Besides these, Messrs. Duffy issue seven or eight series of popular fiction. The volumes of these series are neatly, in many cases tastefully, bound, and very cheap. Many, however, are old-fashioned in turn-out, and printed from old founts. The majority of the stories are moral and religious in tendency, but by no means all. The literary standard in some is not very high, but in many it is good. Of “Prize Library,” Series I. (42 titles), Mrs. Sadlier’s Daughter of Tyrconnell is an example; of II. (20 titles), the same author’s Willy Burke; of III. (24 titles), Curtis’s Rory of the Hills, and Anon. The Robber Chieftain. Series IV. has 16 titles, 2s. 6d. each; V., 15 titles, at 3s.; VI., 9 titles at 3s. 6d. There is also a “Popular Library” at 6d., “for the instruction of youth,” and a “Juvenile Library,” with 24 stories, at 1d. each.
8. MESSRS. M. H. GILL & SONS.
This firm (originally McGlashan, then McGlashan & Gill) has behind it a long history of publication, most of the books issued by it being Irish in subject. At present the catalogue of its publications contains various popular series or “libraries” at more or less uniform prices. None of these consist exclusively of fiction. The “Green Cloth Library” is one of them.
9. THE CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY OF IRELAND (C.T.S.I.).[15]
The main object of this Society is religious and moral propaganda, but it aims also at fostering among the people an interest in their country—its history, antiquities, ruins, scenery, &c. Cheap popular fiction is one of the chief vehicles of this propaganda, and it has published in the fifteen years of its existence—it was founded in 1899—upwards of a hundred penny booklets, besides the shilling series mentioned below. Nearly all these stories are Irish in subject. Most of them are distinctively Catholic in tone, and a number of them aim directly or indirectly at religious instruction. But there are a fairly considerable number which simply tell tales of ancient Ireland in pagan as well as in Christian times. The importance of the work of this Society may be gathered from the fact that since its start it has distributed over seven million copies of its publications. All that can be done here is to give a list of the stories published by the C.T.S.I., indicating the nature of the contents of some of them.
T. B. Cronin.—THE COLLEEN FROM THE MOOR.
⸺ THE BOY FROM OVER THE HILL.
These are two stories of Kerry life, deservedly popular.
Mary Maher.—THE IRISH EMIGRANT’S ORPHAN.