In this story the peasants only appear incidentally. The main characters are Martin Kerrigan, a returned Irish-Australian; the invalid Lady O’Connor; her son, Sir Ben; and her niece, Merle. The story is one of intense, almost hopeless, sadness, yet it is ennobling in a high degree. It is full of exquisite scraps of description.
⸺ STRANGERS AT LISCONNELL. Pp. 341. (Hodder & Stoughton). 6s. [1895]. (N.Y.: Pratt). 1.75.
A second series of Irish Idylls, showing the Author’s qualities in perhaps a higher degree even than the first. A more exquisite story than “A Good Turn” it would be hard to find. Throughout there is the most thorough sympathy with the poor folk. The peasant dialect is never rendered so as to appear vulgar or absurd. It is full of an endless variety of picturesqueness and quaint turns. No problems are discussed, yet the all but impossibility of life under landlordism is brought out (see p. 15). There are studies of many types familiar in Irish country life—the tinkers; Mr. Polymathers, the pedagogue (a most pathetic figure); Mad Bell, the crazy tramp; and Con the “Quare One.” It should be noted that, though there is in Miss Barlow’s stories much pathos, there is an entire absence of emotional gush.
⸺ MAUREEN’S FAIRING. Pp. 191. (Dent). Six Illustr., of no great value. [1895]. (N.Y.: Macmillan). 0.75.
Eight little stories reprinted from various magazines in a very dainty little volume. Like all of Jane Barlow’s stories, they tell of the “tear and the smile” in lowly peasant lives, with graceful humour or simple, tender pathos. The stories are very varied in kind.
⸺ MRS. MARTIN’S COMPANY. (Dent). Uniform with Maureen’s Fairing. [1896]. (N.Y.: Macmillan). 0.75.
“Seven stories, chiefly of a light and humorous kind, very tender in their portrayal of the hearts of the poor. There is a touching sketch of child-life and a police-court comedy.”—(Baker).
⸺ FROM THE EAST UNTO THE WEST. Pp. 342. (Methuen). 1s. 8vo. Cloth. First ed., 1898; new ed., 1905.
The first six of this collection of fifteen stories are tales of foreign lands—Arabia, Greece, and others. The remainder deal with Irish peasant life. They tell of the romance and pathos that is hidden in lives that seem most commonplace. “The Field of the Frightful Beasts” is a pretty little story of childish fancies. “An Advance Sheet” is weird and has a tragic ending.