⸺ FROM THE LAND OF THE SHAMROCK. Pp. 318. (Methuen). 5s. (N.Y.: Pratt). 1.75. 1900. (N.Y.: Dodd & Mead). 1.50.
Fourteen stories, some humorous, some pathetic, including some of the author’s best work. There is the usual sympathetic insight into the eccentricities and queernesses of the minds of the peasant class, but little about the higher spiritual qualities of the people, for that is not the author’s province. Among the most amusing of the sketches is that which tells the doings of a young harum-scarum, the terror of his elders.
⸺ THE FOUNDING OF FORTUNES. Pp. 335. (Methuen). 1s. Cloth. 8vo. [1902]. New ed. 1906.
The tale of how Timothy Galvin, a ragged urchin living in a mud cabin and remarkable only for general dishonesty and shrewd selfishness, is given a start in life by an ill-gotten purse, and rises by his mother wit to wealth. The study of the despicable character of the parvenu is clever and unsparing. Other types are introduced, the landlord of the old type, and two reforming landlords, who appear also in Kerrigan’s Quality. The book displays Jane Barlow’s qualities to the full.
⸺ BY BEACH AND BOGLAND. Pp. 301. (Fisher Unwin). 6s. One Illustr. 1905.
Seventeen stories up to the level of the author’s best, the usual vein of quiet humour, the pathos that is never mawkish, the perfect accuracy of the conversations, and the faithful portrayal of characteristics. The study in “A Money-crop at Lisconnell,” of the struggle between the Widow M’Gurk’s deep-rooted Celtic pride and her kind heart, is most amusing. As usual, there are delightful portraits of children.
⸺ IRISH NEIGHBOURS. Pp. 342. (Hutchinson). 1907.
Seventeen stories of Irish life, chiefly among the peasantry. They have all Miss Barlow’s wonted sympathy and insight, her quiet humour and cheerful outlook.
⸺ IRISH WAYS. Pp. 262. (George Allen). 15s. Sq. demy 8vo. Sixteen Illustr. in colour. Headpieces to chapters. 1909.
Chapter I., “Ourselves and Our Island,” gives the author’s thoughts about Ireland, its outward aspect, the peculiarities of its social life, its soul. It includes an exquisite pen-picture of Irish landscape beauty. The remaining fourteen sketches are “chapters from the history of some Irish country folk,” whom she describes as “social, pleasure-loving, keen-witted,” but “prone to melancholy and mysticism.” The last sketch is a picture, almost photographic in its fidelity, of a little out-of-the-way country town and its neighbourhood. The illustrations are pretty, and the artist, who, unlike many illustrators of Irish books, has evidently been in Ireland, has made a great effort to include in his pictures as much local colour as possible. Yet it seems to us that un-Irish traits often intrude themselves despite him.