⸺ SIR BROOKE FOSBROOKE. [1866]. (Routledge, &c.). 3s. 6d. (N.Y.: Harper). 0.50.
“Reproduces much of the humour and frolic of his earlier tales, the mess-room scene in the officers’ quarters at Dublin, with which the drama opens, recalling the sprightly comedy of Harry Lorrequer. The vigorous story that follows contains much more serious characterization and portraiture of real life than the earlier books.”—(Baker).
⸺ THE BRAMLEIGHS OF BISHOP’S FOLLY. (N.Y.: Harper). 0.50. [1868].
Scene of first portion: North of Ireland, near Coleraine, Co. Londonderry; afterwards Italy. Deals with the experiences of a rich English banker and his family, who come to Ireland, but the central figure is the selfish old peer, Viscount Culduff, a neighbouring landowner, on whose estate coal is found. Much of the novel deals with the exploiting of the Culduff mine. Tom Cutbill, a bluff, vulgar, humorous engineer, who comes to work this mine, provides most of the fun, which is scattered through the story. All the characters are vividly drawn, among others that of a young Irish Protestant clergyman, the only one that appears prominently in Lever’s pages. The mystery that runs through the book is kept veiled with great cleverness to the very end. Finally, the book is packed with witty epigrammatic talk.
⸺ LORD KILGOBBIN. (N.Y.: Harper). 1.00. [1872].
Lever’s last novel. It pictures social and political conditions in Ireland about 1865, the days of the Fenians. The book is marked by almost nationalist sympathies, one of the finest characters being Daniel Donogan, Fenian Head-Centre and Trinity College student, who while “on his keeping” is elected M.P. for King’s County. Matthew Kearney, styled locally Lord Kilgobbin, is a shrewd, good-natured, old-fashioned type of broken-down Catholic gentility, living in an old castle in King’s County. His daughter Kate, is a high-spirited, clever, and amiable girl, but the real heroine is the brilliant Nina Kostalergi, of mixed parentage (the mother Irish, the father a Greek prince and adventurer), who bewitches in turn Fenians, soldiers, politicians, and Viceregal officials. A remarkable creation is Joe Atlee, a kind of Bohemian student of Trinity, cynical, indolent, but miraculously clever and versatile. It teems with witty talk and dramatic situations. Throughout there is food for thought about the affairs of Ireland. Has been illustr. by Luke Fildes (Macmillan). 3s. 6d.
⸺ GERALD FITZGERALD. (N.Y.: Harper). 0.40. [First ed. in book form, 1899].
The hero is a legitimate son of the Young Pretender, offspring of a secret marriage with an Irish lady. Recounts his surprising adventures and his relations with Mirabeau (whose death is powerfully described), the poet Alfieri, Madame Roland, the Pretender himself, whose court at Rome is described, &c., &c. There is little humour, the book being a sober historical or quasi-historical romance. There are some passages offensive to Catholic feeling.
Lever also wrote:—A Rent in a Cloud; That Boy of Norcott’s; Paul Goslett’s Confessions; Nuts and Nutcrackers, 1845; Tales of the Trains, 1845; Horace Templeton, 1848; Cornelius O’Dowd, 1873.
LIPSETT, Caldwell.