CROWE, Eyre Evans, 1799-1868. Though born in England, this distinguished historian and journalist was of Irish origin, and was educated at Trinity. In Blackwood he first published several of his Irish novels. Though imperfectly acquainted with the art of a novelist this writer is often correct and happy in his descriptions and historical summaries. Like Banim he has ventured on the stormy period of 1798, and has been more minute than his great rival in sketching the circumstances of the rebellion.—(Chambers’s Cyclopædia of English Literature).
⸺ TO-DAY IN IRELAND. Three Vols. (London: Knight). 1825.
Four stories:—1. “The Carders.” 2. “Connemara.” 3. “Old and New Light.” 4. “The O’Toole’s Warning.” The scene of 1 is “Rathfinnan,” on Lough Ree, not far from Athlone. It is a very dark picture of the secret societies and of the peasants in general, but an equally merciless picture of certain types of the Ascendancy class, notably a Protestant curate and Papist-hunter named Crosthwaite. The hero Arthur Dillon (a true hero of romance) is a young Catholic student of T.C.D., who narrowly escapes being implicated in the secret societies. He dreams of rebellion, and is nearly caught in the meshes of a villainous-plotting Jesuit. There is a love story, with a happy ending. 2. Is a burlesque story telling how M’Laughlin, a sort of King of Connemara, escaped his debtors in a coffin. Some smuggling episodes. Description of the fair of Ballinasloe, p. 196. Much about wild feudal hospitality and lawlessness. 3. Is a satirical study of Protestant religious life at “Ardenmore,” Co. Louth. “Sir Starcourt Gibbs” seems obviously intended as a portrait of Sir Harcourt Lees, an Evangelical Orange leader in Dublin in the twenties and thirties.
⸺ CONNEMARA OU UMA ELEIÇÃO NA IRLANDA: Romance Irlandez tradusido por C[amillo] A[ureliano] da S[ilva] e S[ousa] (Porto). 1843.
⸺ YESTERDAY IN IRELAND. Three Vols., containing two long stories, viz.: 1. “Corramahon.” Pp. 600. Large loose print.
O’Mahon, an Irish Jacobite soldier of fortune, is the hero. The plot consists mainly of the intertwined love stories of men and women separated by barriers of class, creed, and nationality. Good picture of politics at the time. Hardships of Penal days illustrated (good description of Midnight Mass). Ulick O’More, the Rapparee, is a fine figure. Interest sustained by exciting incidents. Scene laid near town of Carlow.
2. “The Northerns of ’98.” Pp. 367.
Scene: Mid-Antrim. Adventures of various persons in ’98 (Winter and Orde are the chief names). Feelings and sentiments of the times portrayed, especially those of United Irishmen. Battle of Antrim described. Author leans somewhat to National side.
[CRUMPE, Miss]. Daughter of Dr. Crumpe (1766-1796), a famous physician in Limerick. According to the Madden MSS., she wrote several other novels.
⸺ GERALDINE OF DESMOND; or, Ireland in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. Three Vols. (London: Colburn). 1829.