Told by Penelope Fayle, a young Quaker gentlewoman, a loyalist or King’s woman, but sympathetic to the Irish. Scene: a Leinster country house in 1798. No descriptions of the fighting, but glimpses of the cruelty of Ancient Britons, yeomanry, &c., and of the dark passions of the time. Racy, picturesque style, with exciting incidents and dramatic situations.
⸺ THE HANDSOME QUAKER. Pp. 252. (A. H. Bullen). 1902.
Eighteen exquisite little stories and sketches dealing, nearly all, with the lives of the poorest peasantry. They have all the Author’s best qualities.
⸺ LOVE OF SISTERS. Pp. 344. (Smith, Elder). 6s. [1902]. Third ed. 1908.
The scene varies between the West of Ireland and Dublin. A love-story, in which the central figures are Phillippa Featherstonhaugh and her sister, Colombe: a contrast in character, but each lovable in her own way. The plot turns on the unselfish devotion of the former, who, believing that her lover has transferred his affections to her sister, heroically stands aside. We shall not reveal the dénouement. The minor characters are capital, all evidently closely copied from life. There are the elderly spinsters, Miss Finola and Miss Peggy, and quite a number of charming old ladies, the country priest and the sisters’ bustling, philanthropic mother, always in a whirl of correspondence about her charities, and others equally interesting.
⸺ A DAUGHTER OF KINGS. (Nash). 6s. (N.Y.: Benziger). 1.25. 1903.
The daughter of a broken-down aristocratic county family is obliged to take service as chaperon in an English family. Careful study of girl’s lovable character. Contrast between the pride and poverty of Witches’ Castle, Co. Donegal, and opulence of English home.
⸺ THE HONOURABLE MOLLY. Pp. 312. (Smith, Elder). Second impression, 1903.
The Honourable Molly is of mixed Anglo-Irish aristocratic (her father was a Creggs de la Poer) and Scoto-Irish middle class origin (her mother’s people were O’Neills and Sinclairs). She has two suitors, one is from her mother’s people, the other is the heir to Castle Creggs and the title. Both are eminently worthy of her hand. She finally chooses one, after having accepted the other. Has all the sweetness and femininity of Katherine Tynan’s work. Is frankly romantic but not mawkish. There is no approach to a villain. There is some quiet and good-natured satire of old-fashioned aristocratic class-notions. The portraits of the two old maiden aunts are very clever.