⸺ GENERAL JOHN REGAN. Pp. 324. (Hodder & Stoughton) 6s. Second ed., 1913.
A very slight plot, centering in the erection of a statue to an imaginary native of Ballymoy. The real interest lies in the Author’s satirical pictures of Irish life, and in his humorous delineations of such types as Dr. O’Grady, Doyle the dishonest hotel-keeper, Major Kent, whom we have met in Spanish Gold, Thady Gallagher, the editor of the local paper, and a rather undignified and not wholly honest P.P. The thesis, if there be any, would seem to be that the Irishman is so clever and humorous that he will allow himself to be gulled, and will even gull himself for the pleasure of gulling others.
⸺ MINNIE’S BISHOP, and Other Stories of Ireland. Pp. 320. (Hodder & Stoughton). 6s. 1915.
Not all of these stories deal with Ireland, and those that do are very varied in character. Some are in the Author’s most humorous vein, others are more serious in tone. In several he pokes fun at Government methods in the West, and some show the comic side of gun-running, despatch-riding, and other Volunteer activities. In the background, at times, is a vision of the hopeless poverty of the Western peasant’s lot.
BLACK, William. Born in Glasgow, 1841. One of the foremost of English nineteenth century novelists. Published his first novel 1864; thirty-three others appeared before his death in 1898, at Brighton, where he had long resided.
⸺ SHANDON BELLS. Pp. 428. (Sampson, Low). 2s. 6d. [1883]. (N.Y.: Harper). 0.80. New and revised ed. 1893.
Scene: partly in London, partly in city and county of Cork. A young Irishman goes to London to make his fortune. Disappointed in his first love, he turns to love of nature. The book has all the fine qualities of W. Black’s work. Sympathetic references to Irish life and beautiful descriptions of Irish scenery in Cork. Willy Fitzgerald, the hero, had for prototype William Barry, a brilliant young Corkman and a London journalist.
“BLACKBURNE, E. Owens.” Elizabeth O. B. Casey, 1848-1894. Born at Slane, near the Boyne. Lived the first twenty-five years of her life in Ireland; then went to London to take up journalistic work. In 1869 her first story was accepted, and in the early seventies her In at the Death (afterwards published as A Woman Scorned) appeared in The Nation. To the end she used the pen-name “E. Owens Blackburne.” Other works of hers were A Modern Parrhasius, The Quest of the Heir, Philosopher Push, Dean Swift’s Chest, The Love that Loves alway. “Her stories are mostly occupied with descriptions of Irish peasant life, in which she was so thoroughly at home that she has been compared to Carleton. They are for the most part dramatic and picturesque; and she understood well the art of weaving a plot which should hold the reader’s interest.”—(Irish Lit.).
⸺ A WOMAN SCORNED. Three Vols. (Tinsley). [1876]. Also one Vol. (Moxon). 1878.