Lever describes his hero as the “Irish Gil Blas.” Born on the borders of Meath, Cregan goes to Dublin, where he has some exciting experiences, ending in his being carried off in the yacht of an eccentric baronet. He is wrecked on an island off the coast of North America. Here he meets a runaway negro slave, Menelaus Crick, one of the most striking characters in the book. There follow experiences (tragic and comic) in Quebec, and afterwards in Texas and Mexico, life in which is described with remarkable vividness and wealth of colour. At last Cregan returns to Ireland, and marries a Spanish lady whom he had met in Mexico.
⸺ SIR JASPER CAREW. Pp. 490. (N.Y.: Harper). [1855].
The early part (152 pages) deals with the career of the hero’s father, a wealthy Irish gentleman of Cromwellian stock, who has estates and copper and lead mines in Wicklow. He goes to Paris, allies himself by a secret marriage with the party of the Duke of Orleans, then returns to Ireland, where he kills a Castle official in a duel, receiving himself a mortal wound. His widow is deprived of the property, and left in poverty. She retires to Mayo, with her son, Jaspar. In this part there are elaborate pictures of politics in the early days of the Irish Parliament, and of the wild, extravagant social life of the period. Jasper goes to France, is involved in revolutionary plots, is sent to London as secret agent, and there has interviews with Pitt and Fox. Finally he returns to Ireland to claim his birthright. The story is told in the first person, and Lever intended the narrative to reveal the intimate character of the teller. The book is crammed with adventure. It was a favourite with the Author.
⸺ THE FORTUNES OF GLENCORE. Pp. 395. (N.Y.: Pratt). 1.50. [1857].
Intended (see Pref.) as an experiment to bear out (or the contrary) his conviction that “any skill I possess lies in the delineation of character and the unravelment of that tangled skein that makes up human motives.” The scene at first is in a castle on the shores of the Killaries, between Mayo and Galway; afterwards it is on the Continent. Lord Glencore is a passionate, proud, soured man, misanthropical and suffering from disease. A scandal connected with his wife has filled him with hatred and bitterness. He determines to disown his son, who, after a terrible scene, runs away from home. The book is largely taken up with the adventures in Italy and elsewhere of Sir Horace Upton, a distinguished diplomatist and a valetudinarian, together with the doings and sayings of his follower, Billy Traynor, formerly poor scholar, hedge-schoolmaster, fiddler, journalist, now unqualified medical practitioner—a strange character drawn from a real personage. Many of the characters are cosmopolitan political intriguers. In the end Lady Glencore’s innocence is established.
⸺ DAVENPORT DUNN. (Philadelphia: Peterson). 1859.
The astonishing histories of two adventurers. Dunn is an ambitious, clever man who by shady means lifts himself into a high position as a financier and launches into immense financial schemes. This character was drawn from John Sadlier, Junior Lord of the Treasury, who was the associate of Judge Keogh in “The Pope’s Brass Band,” (so-called) and closed an extraordinary career by committing suicide on Hampstead Heath. Grog David, a blackleg, rivals Dunn in another sphere, his sporting cheats being as vast as the other’s financial swindles. Davis’ high-hearted daughter, Lizzie, is a finely-drawn character.
⸺ ONE OF THEM. Pp. 420. (N.Y.: Harper). 0.50. (1861).
Scene varies between Florence and the North of Ireland, many of the incidents described being real experiences of his own gone through in each of these places. Lever having been asked which of his novels he deemed best suited for the stage, replied that if a sensation drama were required, he thought One of Them a good subject. Deals largely with the adventures on the Continent of a queer type of Irish M.P.; but its outstanding character is Quackinboss, a droll specimen of Yankee.