⸺ DEARFORGIL, THE PRINCESS OF BREFFNY. Pp. 287. (London: Hope). [1857]. Second edition (Longmans). 1884. Pp. xxiv. + 284.
Story of Diarmuid MacMurrough’s abduction of the wife of O’Ruairc of Breffni, and subsequent events, including an account of the Norman Invasion. The tone throughout is anti-National and most offensive to Catholic feeling. The frequent humorous passages are nearly always vulgar, and in some instances coarse. There are many absurdities in the course of the narrative.
GIBSON, Jennie Browne.
⸺ AILEEN ALANNAH. Pp. 86. (Stockwell). 1s. net. One good illustr. 1911.
Desmond Fitzgerald and Aileen have been sweethearts from childhood, D. has to go to America. Percy Gerrard intercepts their letters, and tries to marry Aileen. She is broken-hearted, and goes as nurse to a London hospital. Percy at the point of death confesses his wickedness, and No. 27 in one of the wards turns out to be⸺. Scene: at first Donegal. A very pleasant story, full of kindly Irish people, entirely free from bigotry, and with an excellent though unobtruded moral purpose.
“GILBERT, George;” Miss Arthur. Has written also In the Shadow of the Purple (1902), and The Bâton Sinister (1903).
⸺ THE ISLAND OF SORROW. Pp. 384. (Long). 6s. 1903.
Deals, in considerable detail, with political and social life in the Ireland of the time. The circles of Lord Edward and Pamela Fitzgerald (centering in Leinster House), of the Emmet family (at the Casino, Milltown), and of the Curran family (at the Priory, Rathfarnham) are fully portrayed and neatly interlinked in private life. The whole romance of Emmet and Sarah Curran is related. There are many portraits—Charles James Fox, Curran (depicted as a domestic monster), many men of the Government party, above all, Emmet. This portrait is not lacking in sympathy, though the theatrical and inconsiderate character of his aims is insisted on. The whole work shows considerable power of dramatizing history, and is made distinctly interesting. “The author,” says Mr. Baker, “tries to be impartial, but cannot divest himself of an Englishman’s lack of sympathy with Ireland.” The book is preceded by a valuable list of authorities and sources.
GILL, E. A. Wharton.