Main theme: a plot to defraud an orphan girl of inherited property, which in a strange manner fails, and all is well again. Scene: first, London, then Donegal, of the scenery of which the Author gives vivid descriptions. The life of the peasants and their relations with their priests are depicted with sympathy and feeling.
⸺ TERENCE O’NEILL’S HEIRESS. Pp. 358. (Browne & Nolan). 3s. 6d. Illustr. by C. A. Mills. (N.Y.: Benziger). 1.35. 1909.
A pleasant story of a young girl left an unprovided orphan, who is cared for by generous relatives, whom in their hour of need she strives to repay. Suspected of a theft, she is vindicated only after much sorrow and heart-burning. The heroine is a noble and beautiful character. Refined and sensitive, loving music and art, she is obliged to take service as a governess in an English family. There she meets the great trial of her life, but also the final crown of her happiness.
⸺ SWEET DOREEN. (Washbourne). 3s. 6d. 1915.
Poverty and misery in Ballygorst have reached a climax. At the suggestion of the Agent, Father Ryan goes to Dublin to get the Landlord to do something. The latter is respectful, but will do nothing. Just as Father Ryan is going the Landlord’s daughter and her American friend Laura come in. They will go to Ballygorst, and Papa is persuaded to be of the party. The story tells how they came, met “Sweet Doreen” and her brothers and sister, and met with many adventures, pleasant and unpleasant, in the effort to do good.
MULHOLLAND, Rosa; Lady Gilbert. Born in Belfast, about 1855. She spent some years in a remote mountainous part of the West of Ireland. Of the rest of her life most has been passed in Ireland, where she still lives. In her early literary life she received much help and encouragement from Dickens, who highly valued her work. She has written much poetry of high literary quality and “marked by a thought and diction peculiar to herself.”—(Irish Lit.). Her novels are intensely Catholic, though without anti-Protestant feeling, and intensely national. But their most striking quality is a literary style of singular purity and grace, and a quiet beauty very different from the flash and rattle of much recent writing. She has publ. several vols. of verse. Among her non-Irish novels may be mentioned The Late Miss Hollingford, The Squire’s Granddaughter, The Haunted Organist. Lady Gilbert has also written many children’s stories full of originality and playful fancy.
⸺ DUNMARA. By “Ruth Murray.” Three Vols. (Smith, Elder). 1864.
Wrecked on the coast Ellen, of mysterious antecedents, is taken into the family of Mr. Aungier, or Dunmara Castle, in the West. Strange household—the half-witted Miss Rowena, the dark, vindictive Miss Elswitha, with unpleasant family history in the background. A will is discovered making Ellen heiress of Dunmara, but revealing to her that she is the daughter of a man formerly slain by Mr. Aungier, who had asked her in marriage. This long keeps the two apart, but they are married in the end. Little Irish colour. Written in somewhat strained style and at times over-emotional.
⸺ HESTER’S HISTORY. Pp. 237. (Chapman & Hall). 1869.