Ireland in Fiction: A Guide to Irish Novels, Tales, Romances, and Folk-lore

by Stephen J. M. Brown

Scope of work: A survey and criticism of the leading Irish novelists of the first half of the nineteenth century in so far as give us a picture of the national life and character.

Contents: Chap. i. A general survey of Irish society during the period treated by the novelists, e.g., 1782-1850, based on O’Neill Daunt’s Eighty-five Years of Irish History, Justin M’Carthy’s Outline, J. E. Walshe’s Ireland Sixty Years Ago, Barrington’s Reminiscences, &c. Chap. ii. The novelists of the Gentry. Chap. iii. The novelists of the Peasantry. Chap. iv. Types met with in the novels and typical incidents taken from them. Chap. v. Literary estimate. Then there is a “list of the more important stories and novels of Irish life by Irish writers whose literary activity began before 1850.” Throughout copious quotations are made.

Treatment: Wholly free from bias. Marked by broad-minded, judicial spirit, thorough interest in and sympathy with the subject, wide knowledge, and a remarkable gift of literary characterization. On the whole a work which I can scarcely praise too highly.

9. The following book may be mentioned as possibly useful to reviewers, teachers, and others:—

WHITCOMB, Selden L.

⸺ THE STUDY OF A NOVEL. (Heath). 1906.

It is “the result of practical experience in teaching the novel, and its aim is primarily pedagogical.”—(Pref.). Contents:—External Structure, Consecutive Structure, Plot, The Settings, The Dramatis Personæ, Characterization, Subject Matter, Style, Influence, Rhetoric, Æsthetics, Analysis.

10. THE IRISH BOOK-LOVER. Published by Salmond & Co. Monthly. 2s. 6d. per annum, post free.

This excellent little periodical, edited by Dr. J. S. Crone, Kensal Lodge, Kensal Green, London, N.W., is entirely devoted to Irish books and their authors, and is the only publication of the kind. Beginning in August, 1909, and appearing monthly since then, its six volumes are a most valuable storehouse of Irish book lore of all kinds. As regards fiction, it reviews most of the Irish novels that appear, has many articles on Irish novelists past and present, and supplies a quarterly classified bibliography of current Irish literature, in which there is a section for fiction. The obligations of the present work towards it are very great.