Geoffrey’s faith is weakened and well-nigh ruined. The curtain falls upon him as he goes out to face the world, and we are left to conjecture his fate. Has been transl. into French under title Geoffroy.

A sequel to the preceding. It is a close and sympathetic soul-study. Geoffrey loses all his worldly hopes and falls low indeed. He suffers the shipwreck of his faith. But in this valley of humiliation he learns strength to rise and conceives far different hopes, and we leave him on the heights of atonement and of regeneration. The book is philosophic in tone, and is enriched with many elevating thoughts from German, French, and English moralists. It is said to have been the Author’s favourite. It has been translated into many languages, e.g., French, under title Le succès dans l’échec (1906), and German as Der Erfolg des Misserfolgs (Press of the Missionaries of Steyl), M. 6.

— MY NEW CURATE. Pp. 480. (Art and Book Co.). 6s. Eighteenth ed. Eighteen rather poor illustr. [1899]. New ed. (Longmans), 2s. 6d. 1914. (Boston: Marlier). 1.50.

Into a sleepy, backward, out-of-the-way parish comes a splendid young priest, cultured, energetic, zealous, up-to-date. He succeeds in many reforms, but the moral of the whole would seem to be, “Nothing on earth can cure the inertia of Ireland,” or rather, perhaps, “You cannot undo in a day the operations of 300 years.” The old parish priest tells the story. There is in the book intimate sympathy with, and love of, the people, their humours, and foibles, and virtues. There is plenty of very humorous incident. Delightful moralizings, like those in the Author’s Under the Cedars and the Stars. It is full of undidactic lessons for both priests and people. The religious life of the people is, of course, much dwelt on, and a good deal of light is thrown on the private life of the priests. Transl. into French (Mon nouveau vicaire), Dutch (Mijn nieuwe kapelaan, by M. van Beek, 1904), German (Mein neuer Kaplan, Bachem, M. 6.), Italian, Spanish (Mi nuevo coadjutor, Herder), Hungarian, Slovene, Ruthenian.

The life-story of a priest. The main theme of this great novel is the setting forth of the spiritual ideals of the race and of the heights of moral beauty and heroism to which these ideals can lead. A strong contrast is drawn between the ideals which the hero sees at work around him during his stay in England, and those which he finds at work at home. Many phases and incidents of Irish life are shown—the home-life of the priest, the eviction, the funeral, scenes in Dublin churches, the beauty of Irish landscape. One of the best, if not the best, of Irish novels. Yet as a “problem” novel it is strangely inconclusive. Luke seems to die with his life-questions unanswered. Trans. into French, Luke Delmege, âmes celtiques et âmes saxonnes; German, Lukas Delmege, trans. Ant. Lohr. (Habbel), M. 6, 1906, sixth ed.; and Hungarian. Canon Sheehan used to say of this book that its central idea was the doctrine of vicarious atonement.

“Tainted blood, inherited shame, is a terrible thing amongst a people who attach supreme importance to these things.” This is, perhaps, the central theme of the story. The narrative opens in 1829 with the famous Doneraile Conspiracy trial in Cork, when O’Connell, summoned in hot haste from Derrynane, was just in time to save the lives of the innocent prisoners. The story traces to the third generation the strange fortunes of the descendants of one of the informers in this trial. There are glimpses of the famine of ’48 and of the spirit of the men of ’67. The story of Nodlag is a touching and beautiful one, and the episode of the returned American is very well done. Trans. into German, Das Christtagskind (Steyl: Mission Press), M. 2.50.

— THE SPOILED PRIEST, and Other Stories. Pp. 213. (Gill and Burns & Oates). 5s. Nine illustr. by M. Healy. 1905.

Eight stories. The title-story gives a glimpse of the workings of an ecclesiastical seminary, and also of the Irish peasants’ attitude towards a student who has been refused ordination. “Remanded” is the story, founded on fact, of a hero-priest of Cork. “The Monks of Trabolgan” is a curious, fanciful story of Ireland at some future period. The remaining tales, “Rita, the Street Singer,” “A Thorough Gentleman,” and “Frank Forest’s Mince-Pie,” &c., do not deal with Ireland. Has been transl. into German and Dutch.

Three schoolgirls on leaving college take part in tableau as Parcae or Fates. They announce in make-believe the fates of their companions. A mysterious voice from the audience announces their own. The story tells how their fates worked out. The first part of the drama takes place in Dublin, but after a time the scene shifts to London. Transl. into French as Ange égaré d’un paradis ruiné.

— LISHEEN; or, the Test of the Spirits. Pp. 454. (Longmans). 6s. 1907. New ed., 1914, 2s. 6d.

The conception is that of Tolstoi’s Resurrection, with the scene transferred to Kerry. It is the story of how a young man of the Irish landlord class determines to put to the test of practise his ideals of altruism. To this end he abandons the society of his equals and lives the life of a labourer. He finds how full of pain and heartburning and disappointment is the way of the reformer. There are many reflections on the national character and its defects are not whittled down. The book has two main themes—the greed and callousness of Irish landlords, and the inability of the Englishman to understand Irish character.

— THE BLINDNESS OF DR. GRAY; or, The Final Law. (Longmans). 6s. 1909. New ed., 1914. 2s. 6d.

The interest of this novel centres partly in its pictures of clerical life, partly in a charming love story of an uncommon type. The central figure is drawn with care and thoroughness. He is a strict disciplinarian, a rigid moralist, who worships the law with Jansenistic narrowness and hardness. But as the story goes on we discover beneath this hard surface unsuspected depths of human kindness. He himself finds out before the end that it is love, not law, that rules the world. The story contains many beautiful and touching scenes, and some fine description, notably in the South African portion of the book. There is some incidental criticism of various features of Irish life—popular politics, religious divisions, the Gaelic League, the change in the mentality of the people, and there is in it food for thought about some of our besetting faults. Considered by many to be the Author’s most finished and most powerful work. Transl. into German, Von Dr. Grays Blindheit, with introductory sketch (Einsiedeln: Benziger). M. 6. 1911.

Miriam is the daughter of wealthy Protestant parents in Glendarragh, in the W. of Ireland. Her mother, on becoming a Catholic, is driven by domestic persecution into evil ways, and subsequently disappears. Society ostracizes Miriam, who, in revolt against it, goes to Dublin, where, in alliance with a young visionary Trinity student, she flings herself into the Socialist movement. Her efforts end in a disastrous strike. For a time she staves off crime and tragedy, but it comes at last. Book III. brings her to New York in search of her mother, whom she discovers sunk to the lowest moral depths. The story hinges partly, too, on the lifting of the curse of Glendarragh by Miriam and the hero, who makes her happy in the end. There are not a few fine dramatic situations, but the plot does not hang together. The book is meant to deal with Irish social and religious problems and to picture certain phases of Irish life. The life pictured is chiefly that of the Protestant upper classes, of whom a severe and satirical portrait is drawn. There are just a few glimpses of peasant life. The Author raises more problems than he solves, and the prevailing impression left upon the reader is one of gloom. Has been transl. into German.

An attempt to set forth the spirit of the Fenian movement of 1867, and even to contrast it with subsequent movements, to the great disadvantage of the latter; for the Author thought that the fire of Nationality has burned very low since ’67. The heroes are James Halpin (apparently intended for Peter O’Neill Crowley, who fell in ’67) and Miles Cogan, Fenians and unselfish patriots. There is some good character drawing, but the interest of plot and incident is slight, the chief interest being the vein of very ideal philosophy which runs through the book. The Author is gloomy and pessimistic about modern Ireland.

“An unexciting chronicle of the solitary Lord Barnabweel, his quaint experiments with his Irish property and tenantry, and the story of his son who left him, married in a Dublin lodging-house, and became a famous musician.”—(Times’ Lit. Suppl.).

The story of an Irish girl in Paris and of her life and love affairs there. Pleasantly written, and giving a kindly account of the Irish character. (Press Notice).

— A RUINED RACE; or, the Last Macmanus of Drumroosk. (Ward & Downey). 6s. 1890.

A very gloomy view of Ireland. The Author displays intimate knowledge of Irish scenes, idioms, and characteristics. Period: middle of nineteenth century. Pictures with painful fidelity and much power the misfortunes of a once happy and prosperous couple belonging to the well-to-do peasant class. Misery seems to dog their steps from one end of the book to the other. The girl dies in the workhouse, the man takes to drink and is killed in an accident. Seems to aim at picturing the difficulties and sufferings of the peasantry, especially under the old land system. The Author was the wife of Dr. Geo. Sigerson.

SIME, William. B. Wick, Caithness, 1851. D. Calcutta, 1895. Author of several other works of fiction—King Capital, To and Fro, Boulderstone.

Scene: West and South of Ireland, beginning with Galway, where the hero, Finn O’Brien, goes to college and suffers much both from collegians and peasantry. Finn becomes a Fenian, but falls in love with an English widow who had become a Catholic to escape the pursuit of bishops and parsons of her own Church. The heroine is a Claddagh girl, whose love for an English captain, Jeffrey, is crossed by the fact that she is a Fenian. One of the love affairs ends happily, the other tragically. The Author is not anti-Irish, but knows little about Ireland. He drags in priests “smelling strongly of whiskey” and nuns who have broken their vows.

Translated into English prose from Irish by the Author with help of native speakers. Contents: Oisin, Bard of Erin (introductory by the Author); Deardra; Conloch Son of Cuthullin (sic); The Fenii of Erin and Fionn MacCumhal; Dialogue between Oisin and St. Patrick (pp. 61-184); Mayo Mythology (various Fenian Tales); The Battle of Ventry.

A paper read before the Catholic Literary Society, Tralee. The Cuchulain epic briefly but admirably related. Passages of verse from Ferguson and De Vere are skilfully interwoven. Excellent notes at the end explain difficulties and references.

A stirring story of love and sport in “Co. Blarney” in “the eighties.” Mr. Eyre, one of the “ould stock,” gets into difficulties with his tenants, who stop the “Harkhallow” hounds and boycott him. Written from the English and landlord standpoint. The dialect is wonderfully good and the “horsey” scenes well done. The Author was a well-known sporting novelist; 1833-1893.

— THE BRIDES OF ARDMORE: A Story of Irish Life. Pp. 393. (Elliott, Stock). Frontisp.—view of Ardmore. 1880.

Ardmore, Co. Waterford, in twelfth century. A few descriptions of scenery, but little local colour, and almost no historical mise-en-scène. The chief object of the story appears to be to picture forth a “primitive” Irish Church, unconnected with Rome, and resembling the modern Church of Ireland in many of its features. The priests are all married. Indeed their matrimonial affairs and the cruel interruption of these by decrees from Rome provide the greater part of the incidents. The tone is not bitter towards Catholicism, but innocently patronising and didactic.

— IRISH DIAMONDS. Pp. 183. 16mo. (Chapman & Hall). 1847. (Gibbings). Five Illus. by “Phiz.” 1890.

Chapters:—On the Road, Young Ireland, Irish Wit, Irish Life, Irish Traits, The Latter End. Humorous Irish anecdotes, rather above the average “pigs, poteen, and praties” type, frankly meant to amuse, but showing not a little knowledge of and sympathy with Irish traits. When the book was written the Author was “one of the editors of the Liverpool Mercury.”

SMYTH, Patrick G. B. Ballina, Co. Mayo, about 1856. Was in early years a National School teacher. Besides his novels, he wrote verse for several Irish periodicals between 1876-1885. For some time he was engaged on a Chicago paper.

— THE WILD ROSE OF LOUGH GILL. Pp. 306. (Gill). 2s. 6d. [1883]. Fifth ed., 1904. (Benziger). 0.85.

Though nominally not the heroes, Owen Roe O’Neill and Miles the Slasher are the chief figures in this fine novel of the Wars of the Confederation. A love-story is interwoven with the historical events. The view-point is thoroughly national. The style abounds in imagery and fine descriptive passages. The novel is one of the most popular ever issued in Ireland. The story ends shortly after the fall of Galway in 1652. The scene is laid partly in Co. Sligo, where (near Lough Gill) one of the most thrilling episodes, founded on a still living tradition, takes place.

— KING AND VIKING; or, The Ravens of Lochlan. Pp. 200. (Sealy, Bryers). 1s. n.d. (1889).

Tireragh (Co. Sligo) in 888, the date assigned by the Four Masters to a great battle fought between the men of Connaught and the Danes. The wars between Danes and Irish furnish the chief interest of the book, but there is also the story of the feud between Ceallach the tanist of Hy Fiachrach and Dungallach, a rival. Much information, drawn from reliable sources, is given regarding the Irish clans, their customs, and their territories.

SOMERVILLE, Edith Œnone, and “MARTIN, Ross.” Miss Violet Martin, of Ross, Co. Galway. Miss Somerville is dau. of the late Col. Somerville, of Drishane, Skibbereen, Co. Cork. Both Authors are granddaughters of Chief Justice Charles Kendal Bushe. Amongst their other works are Naboth’s Vineyard, Beggars on Horseback, and Through Connemara in a Governess’ Cart (illust.).

— AN IRISH COUSIN. Pp. iv. + 306. (Longmans). 3s. 6d. [First ed., 1889]; new ed., quite re-written, 1903. Ten illustr. by E. Œ. Somerville.

Modern country-house life in Co. Cork. A serious study of the slow awakening of a young man to the realization that there are things in life more real to him than horses and dogs. His love for a clever cousin returned from Canada has a tragic ending. The characters of the tale are drawn from Protestant county society. Clever description of Durrus, the ramshackle home of the Sarsfields. Miss Jackson-Croly’s “At Home” and the run with the Moycullen hounds are said to be worthy of Lever.

— THE REAL CHARLOTTE. (Longmans). 3s. 6d. [1894]. Three Vols. (Ward & Downey).

A dark tale of a world “weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable.” An unscrupulous woman works the ruin of a sweet-natured, ill-trained girl. Scene: Irish country neighbourhood. Characters, land agents, farmers, great ladies, drawn with impartial and relentless truth. Pronounced by many critics to be worthy of Balzac.

— THE SILVER FOX. Pp. 195. (Longmans). 3s. 6d. [1898]. (Lawrence and Bullen).

The chief interest of this story lies in some sporting scenes in the West of Ireland. The peasantry are seen from an uncomprehending standpoint, and the chief figures are people of fashion, of no particular nationality. “Broadly speaking, the novel may be said to exhibit in a dramatic form the extraordinary hold which superstition still possesses on the minds of the Irish peasantry.”—(Spectator).

— SOME EXPERIENCES OF AN IRISH R.M. Pp. iv. + 310. Thirty-second thousand. (Longmans). 3s. 6d. Thirty-one illustr. (pen and ink sketches) by E. Œ. Somerville. 1899.

Racy, humorous sketches of hunting and other episodes in the south and west. The Author’s most successful work originally appeared in The Badminton Magazine.

— ALL ON THE IRISH SHORE. Pp. iv. + 274. Eighteenth thousand. (Longmans). 3s. 6d. Ten illustr. by E. Œ. Somerville. 1903.

Sketches of fox-hunting, horse-dealing, racing, trials for assault between neighbours, petty boycotting, rural larking, full of sprightly and rollicking humour. Chief characters, the petty county gentry. The peasantry are drawn in caricature, usually friendly, and are shown in relation to their social superiors, not in their own life and reality. If these sketches were taken seriously, the peasantry would appear as drunken, quarrelsome, lying, dirty, unconsciously comical—with scarcely a single redeeming trait. The scene is south-western Cork.

All on the Irish Shore has been described (Irish Monthly) as “a blend of Lover and Lever (in his coarser rollicking days) refined by some of the literary flavour of Jane Barlow, but with none of the insight and sympathy of Irish Idylls. The same may be said of the Experiences of an Irish R.M., which moreover, contains here and there passages needlessly offensive to national feeling.” Titles of some chapters:—Fanny Fitz’s Gamble, A Grand Filly, High Tea at McKeown’s, A Nineteenth Century Miracle, &c.

N.B.—Messrs. Longmans have (April, 1910) issued a new uniform edition of the works of Somerville and Ross, at 3s. 6d. per volume.

— SOME IRISH YESTERDAYS. Eleventh thousand. (Longmans). 3s. 6d. Fifty-one illustr. by E. Œ. Somerville. 1908.

Admirable illustrations of Connemara scenery, clever sketches of “natives” (usually of the lowest type). Light magazine sketches written in clever, racy style. Subjects: Holidays in Aran and Connemara and Carbery, picnics, country house anecdotes, superficial studies of peasants in Connemara and Cork. “In Sickness and in Health” pays a tribute to the strength of the marriage bond in Ireland.

Miss Rowan comes over to Ireland and takes “Lake View,” in the midst of a hunting district in S. Munster. She falls in love—for the time—with John Michael, handsome, and the most valiant of huntsmen, but a child of nature whose whole mind is absorbed in hounds and horses. Hence complications. The Author’s usual pictures of hunting scenes and happy-go-lucky country gentry. Mrs. Delanty, the sharp and devious widow, is a curious portrait. Dan Russell is scarcely more than a minor character in the piece. It is a story about which we cannot speak favourably.

— IN MR. KNOX’S COUNTRY. (Longmans). 6s. Eight full-page illustr. in chalk. 1915.

Eleven sketches of the same type as the Experiences of an Irish R.M., with some new dramatis personæ in the old localities.

— THE BOY HERO OF ERIN. Pp. 240. (Blackie). 2s. 6d. Handsome cover. Four good illustr. by A. A. Dixon. 1907.

The Cuchulainn Saga told in simple and clear, but somewhat unemotional and matter-of-fact, style. Sources: Miss Hull’s Cuchulainn Saga and Miss Winifred Faraday’s Cattle Raid of Cuailgne (q.v.). The Author holds Cuchulainn to be a hero “not less brave and far more chivalrous than any Greek or Trojan” (Pref.), and thinks that the ancient Gael “invented the noble system of conduct which we call courtesy.”

— CELTIC MYTH AND LEGEND, Poetry and Romance. Pp. 450. (Gresham Publishing Co.). Four Plates in colour by J. H. F. Bacon; fourteen in monochrome by the same and others, and a few photos, n.d.

A kind of digest of the chief published translations of ancient Irish and Welsh saga and romance, preceded by four short essays on the interest of Celtic mythology, and the sources of our knowledge of it, the origin of the Britons and their religion (44 pp. in all). Pp. 47-248 are a summary of Gaelic myth, &c., and pp. 250-395 of British ditto. Then there is an essay on survivals of Celtic paganisms, and an Append. giving brief bibliogr. Index. The myths and romances are not related as a tale is told; they are merely placed on record, almost stripped of their poetry, along with all the extravagances and absurdities that disfigure them, chiefly through modern corruptions. Of little or no interest for young people.

— THE ADVENTURES OF COUNT O’CONNOR in the Dominions of the Great Mogul. Pp. 343. (Alston Rivers). 1s. [1907]. 1909.

A string of impossible situations and thrilling escapes, purporting to be the adventures of an Irish soldier of fortune in India about 1670, related by himself. The Count frequently discourses of the honour of an Irish gentleman, and never acts up to it. His character is that of a thorough rascal. The book contains many disreputable adventures in harems.

STACPOOLE, H. de Vere. Son of Rev. William Church Stacpoole, D.D., of Kingstown, Co. Dublin. Ed. Malvern College, and St. Mary’s Hospital, London. Is a qualified medical man, but does not practise. Has travelled much. Resides near Chelmsford. Has publ. about twenty-two novels.—(Who’s Who). Some of these have been very successful, e.g., The Blue Lagoon.

A gay and humorous story of a house-party in a country mansion somewhere in “Mid-Meath.” Full of amusing characters, cleverly sketched, e.g., the Englishman, Mr. Fanshawe, and the naughty and natural children. Above all there is Patsy, the page-boy, an odd mixture of soft-hearted simplicity and preternatural cuteness. He is the deus ex machina of the piece, causes all sorts of entanglements, and unravels them again in the strangest way. There is just a little study of national characteristics, but no politics nor problems.

“A rattling good story ... Moriarty the trainer is a gem—Mickey Free redivivus, as full of tricks as a bag of weasels. The Author knows his Irish peasantry inside and out, and the only blot on an exceptional book is a needless disquisition on the rights and wrongs of ‘cattle-driving.’”—(I.B.L.).

The idea of the book, which is dedicated to Sir E. Carson and Mr. Redmond, is (see Pref.) to show the Catholic priest as the chief factor in present-day Irish life. The priest in question is represented in a favourable and friendly spirit, though perhaps hardly “at his best,” as the Author suggests. The chief interest is perhaps a love affair, conducted chiefly on horseback, which is told in a lively and spirited way.

A splendid boy’s story. Rich in the vein of adventure, of sport and fight by land, of war by sea, of captivity and slavery. With this there is a solid, but not too obtrusive, lesson of the value of faith and piety in a boy’s life. The piety of the young heroes has nothing mawkish about it. The tone is Catholic. The brogue is very badly imitated.—(N.I.R.). Scene changes from Cork to Africa, and thence to London. Strafford, Wentworth, Laud, and Charles I. appear in the story.

STEPHENS, James. B. Dublin, 1884. Worked for some years in a solicitor’s office, but has definitely taken to literature. His first published volume was Insurrections, since which two other volumes of verse have appeared, and a fourth is about to appear. Has resided principally in Paris for the past two years, but is now living in Dublin, where he holds the position of Registrar at the National Gallery of Ireland. His writings have met with an enthusiastic reception from the critics.

— THE CHARWOMAN’S DAUGHTER. Pp. 228. (Macmillan). 3s. 6d. 1912. Publ. in U.S.A. under title Mary, Mary.

A study of the soul of a simple girl of the people and its development amid the surroundings of a Dublin tenement house and of the Dublin streets—her girlhood, her dreams for the future, her love affairs. The incidents are quite subordinate to the psychological interest. The atmosphere of the reality is carefully reproduced if somewhat idealised. There is nothing morbid nor sensational in the book. This, the Author’s first published novel, and many think his best, first appeared in The Irish Review.

Described, accurately enough, by The Times as “this delicious, fantastical, amorphous, inspired medley of topsy-turveydom.” A fantasy in which human beings with Irish names, Irish gods and fairies, and the god Pan are mingled to bewilderment. And the whole is leavened with what may or may not be the Author’s philosophy. “Love is unclean and holy” ... “Virtue is the performance of pleasant actions.” “Philosophy would lead to the great sin of sterility.” These sentences are isolated from the context, but they seem to indicate the general trend—the philosophy of Pan. However, there is much besides this in the torrent of wayward thought and fancy that is here let loose. The pictures of nature are finely and delicately touched. And there is humour of a strange kind not easy to define.

Fragments of the Author’s peculiar philosophy of life conveyed in odds and ends of stories and sketches. Some are pure fancy, some are very closely observed bits of real life; some are humorous, with a kind of sardonic humour; some whimsical, some border on pathos. Many deal with various phases of married life. Little poems are sandwiched between the tales. The book is full of aphorisms, indeed the style is a riot of curious metaphor, flights of fancy, unexpected turns of phrase. The last piece (pp. 277-348) consists of a series of disquisitions by an old gentleman in the style of the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. An Irish flavour is noticeable at frequent intervals. The idiom (not the brogue) of Anglo-Irish conversation is well reproduced.

The travels through Ireland of Patsy McCann, tinker and general rascal, and his daughter Mary, in company with three angels, become tinkers for the nonce. Patsy is a very human and a very real tinker, an ugly specimen of a disreputable class. The wanderings of this strange company form a thin thread on which is strung a medley of strange fancies, wayward comments, scraps of very excellent description, and glimpses of low life in its most sordid aspects (e.g., the drab Eileen Cooley, who appears at intervals). There is an effort to picture not only the outward doings, experiences, and sensations of the tramps, but also their outlook, such as it is, upon life, their makings of a philosophy, and the morality of the roads.

STEUART, John A. Author (born 1861) of A Millionaire’s Daughter, Self Exiled, In the Day of Battle, The Minister of State, Wine on the Lees, The Eternal Quest, A Son of Gad, The Rebel Wooing, &c., &c. Was born in Perthshire; lived in Ireland, America, and England. Edited Publishers’ Circular, 1896-1900.

The interest of the story turns on incidents of the Land War in a southern county. The Author takes the popular side, and paints the evils of landlordism in the darkest colours. Most of the characters are humble folk, including an amusing Scotchman, Sandy M’Tear. The story tells how a thirst for vengeance, engendered by oppression, takes possession of the young peasant, Ned Blake, almost stifling his love for his betrothed and ruining his life.

STEVENSON, JOHN. Is a member of the printing and publishing firm of McCaw, Stevenson & Orr, of Belfast. He made his first hit with Pat McCarty, Farmer of Antrim: His Rhymes, with a Setting (1903), in part reprinted from The Pen, a magazine run by the employes of his company.

— A BOY IN THE COUNTRY. Pp. 312. (Arnold). 5s. Illustr. by W. Arthur Fry. 1913.

A lad sent for his health to the care of an aunt in Co. Antrim tells his experiences and observations, his thoughts and dreams, and he tells them charmingly. Stories and anecdotes of the lives of the folk among whom he lives, told with insight and sympathy.

Sub-title: “Ireland and Its Peasantry.” “Another of A. Stewart’s pious little stories.... The reader will fail to discover much originality or force; but in these days it is no small praise to say there is nothing to condemn.”—(D.R.). Miss S. wrote a great number of stories between 1846 and 1887. All are highly moral in aim and tone, a series of them having for titles the various moral virtues.

— THE LIMERICK VETERAN; or, The Foster Sisters. (N.Y.: Benziger). 0.60 net. 1873.

— ALL FOR PRINCE CHARLIE; or, The Irish Cavalier. Pp. 270. (Duffy). 1s. Very cheap paper and print. n.d.

The ’45 from a strongly Catholic and Jacobite standpoint. The story opens in an old castle in Bantry Bay, where the hero and heroine meet before the former goes off to fight for Prince Charlie. Various adventures during the raid on England and the retreat, and a complicated plot turning on the close resemblance between the hero and a twin brother, supposed dead, but who plays the traitor and the spy. All is well in the end. Some glimpses of penal laws at work. A little comic relief is afforded by the talk of Paddy O’Rafferty. Dialect poor.

— THE KILLARNEY POOR SCHOLAR. Pp. 164. 16mo. (London). [1845]. Third ed., 1846. New ed., 1866.

Sub-t.:—“Comprising the most remarkable features of the enchanting scenery of the Irish lakes, interspersed with sketches of real character.” In pref. Author claims thorough knowledge of places and people described. His object is to impress a high moral tone upon the mind. “A moral is deduced from every incident: a moral established by every dialogue.” This aim is fully carried out in the little story, which is merely a peg whereon to hang a moral, and is very sentimental.

STOKER, Bram. 1847-1912. B. in Dublin. Ed. T.C.D., where he had a distinguished career. Entered Civil Service and was called to the Bar, but subsequently for twenty-seven years secretary to Sir Henry Irving. Wrote also Dracula, Miss Betty, The Mystery of the Sea, Snowbound, &c., &c.

— THE SNAKE’S PASS. Pp. 372. (Collier). 1s. New ed. [1891]. (N.Y.: Harper). 0.40. 1909.

A tale written around the strange phenomenon of a moving bog. Scene: the Mayo coast, which is finely described. Hidden treasure, prophetic dreams, attempted murder, and much love and sentiment are bound up with the story. The sentiment is pure and even lofty. There is no bigotry nor bias, and no vulgar stage-Irishism. Andy Sullivan, the carman, is drawn with much humour and kindliness, but we cannot consider “Father Pether” a true type of Irish priest.

“Conary becomes king on condition that he abide by certain bonds (geasa) imposed on him by his fairy kinsfolk. Having transgressed these conditions, he comes to his death in a great affray with outlaws, who attack the hostel. Portents and marvels are characteristic of the story from beginning to end.”—(Baker, 2).

A tale of the “Jubilee Coercion days.” The leading character is founded on Captain Plunket of “Don’t hesitate to shoot” fame. With the doings of this personage (which look like clippings from the Star newspaper of those days) is mingled the story of a persecuted heroine suffering from an uncommon form of mania (in which the Author was a specialist). Dr. Strahan was a Belfast man. The materials of the story are handled, we think, with but little skill. Another of his stories, Dead yet Speaketh (Arrowsmith), was founded on the sudden death in his chambers in the Temple of an Irish fellow-student of the Author.

— A MAN’S FOES. Pp. 467. (Ward, Lock). 6s. Illustr. by A. Forestier. (N.Y.: New Amsterdam Book Co.). 0.50. [1895.] Three Vols.

A strongly conceived and vigorously written historical tale of the siege of Derry. Point of view aggressively English and Protestant. The personages in the story often express bitterly anti-Catholic sentiments, but only such as may reasonably be supposed to have been freely expressed at the period. The Author, a Scottish lady resident in Ayrshire, has also published four other works of fiction.

“SWAN, Annie S.”; Mrs. Burnett Smith. B. Mountskip, Goresbridge, N.B. Ed. Edinburgh. Has written a great many novels. Resides in England or at Kinghorn, Scotland.—(Who’s Who).

Scene: first Edinburgh, then chiefly Co. Wicklow. Period: just before retirement of Butt and rise of Parnell, who is one of the personages of the tale. The interest turns on the discovery of the identity of a child abandoned in Edinburgh when an infant. No love interest. Titles of over sixty of her novels will be found in Mudie’s list.

Aims at presenting picture of early Victorian manners and morals as seen in the life of this (rather unattractive) family, of Irish origin, but living in England, and in their surroundings. It was a period lacking in ideals and unstirred by new ideas, artistic, literary, or other. The Author paints it stupid, gross, and material, and seems to sum it up as “humbug” (from a review in the Athenæum).

Lord Charles Beresford, in a letter to the writer (see Pref.), acknowledges the book as “a true picture of English and Irish life in the upper circles of society five and forty years ago,” and that “it explains the idiocrasies (sic) of the Irish people, both Nationalist and Orange, and gives a clear explanation of the real causes of the unceasing discontent and strife existing in our sister isle.” “I have tried to give a description of the condition ... to which English females of position were reduced by a wave of Evangelical cant and exaggerated morality....”—(Pref.). Has written also Algernon Casterton and Mark Alston.

Scene: Western Mayo, about 1798, but no historical events are introduced. An unpretentious little story, telling how Grace is married at fifteen against her will to a disreputable young man. He grows fond of her, and dies penitent three years after. Their child is stolen by a too fond nurse. The child grows up and joins the navy. Years after, Grace, who has married a naval officer, gets her sailor son back.

“Being the true story of the Earl of Clancarty and Lady Elizabeth Spencer.” Donough McCarthy, a Jacobite nobleman, married in childhood to wealthy heiress of English Whig family, does not meet his bride again till many years later, and then in strange circumstances. Scene: England in days of William III., with glimpses of Ireland in the background. Appears to be founded on Tom Taylor’s play, Clancarty.

TENCH, Mary F. A. Resides in London, and writes a good deal for the periodicals.

How the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation. Phil O’Brien, returning to Ireland after long years of sin and suffering in Australia, finds his first love unchanged in heart—only to see her taken from him by death. He foregoes for her sake revenge on the man who had wrecked his life, and dies to save his enemy. Though the characters are Irish, there is little about Irish life (nothing about pikes). The whole book is very sad, the pathos of the close is painful, “navrant.” By the same Author: Where the Surf Breaks, A Prince from the Great Never-Never, &c.

THACKERAY, William Makepeace. The great novelist paid only one visit to Ireland (1842), the immediate outcome of which was his Irish Sketch Book (1843). The tone of this book gave great offence to Irishmen generally. Sir Samuel Ferguson severed his connection with the Dublin University Magazine because Lever, then editor, accepted Thackeray’s dedication. He could speak of the Young Irelanders only in terms of ridicule—witness his ballad “The Battle of Limerick”—though he was a personal friend of Gavan Duffy. He derived some of the incidents of Barry Lyndon from the chap-book, Life of Freney, which he read one night in Galway. Many of the characters in his greater novels are Irish, e.g., “The O’Mulligan,” said to be founded on W. J. O’Connell; “Capt. Shandon,” whose original was Dr. Maginn; “Capt. Costigan” and his famous daughter, “the Fotheringay,” said to be suggested by the dramatic triumph of Miss O’Neill, afterwards Lady Becher. “Ye hate us, Mr. Thackeray, ye hate the Irish,” said to him Anthony Trollope’s old Irish coachman. “Hate you? God help me, when all I ever loved on earth was Irish!” and his eyes filled with tears.—(Trollope). His wife was Irish.

The autobiography of a blackguard and a cad, a compound of every vice—meanness, mendacity, licentiousness, heartless selfishness. Add to these swagger, vulgarity, and a fire-eating audacity, which, however, is always on the safe side, and you have the portrait of the hero as painted by himself. All the characters are vicious or contemptible or both, the English and other foreigners no better than the Irish. Lyndon (real name Redmond Barry) belongs to an ancient and decayed family, once aristocratic. The story tells how he fights a duel at home in Ballybarry, falls in with swindlers in Dublin, deserts from the army, serves under Frederick the Great in the Seven Years’ War, becomes a professional but aristocratic gamester, marries (after a desperate struggle) the rich Lady Lyndon, blazes through a brief season in Dublin (1771), worries his wife into her grave, and finally runs through all his wealth. There is some humour in places, but it is grim and sardonic, and does not relieve the picture. Moral (see footnote near the close)—“Do not as many rogues succeed in life as honest men? More fools than men of talent?” Founded in part on the strange marriage of Andrew Bowes and the Countess of Strathmore at end of eighteenth century.

“The Boyhood of Cuhoolin,” “Father and Son,” “The Battle of the Companions” (C. and Ferdia), “The Death of C.,” “Deirdre and Naisi,” “The Palace of the Quicken Trees,” “The Land of Youth.” The rest (pp. 82-end) are Welsh tales. Told very plainly and briefly, yet not dully. The diction is quite modern and prosaic. The grotesquer folk-lore elements are not excluded. The Author has also publ. Norse Stories and many other works on a variety of subjects.

THOMPSON, E. Skeffington. Was a granddaughter of John Foster, last Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. She was an ardent Nationalist. About 1889 she and her sister Mrs. Rae founded the Southwark Junior Irish Literary Society.

Deals with the politics of the day, but not to the neglect of the story, which shows considerable literary power, though containing but little incident. Strongly patriotic in tone. There is no religious bias. Treats of social and political life in Ireland thirty or forty years ago. Ends with many happy marriages. First appeared in U.S.A. in Harper’s (Irish Monthly).

No. 2 of the Romance Readers. Irish, Welsh, and Breton stories edited for children. Very pretty and imaginative illustr. by E. Connor. The tales are taken from good sources—Whitley Stokes, Standish O’Grady, Crofton Croker, “Atlantis,” O’Curry, the Mabinogion, &c. Contains “Deirdre,” “Ossian in the Land of Youth,” Cuchulainn stories, &c., told in simple but not childish language.

— SAGEN AUS DEM ALTEN IRLAND. Pp. 152. Demy 8vo. (Berlin: Wiegandt & Grieben). 1901.

Short introd., then very briefly (in German, of course) the chief Irish sagas—the Courtships of Etain and of Fraoch, Mesgedra, Bricriu, episodes from the Cuchulainn cycle, the birth of Conachar, the Vision of MacConglinne, &c.