“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.).
⸺ FATHER O’FLYNN. Pp. 245. (Hutchinson). 1s. 1914.
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.
STAVERT, A. A. B.
⸺ THE BOYS OF BALTIMORE. Pp. 212. (Burns & Oates). 2s. 6d. 1907.
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.
⸺ THE CROCK OF GOLD. Pp. 312. (Macmillan). Many reprints. 1912.