Out-at-elbows Irish household—upper class—brother, sister, and young step-sister (the heroine) Katherine. Captain Fitzgerald falls in love with Katherine. The elder sister (the woman scorned) filled with jealousy plots to marry K. to a rich elderly suitor. The plot miscarries, and she dies a miserable death. Scene: near the Boyne. Some good descriptions of river scenery.
⸺ THE WAY WOMEN LOVE. Three Vols. (Tinsley). 1877.
Hugh O’Neill, a Donegal man, after an unsuccessful career as an artist in London, settles near Weirford (Waterford). He has two daughters—Moira, handsome, proud of her ancient lineage and a poet, and Honor, plain and domestic. The story is concerned with the loves of these two. Local society cleverly hit off. Local newspapers and their editors come in for a good deal of banter; several real characters, thinly disguised, being introduced. Brogue very well done.
⸺ A BUNCH OF SHAMROCKS. Pp. 306. (N.Y.: Munro: “Seaside Library”). [1879]. 1883.
A collection of tales and sketches, illustrating for the most part the gloomier side of the national character, viewed, apparently, from a Protestant standpoint. In one, “The Priest’s Boy,” there is much pathos.
⸺ MOLLY CAREW. Three Vols. (Tinsley). n.d. (1879).
A tale of the unrequited love of an Irish girl of talent, but of humble origin, for a selfish and ruffianly English author named Eugene Wolfe. She falls in love with him as a child and then, in young womanhood, falls still more deeply in love with the ideal of him which she forms from his books. Nothing can kill or even daunt this love, and for its sake she undergoes the supremest sacrifices, but all in vain. The two chief characters are carefully and consistently drawn, and there are some dramatic scenes. The action passes chiefly in London, whither Molly Carew had followed her ideal.
⸺ THE GLEN OF SILVER BIRCHES. Two Vols. (Remington). 1880. (N.Y.: Harper). 1881.
Nuala O’Donnell’s extravagant father has mortgaged his estate in the Donegal Highlands, near Glenvich (The Glen of Silver Birches). A scheming attorney tries to get the family into his toils, and to marry N. The scheme is defeated, and N. marries Thorburn, an English landlord, who has bought the neighbouring estate. Some good characters, e.g., kindly old Aunt Nancy and N.’s nationalist poet cousin.