Acquisitions (109): Patrick Pearse

Patrick Pearse: Songs of the Irish Rebels (1918)

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Pádraig Mac Piarais (1879-1916)

Patrick Pearse: Songs of the Irish Rebels (1918)
[Finally Books - Hospice Bookshop, Birkenhead - 23/4/24]:

Padraic H. Pearse. Collected Works: Songs of the Irish Rebels and Specimens from an Irish Anthology. Dublin & London: Maunsel and Co., Limited, 1918.

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Easter Proclamation (1916)

Easter 1916

I wrote a blogpost a few years ago comparing Yeats's immortal "Easter 1916" with some of Seamus Heaney's poems about the Troubles in Northern Ireland:

History says, don’t hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.

- from The Cure at Troy (1990)

1916: The Irish Rebellion (2016)

1916: The Irish Rebellion: 3-part miniseries, created & writ. Bríona Nic Dhiarmada, dir. Pat Collins & Ruan Magan, narrated by Liam Neeson (Ireland, 2016).

Since then I've collected a lot more material on the subject, as well as watching and rewatching the very poignant centenary documentary pictured above. So much courage! so much futility! Talk about "a terrible beauty is born" ...

Every Celtic bone in my body was aching in sympathy as the perfidious English carried poor wounded James Connolly out into the execution yard on a stretcher, tied him to a chair, and shot him, just like all fourteen of the other martyrs (Roger Casement was hanged in London). It brings a tear to my eye even now.

Interestingly enough, though, the last of their three hour-long episodes is titled "When Myth and History Rhyme," presumably as an allusion to Heaney's free adaptation of Sophocles, quoted above.

The Easter Rising certainly is one of the most mythologised events of modern times: perhaps because the Irish have more good poets per square mile than virtually any other country can boast, but also because it remains something of an enigma, even after all this time.

Colin Teevan: Rebellion (2 series: 2016 & 2019)

Colin Teevan's recent TV series - another centennial effort - gives a somewhat different slant on 1916. His version of Patrick Pearse (for instance) is a martyr-in-training, cleverly manipulating the English to shoot him for "encouraging the enemy in time of war" instead of convicting him of the lesser offence of "armed insurrection."

The rest of the cast are haplessly swept up in the winds of war and nationalism. All end up more-or-less disillusioned by the end of the drama. It's certainly a coherent approach, but (dare I say it?) Teevan also succeeded in doing something nobody's really managed before, which was to make the Easter Rising seem quite boring.

The central motif of the "three little maids from school" - one a qualified doctor trying to avoid the loveless marriage her wealthy family is foisting on her; another the mistress of a Dublin Castle official, who does a bit of spying on the side, but is really more interested in advancement in the civil service; only the last a genuine fire-breathing fanatic, completely committed to the cause, who only needs to clap on a cloth cap to pass for a man and start shooting traitors - seems more redolent of the world of Downton Abbey than that of Cathleen ni Houlihan.

Did that play of mine send out
Certain men the English shot?

Yeats asked himself in "The Man and the Echo" (1938). I think it's safe to say that Colin Teevan's efforts seem most unlikely to have a similar effect. But then, maybe that's a good thing - maybe bored is better than dead.

Sean O'Casey: The Plough and the Stars (1926)

In any case, there's nothing particularly new in this deliberate undercutting of the myths of 1916. Teevan's TV series certainly recalls (possibly even references) Sean O'Casey's classic play The Plough and the Stars, booed at its first performance for its juxtaposition of what Yeats referred to as "the normal grossness of life" - a public house with a prostitute waiting for clients - with the inflated aspirations of the new republic, embodied in its battle standards: the tricolour flag of the Irish Volunteers and the plough-and-stars flag of the Irish Citizen Army.

On that occasion, too, Yeats stood up to harangue the Abbey Theatre rioters:

I thought you had tired of this ... But you have disgraced yourselves again. Is this going to be a recurring celebration of Irish genius? Synge first and then O'Casey.

- Wikipedia: The Plough and the Stars

W. B. Yeats: The Death of Cuchulain (1938-39)

Yeats himself, in his final play "The Death of Cuchulain", included a final chorus equating the death of the mythic Irish hero with those of the martyrs of 1916:

Are those things that men adore and loathe
Their sole reality?
What stood in the Post Office
With Pearse and Connolly?
What comes out of the mountain
Where men first shed their blood?
Who thought Cuchulain till it seemed
He stood where they had stood?

No body like his body
Has modern woman borne,
But an old man looking back in life
Imagines it in scorn.
A statue's there to mark the place,
By Oliver Sheppard done.
So ends the tale that the harlot
Sang to the beggar-man.

Oliver Sheppard: The Dying Cúchulain (1911)

Yeats refers again to Sheppard's Michelangelo-esque bronze in another late poem, “The Statues” (1938):

When Pearse summoned Cuchulain to his side
What stalked through the post Office? What intellect,
What calculation, number, measurement, replied?
We Irish, born into that ancient sect
But thrown upon this filthy modern tide
And by its formless spawning fury wrecked,
Climb to our proper dark, that we may trace
The lineaments of a plummet-measured face.

For myself, I'm still in two minds about it all. Before settling for these bathetic undercuttings as the last word on the Easter Rising, though, I'd urge you to click on the youtube link below, under the image from Ken Loach's wonderful BBC drama Days of Hope (1975), and see if you can resist the beauty of Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill's rendition of "The Bold Fenian Men."

Loach may have borrowed the idea for this scene from the ending of Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory (1957), but I can't help feeling that Loach's version is even more powerful and poignant.

John Ford, dir.: The Plough and the Stars (1936)

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Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill: "The Bold Fenian Men" (traditional)
Ken Loach: Days of Hope (BBC, 1975)

The Bold Fenian Men
(1916)

1. Roger Casement
2. Thomas MacDonagh
3. Sean O'Casey
4. Patrick Pearse
5. James Stephens
6. W. B. Yeats
7. Anthologies & Secondary Literature

Books I own are marked in bold:

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Sarah Purser: Roger Casement (1914)

Roger David Casement
[Ruairí Mac Easmainn / Sir Roger Casement]

(1864-1916)

There's small chance that the execution of Sir Roger Casement will ever cease to be a subject of controversy.
On the one hand, he was a renowned humanitarian, famous for exposing the genocidal crimes of the Belgian King Leopold's colonial regime in the Congo, and then doing much the same thing for the monstrous abuses of the Rubber Barons on the Amazon. He was knighted for these brave exploits.
On the other hand, he was a rabid Irish patriot, caught trying to smuggle guns into Ireland after landing there from a German submarine just before the Easter rising.
Lest these two truths cancel each other out, however, the Crown Prosecutors at his trial deliberately leaked passages from his private diaries which implied that he was an active homosexual. In his novel about Casement, The Dream of the Celt (2010), Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa tries to argue that these passages were simply sex fantasies, rather than the records of actual pick-ups. Most commentators see this as a cop-out, however.
Casement is thus a double martyr: ostensibly convicted for treason, but actually condemned for being a homosexual. It's hard, looking through modern eyes, to see him as anything but a hero.

Writings:


1. Sir Roger Casement's Heart of Darkness: The 1911 Documents Ed. Angus Mitchell (1999)
2. Slavery in Peru: Message from the President of the United States Transmitting Report of the Secretary of State, with Accompanying Papers, Concerning the Alleged Existence of Slavery in Peru (1913)
3. The Crime against Ireland, and How the War May Right it (1914)
4. Ireland, Germany and Freedom of the Seas: A Possible Outcome of the War of 1914 (2005)
5. The Crime against Europe. The Causes of the War and the Foundations of Peace (1915)
6. Gesammelte Schriften. Irland, Deutschland und die Freiheit der Meere und andere Aufsätze (1916-17)
7. Some Poems (1918)

Diaries:


8. Singleton-Gates, Peter & Maurice Girodias. The Black Diaries: An Account of Roger Casement's Life and Times wth a Collection of His Diaries and Public Writings. Paris: The Olympia Press, 1959.
9. The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement. Ed. Angus Mitchell. Dublin: The Lilliput Press, Ltd. / London: Anaconda Editions, 1997.
10. Roger Casement's Diaries: 1910. The Black and the White. Ed. Roger Sawyer. London: Pimlico, 1997.
11. One Bold Deed of Open Treason: The Berlin Diary of Roger Casement. 1914-16. Ed. Angus Mitchell. Dublin: Irish Academic Press / Merrion Press, 2016.

Secondary:


12. Hyde, H. Montgomery. Famous Trials, Ninth Series: Roger Casement. 1960. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1964.
13. MacColl, René. Roger Casement. 1956. A Four Square Biography. London: Landsborough Publications Limited, 1960.
14. Vargas Llosa, Mario. The Dream of the Celt. ['El sueño del celta', 2010]. Trans. Edith Grossman. London: Faber, 2012.

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Thomas MacDonagh (1916)

Thomas MacDonagh
[Tomás Mac Donnchadha]

(1878-1916)

This man had kept a school
And rode our wingèd horse;
This other his helper and friend
Was coming into his force;
He might have won fame in the end,
So sensitive his nature seemed,
So daring and sweet his thought.

The first of the two men listed in Yeats's "Easter 1916" is Patrick Pearse, who ran the school at St. Enda where Gaelic language and culture were taught. Our "wingèd horse" is presumably a reference to Pegasus, as Pearse was himself a poet and writer of short stories in both English and Irish.
The second is Thomas MacDonagh, whose plays had been put on in Yeats' and Lady Gregory's Abbey Theatre, and elsewhere, and whose lyric poetry was widely read - more after the rebellion than before it, admittedly.
The reasons for executing him seem more than usually spurious in this case, as his role in the rising was not particularly central. In retrospect, they should have shot Michael Collins or Éamon de Valera instead. No doubt they would have done, if it hadn't been for the fact that the latter was an American citizen and the former not yet as widely known - and feared - as he soon would be.

Poetry:


1. Through the Ivory Gate (1902)
2. April and May, with Other Verse (1903)
3. The Golden Joy (1906)
4. Songs of Myself (1910)
5. Lyrical Poems (1913)
6. Poems (1917)
   • The Poetical Works of Thomas MacDonagh. Introduction by James Stephens. London: T. Fisher Unwin Ltd., 1917.

Plays:


7. When the Dawn is Come (1908)
8. Metempsychosis (1912)
9. Pagans (1915)

Prose:


10. Thomas Campion and the Art of English Poetry (1913)
11. Literature in Ireland: Studies Irish and Anglo-Irish (1916)

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Sarah Purser: Seán O'Casey (c.1910)

Seán O'Casey
[John Casey / Seán Ó Cathasaigh]

(1880-1964)

"At the onset, O’Casey was a fanatical Irish republican nationalist. Born into an educated, but poverty-stricken family, he had only three years of school education, and became an undernourished unskilled labourer. At the time, the infant mortality rate in Dublin was higher than in Moscow or Calcutta. Despite a serious eye ailment, he educated himself, becoming an avid reader of literature. At an early age, he became an activist in the Gaelic League, the Irish Republican Brotherhood and other nationalist groupings. But because of his situation as a worker, it was almost inevitable that his artistic development would largely depend on the evolution of the socialist movement."

- Dombrovski: "Sean O'Casey and the 1916 Easter Rising." International Communist Current (2006)

O'Casey therefore saw the nationalist struggle begun in 1916 as a betrayal of the socialist ideals of the Irish Citizen Army. The class struggle between capitalists and workers remained, in his view, unaffected by the subsequent Treaty and Civil War.
Perhaps, then, there's something to be said for Dombrovski's view that O'Casey's "later artistic decline was linked to the perversion of [proletarian] principles with the defeat of the world revolution in the 1920s (O’Casey became an unapologetic Stalinist)." His 1926 play The Plough and the Stars - subsequently turned into a somewhat saccharine Hollywood movie - remains one of the most powerful works inspired by 1916, however.

1. [as Seán Ó Cathasaigh] Lament for Thomas Ashe (1917)
2. [as Seán Ó Cathasaigh] The Story of Thomas Ashe (1917)
3. [as Seán Ó Cathasaigh] Songs of the Wren (1918)
4. [as Seán Ó Cathasaigh] More Wren Songs (1918)
5. The Harvest Festival (1918)
6. [as Seán Ó Cathasaigh] The Story of the Irish Citizen Army (1919)
7. The Shadow of a Gunman (1923)
   • Included in: Three Plays: Juno and the Paycock / The Shadow of a Gunman / The Plough and the Stars. 1925 & 1926. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1962.
8. Kathleen Listens In (1923)
9. Juno and the Paycock (1924)
   • Included in: Three Plays: Juno and the Paycock / The Shadow of a Gunman / The Plough and the Stars. 1925 & 1926. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1962.
10. Nannie's Night Out (1924)
11. The Plough and the Stars (1926)
    • Included in: Three Plays: Juno and the Paycock / The Shadow of a Gunman / The Plough and the Stars. 1925 & 1926. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1962.
12. The Silver Tassie (1927)
    • Included in: Three More Plays: The Silver Tassie / Purple Dust / Red Roses for Me. 1928, 1940 & 1942. Introduction by J. C. Trewin. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd. / New York: St. Martin’s Press Inc., 1965.
13. Within the Gates (1934)
14. The End of the Beginning (1937)
    • Included in: Five One-Act Plays: The End of the Beginning / A Pound on Demand / Hall of Healing / Bedtime Story / Time To Go. St. Martin’s Library. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1958.
15. A Pound on Demand (1939)
    • Included in: Five One-Act Plays: The End of the Beginning / A Pound on Demand / Hall of Healing / Bedtime Story / Time To Go. St. Martin’s Library. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1958.
16. I Knock at the Door (1939)
    • Included in: Autobiographies, Volume I: I Knock at the Door / Pictures in the Hallway / Drums Under the Windows. 1939, 1942, 1945. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1963.
17. Purple Dust (1940)
    • Included in: Three More Plays: The Silver Tassie / Purple Dust / Red Roses for Me. 1928, 1940 & 1942. Introduction by J. C. Trewin. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd. / New York: St. Martin’s Press Inc., 1965.
18. The Star Turns Red (1940)
19. Pictures in the Hallway (1942)
    • Included in: Autobiographies, Volume I: I Knock at the Door / Pictures in the Hallway / Drums Under the Windows. 1939, 1942, 1945. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1963.
20. Red Roses for Me (1942)
    • Included in: Three More Plays: The Silver Tassie / Purple Dust / Red Roses for Me. 1928, 1940 & 1942. Introduction by J. C. Trewin. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd. / New York: St. Martin’s Press Inc., 1965.
21. Drums Under the Window (1945)
    • Included in: Autobiographies, Volume I: I Knock at the Door / Pictures in the Hallway / Drums Under the Windows. 1939, 1942, 1945. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1963.
22. Oak Leaves and Lavender (1946)
23. Cock-a-Doodle Dandy (1949)
24. Inishfallen, Fare Thee Well (1949)
    • Autobiography, Book 4: Inishfallen, Fare Thee Well. 1949. London: Pan Books Ltd., 1972.
25. Hall of Healing (1951)
    • Included in: Five One-Act Plays: The End of the Beginning / A Pound on Demand / Hall of Healing / Bedtime Story / Time To Go. St. Martin’s Library. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1958.
26. Bedtime Story (1951)
    • Included in: Five One-Act Plays: The End of the Beginning / A Pound on Demand / Hall of Healing / Bedtime Story / Time To Go. St. Martin’s Library. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1958.
27. Time to Go (1951)
    • Included in: Five One-Act Plays: The End of the Beginning / A Pound on Demand / Hall of Healing / Bedtime Story / Time To Go. St. Martin’s Library. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1958.
28. Rose and Crown (1952)
    • Autobiography, Book 5: Rose and Crown (1926-1934). 1952. London: Pan Books Ltd., 1973.
29. The Wild Goose (1952)
30. Sunset and Evening Star (1954)
    • Autobiography, Book 6: Sunset and Evening Star (1934-1953). 1954. London: Pan Books Ltd., 1973.
31. The Bishop's Bonfire: A Sad Play within the Tune of a Polka (1955)
32. Mirror in My House: Autobiographies. 2 vols (1956)
    • Autobiographies, Volume I: I Knock at the Door / Pictures in the Hallway / Drums Under the Windows. 1939, 1942, 1945. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1963.
33. The Drums of Father Ned (1957)
34. Behind the Green Curtains (1961)
35. Figuro in the Night (1961)
36. The Moon Shines on Kylenamoe (1961)
37. Niall: A Lament (1991)

Secondary:


38. O’Casey, Eileen. Sean. Ed. J. C. Trewin. 1971. London: Pan Books Ltd., 1973.

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Patrick Pearse (c.1915)

Patrick Henry Pearse
[Pádraig Anraí Mac Piarais / An Piarsach]

(1879-1916)

Pearse is in many ways the most enigmatic of the Easter martyrs. He can be read as a political naïf, so obsessed with the ancient glories of the Gaelic past that he forgot the realities of modern Ireland. Or, alternatively, he can be seen as a clever manipulator of public opinion, deliberately mounting a hopeless rebellion in order to provoke the English to retaliate brutally. His collected works do little to resolve the question. In the end, it's hard to see that it makes much difference. Whether he was sincerely misguided or cunningly far-sighted, his complete failure as a military leader paved the way for the total success of his overall strategy.

Some died by the glenside
some died mid the stranger
And wise men have told us
their cause was a failure
But they loved dear old Ireland
and never feared danger
Glory O, Glory O
to the bold Fenian men

He gave his life for his beliefs, in any case.

1. The Collected Works of Padraic H. Pearse. Ed. Desmond Ryan. 6 vols (1917-1922)
   1. Plays, Poems and Stories
      • Plays, Stories, Poems. 1917. Dublin & London: Maunsel and Co., Limited, 1919.
   2. St. Enda and Its Founders
   3. Songs of the Irish Rebels
      • Songs of the Irish Rebels and Specimens from an Irish Anthology. Dublin & London: Maunsel and Co., Limited, 1918.
   4. Scribhini [Gaelic writings]
   5. Political Writings and Speeches
   6. The Life of Patrick H. Pearse. Adapted from the French of Louis N. Le Roux and Revised by the Author. Translated into English by Desmond Ryan.

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James Stephens (1935)

James Stephens

(1882-1950)

[Bibliography]

"James Stephens (1880–1950) made his name with The Crock of Gold (1912), a story for children of all ages, creating ‘a world of rich fantasy’. He went to Paris in 1912, and in 1915 became Registrar of the National Gallery of Ireland. During Easter week 1916, Stephens witnessed the fighting around St Stephen’s Green, and soon after published an account of his observations: The Insurrection in Dublin."

- Dr Brendan Rooney: "James Stephens, the National Gallery of Ireland,
and the 1916 Rising." National Gallery of Ireland (2016)

As well as this short account of Easter week, Stephen also wrote an introduction for Thomas MacDonagh's Poetical Works (1917), and published his own book of translations and versions of traditional Irish poems - Reincarnations - in 1918. This was one of various 1916-related books I found in the Hospice shop the other day, along with works by Pearse and W. B. Yeats.

Poetry:


1. Reincarnations. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1918.
2. Collected Poems. 1926. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1931.

Prose:


3. The Insurrection in Dublin (1916)
4. James Stephens: A Selection. Ed. Lloyd Frankenberg. Preface by Padraic Colum. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1962.

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W. B. Yeats (c.1920s)

William Butler Yeats

(1865-1939)

[Bibliography]

"W. B. Yeats's iconic poem 'Easter 1916' will feature widely during this centenary year of the Easter Rising.
It is a many-layered work, but is essentially a love poem to Maud Gonne, whom the poet still hoped to capture. Maud rejected the poem in a famous letter to Yeats, writing, 'No, I don't like your poem, it isn't worthy of you and above all it isn't worthy of your subject.'
She objects to the line 'Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart' in reference to the Rising, but also to herself. Scholars have concentrated on this metaphor, but omit the other plainly stated reason she rejected the poem further along in her letter. Maud had sought a rapprochement with her husband John MacBride in 1910 but was rebuffed. After his execution, there was no obstacle, though Yeats's unwelcome poem stirs the old feud.
She tells him, and posterity: 'As for my husband he has entered Eternity by the great door of sacrifice which Christ opened & has therefore atoned for all so that in praying for him I can also ask for his prayers & "a terrible beauty is born".' Maud herself may well have been atoning for all to her late husband, John MacBride, in this remarkable sentence."

- Anthony J. Jordan, "Letter to the Editor." Irish Independent (8/1/2016)

Yeats was in London at the time of the rising, and was reported to have said that he was “overwhelmed by the news … [and] had no idea that a public event could move him so deeply.”
Having initially stated in "On being asked for a war poem": ‘“I think it better that in times like these a poet keep his mouth shut…” (quoted in K. Alldritt, W. B. Yeats: The Man and the Milieu, 1997), he had subsequently experienced the bombing of London by Zeppelins, and then been even more shocked by the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania, on which he had once travelled, by German submarines.
The treatment of the Easter 1916 prisoners had the effect of galvanising him into making a stand. This may well have been at least partly motivated by the desire to impress his old flame Maud Gonne, but the results certainly went far beyond that, witness his subsequent poem "Sixteen Dead Men":

O but we talked at large before
The sixteen men were shot,
But who can talk of give and take,
What should be and what not
While those dead men are loitering there
To stir the boiling pot?

You say that we should still the land
Till Germany’s overcome;
But who is there to argue that
Now Pearse is deaf and dumb?
And is their logic to outweigh
MacDonagh’s bony thumb?

Poetry:


1. Collected Poems. 1933. Second edition. 1950. London: Macmillan Limited, 1967.

Plays:


2. Collected Plays. 1934. Second edition. London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1952.
3. The Death of Cuchulain: Manuscript Materials Including the Author's Final Text. Ed. Phillip L. Marcus. The Cornell Yeats: Plays ed. David R. Clark. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 1982.

Prose:


4. Autobiographies: Reveries over Childhood and Youth; The Trembling of the Veil; Dramatis Personae; Estrangement; The Death of Synge; The Bounty of Sweden. 1916, 1922, 1935, 1926, 1928, 1938, 1955. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd., 1956.
5. Memoirs: Autobiography – First Draft / Journal. Ed. Denis Donoghue. London: Macmillan Limited, 1972.
6. Explorations: Explorations I / The Irish Dramatic Movement: 1901-1919 / Explorations II / Pages from a Diary Written in Nineteen Hundred and Thirty: 1944 / From Wheels and Butterflies: 1934 / From On the Boiler: 1939. Selected by Mrs. W. B. Yeats. London: Macmillan & Co Ltd., 1962.

Letters:


7. White, Anna MacBride, & A. Norman Jeffares, ed. Always Your Friend: The Gonne-Yeats Letters: 1893-1938. 1992. London: Pimlico, 1993.

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Max Caulfield: The Easter Rebellion (1963)

Anthologies & Secondary Literature

This is a very summary list of the works which could be cited on this subject. Between them, Max Caulfield's classic history The Easter Rebellion and Robert Kee's The Green Flag give a pretty good overview of the events themselves. Declan Kibber's book gives some useful insights into the ways it's been incorporated into the modern vision of Ireland.

1. Bell, J. Bowyer. The Secret Army: A History of the IRA, 1915-1970. 1970. London: Sphere Books Ltd., 1972.
2. Caulfield, Max. The Easter Rebellion. 1963. A Four Square Book. London: The New English Library Limited, 1965.
3. Kee, Robert. The Green Flag. 1972. 3 vols. London: Quartet Books, 1976.
   1. The Most Distressful Country
   2. The Bold Fenian Men
   3. Ourselves Alone
4. Kennelly, Brendan, ed. The Penguin Book of Irish Verse. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970.
5. Kiberd, Declan. Inventing Ireland: The Literature of the Modern Nation. 1995. Vintage. London: Random House, 1996.
6. McCourt, Malachy, ed. Voices of Ireland: Classic Writings of a Rich and Rare Land. Philadelphia: Running Press, 2002.

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• category - Irish Literature: Authors

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Acquisitions (87): Susanna Clarke

Susanna Clarke: The Ladies of Grace Adieu (2006)

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Susanna Clarke (2006)


Susanna Clarke: The Ladies of Grace Adieu (2006)
[Hospice Shop Takapuna - 15/2/2023]:

Susanna Clarke. The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories. Illustrated by Charles Vess. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2006.

Susanna Clarke: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004)

There are fairies at the bottom of our garden!

Charles Dickens: The Chimes (1845)

We must assume that we are not singular in entertaining a very great tenderness for the fairy literature of our childhood. What enchanted us then, and is captivating a million of young fancies now, has, at the same blessed time of life, enchanted vast hosts of men and women who have done their long day's work and laid their grey heads down to rest. It would be hard to estimate the amount of gentleness and mercy that has made its way among us through these slight channels. Forbearance, courtesy, consideration for poor and aged, kind treatment of animals, love of nature, abhorrence of tyranny and brute force - many such good things have been first nourished in the child's heart by this powerful aid. ...
In an utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that Fairy tales should be respected. ... The theatre, having done its worst to destroy these admirable fictions ... it becomes doubly important that the little books themselves, nurseries of fancy as they are, should be preserved. To preserve them in their usefulness, they must be as much preserved in their simplicity, and purity, and innocent extravagance, as if they were actual fact. Whosoever alters them to suit his own opinions, whatever they are, is guilty, to our thinking, of an act of presumption, and appropriates to himself what does not belong to him.

- Charles Dickens: "Frauds on the Fairies" (1853)

The English cult of fairies is a curious one, and there are a number of interesting angles you can take on it. On the one hand there are all the classic fairytale collections to be listed and analysed, from Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm to Hans Christian Andersen and Andrew Lang. On the other hand there's J. R. R. Tolkien's famous essay "On Fairy-stories", which might be said to have ushered in the age of heroic fantasy as a viable commercial genre at a single stroke.

Charles Sturridge, dir.: FairyTale: A True Story (1997)

As well as that, there have been numerous investigations into the "truth" of the fairy tradition by folklorists and archaeologists (not to mention the odd occultist). An excellent overview of this is given in Charles Sturridge's film - based on Joe Cooper's The Case of the Cottingley Fairies (1990) - about the curious photographs popularised by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his book The Coming of the Fairies (1922).

Toby Haynes, dir.: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2015)

Susanna Clarke has done a good deal to revive the whole subject in her work to date - both the lengthy novel (and TV series) Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and the contrastingly slight yet delightful short story collection The Ladies of Grace Adieu, which I picked up for a few dollars at a Hospice Shop the other day.

So much did I enjoy it, in fact, that it got me to thinking about some of the other literary manifestations of the fairy mythos (if you'll excuse the term). A few years ago I wrote an essay about Samuel Butler's satirical novel Erewhon (1872) in which I discussed some of the folkloric patterns employed in this ostensibly rationalist text:

The Otherworld mirrors ours. It can be benign, like the paradises that reverse this world’s suffering; or it can be uncanny, like the realm some tribes ascribe to witches who walk or talk backwards, wear their heads upside down, their legs back to front.

Patrick Harpur: Daimonic Reality (1994)

In particular, I used Patrick Harpur’s intriguing book Daimonic Reality: A Field Guide to the Other World - from which the above quote was taken - as a way of understanding the larger significance of this very odd belief-system:

The basic point of Harpur’s book ... [is] to postulate a ‘daimonic reality’ which exists — either literally or psychologically (Harpur sees little distinction between the two) — as a contrast to our world of causation and certainty. Ghosts, poltergeists, UFOs, lake monsters, Bigfoot, the yeti, fairies, angels, demons all inhabit this reality, but not — for the most part — as we see them.
The ‘glamour’ which these beings are able to throw across the perceptions of mortals who chance into this uncanny sphere means that the size, shape and essential nature of all that they see there, including its inhabitants, is always open to question: hence Harpur’s contention that the description of a haunting and a UFO abduction narrative may be basically the same thing.

For Harpur, the fact that people continue to experience such things and to ascribe so much personal significance to these encounters and sightings is, in his view, far more important than whether they can be claimed to be ‘real’. He concludes with a set of rules for travel in the Otherworld which seem to ring only too true for the various cognate texts - ranging from folklore to fiction - I've listed below:

Travel light. Don’t believe everything you’ve been told, either for good or ill . . . Observe local customs; respect local gods. Talk less than you listen. Try to see as well as sightsee. Be polite but firm; take advice but do not be gullible. If in doubt, smile. Do not laugh at the natives, but don’t be afraid to laugh ... Don’t join in the dancing unless you really have learnt the steps.

Elsie Wright & Frances Griffiths: The Cottingley Fairies (1920)

•

1. Katharine Briggs (1898–1980):
   • Hobberdy Dick (1955)
2. Susanna Clark (1959- ):
   • The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories (2006)
3. Susan Cooper (1935- ):
   • The Boggart (1993)
4. John Crowley (1942- ):
   • Little, Big: or, The Fairies' Parliament (1981)
5. Lord Dunsany (1878-1957):
   • The King of Elfland's Daughter (1924)
6. Neil Gaiman (1960- ):
   • Stardust (1999)
7. Lady Gregory (1852-1932):
   • Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland (1920)
8. James Stephens (1880-1950):
   • The Crock of Gold (1912)
9. Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893-1978):
   • Kingdoms of Elfin (1977)
10. Tad Williams (1957- ):
    • The War of the Flowers (2003)
11. Secondary Literature

Katharine M. Briggs: The Fairies in Tradition and Literature (1967)

•

Katharine M. Briggs: Hobberdy Dick (1955)

Katharine Mary Briggs
(1898-1980)

I have, admittedly, already written a post about Katharine Briggs, but that was little more than a book-list, prompted by my then-recent purchase of her marvellous, multi-volume compilation of British Folktales.

Her real area of specialisation, however, was the "Personnel of Fairyland" - to quote the title of her first, pioneering book on the subject. The encyclopedic knowledge she gradually acquired culminated in the Dictionary - or, in the US, "Encyclopedia" - of Fairies she published in 1976, a few years before her death.

This is, admittedly, more of a reference book than one you might pick up for light reading. As you can see from the bibliography below, though, she made up for this with a number of popular and/or scholarly monographs on particular aspects of the subject.

She was also the author of two novels, at least one of which, Hobberdy Dick, has become a children's classic. All in all, it's hard to imagine a better starting point for any serious investigation of the subject - from Robert Kirk's Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies (1692 - not published till 1815) all the way to more recent manifestations such as Tony DiTerlizzi & Holly Black's Spiderwick Chronicles (2003-9).

Katharine Mary Briggs (1898-1980)

Bibliography

Books I own are marked in bold:

Fiction:


1. Hobberdy Dick. Illustrated by Jane Kingshill (1955)
   • Hobberdy Dick. 1955. Illustrated by Scoular Anderson. A Puffin Book. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976.
   • Hobberdy Dick. 1955. Kestrel Books. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.
2. Kate Crackernuts. Illustrated by Jane Kingshill (1963)
   • Kate Crackernuts. 1963. Greenwillow Books. New York: William Morrow & Co Inc., 1979.

Non-fiction:


3. The Personnel of Fairyland: A Short Account of the Fairy People of Great Britain for Those Who Tell Stories to Children. Illustrated by Jane Moore (1953)
4. The Anatomy of Puck: An Examination of Fairy Beliefs among Shakespeare's Contemporaries and Successors (1959)
5. Pale Hecate's Team: An Examination of the Beliefs on Witchcraft and Magic among Shakespeare's Contemporaries and His Immediate Successors (1962)
6. The Fairies in Tradition and Literature [aka The Fairies in English Tradition and Literature] (1967)
   • The Fairies in Tradition and Literature. 1967. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1977.
7. The Folklore of the Cotswolds. Illustrated by Gay John Galsworthy (1974)
8. A Dictionary of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures [aka An Encyclopedia of Fairies] (1976)
   • A Dictionary of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies and Other Supernatural Creatures. 1976. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977.
9. The Vanishing People: A Study of Traditional Fairy Beliefs [aka Fairy Lore and Legends]. Illustrated by Mary I. French (1978)
10. Abbey Lubbers, Banshees & Boggarts: A Who's Who of Fairies [aka An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Fairies]. Illustrated by Yvonne Gilbert (1979)
    • Abbey Lubbers, Banshees & Boggarts: A Who's Who of Fairies. Illustrated by Yvonne Gilbert. Kestrel Books. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977.
11. Nine Lives: Cats in Folklore [aka The Folklore of Cats]. Illustrated by John Ward (1980)
    • Nine Lives: Cats in Folklore. Illustrations by John Ward, RA. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980.

Edited:


12. [with Ruth L. Tongue] Folktales of England (1965)
    • Folktales of England. Ed. Katharine M. Briggs & Ruth Tongue. Foreword by Richard M. Dorson. Folktales of the World, ed. Richard M. Dorson. 1965. Chicago & London: Chicago University Press, 1968.
13. Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language. 4 vols (1970–71)
    • A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language, incorporating the F. J. Norton Collection. Part A: Folk Narratives. 1970. Vol. 1 of 2. London & New York: Routledge, 2003.
    • A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language, incorporating the F. J. Norton Collection. Part B: Folk Legends. 1971. Vol. 2 of 2. London & New York: Routledge, 2001.
    • Folk Tales of Britain: Narratives. 1970. Introduction by Philip Pullman. 3 vols. Illustrated by Hannah Firmin, Peter Firmin & Clare Melinsky. London: Folio Society, 2011.
    • Folk Tales of Britain: Legends. 1971. Introduction by Kevin Crossley-Holland. 3 vols. Illustrated by Hannah Firmin, Peter Firmin & Clare Melinsky. London: Folio Society, 2011.
14. A Sampler of British Folk-Tales [aka British Folk-Tales and Legends: A Sampler] (1977)
    • British Folktales and Legends: a Sampler. 1977. London: Paladin, 1977.

Katharine M. Briggs: A Dictionary of Fairies (1976)

•

Susanna Clarke: The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories (2006)

Susanna Mary Clarke
(1959 - )

I guess that my problem here may have been that I watched the TV adaptation of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell before I read the book. It takes some time to get used to the curious conventions of Clarke's fictional cosmos - a strange amalgam of Jane Austen, Napier's History of the Peninsular War, and traditional folklore - and it would probably have been easier if I'd started off with the rather more leisurely paced novel than with the oddly abrupt filmed version.

The Ladies of Grace Adieu was clearly rushed out as a follow-up to Clarke's wildly successful debut book. The stories come from very different times and places (one of them is even set in the locale of Neil Gaiman's Stardust: the village of Wall). Somehow the mixture works, however, and the whole is strangely beguiling to read.

Mind you, her rather belated follow-up novel Piranesi is probably better and more original than either of her first two books - which is saying something - though possibly less calculated to reach a wide public. All in all, she remains an author to watch. I'm just glad to have chanced upon handsome hardcover copies of her last two books at very reasonable prices.

Mark Pringle: Susanna Clarke (2004)

Bibliography

Novels:


1. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004)
   • Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Illustrations by Portia Rosenberg. 2004. 3 vols. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2005.
2. Piranesi (2020)
   • Piranesi. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2020.

Short Stories:


3. The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories (2006)
   • The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories. Illustrated by Charles Vess. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2006.

Susanna Clarke: Piranesi (2020)

•

Susan Cooper: The Boggart (1993)

Susan Mary Cooper
(1935- )

It took me quite a while to warm to Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence. The narrative as a whole never seems sufficiently invested in the threat posed by the dark entities which are allegedly 'rising'. Perhaps she, or more likely her publishers, were afraid that children would find it too frightening otherwise. I wanted very much to like it, but couldn't really manage it at the time.

The Boggart, by contrast, seems to me to navigate a much steadier path between folklore and the modern world. It's also far less ambitious in scope, which may contribute to this success. Her gifts as a storyteller seem to me to be far more firmly on display here.

Reading backwards from The Boggart has definitely helped me to appreciate her work as a writer overall, however. There aren't enough good children's books of this type, and I find on rereading it that even The Dark is Rising is now far more pleasing to me - I no longer feel the need to make adverse comparisons with Tolkien and Alan Garner, but instead can enjoy it on its own terms.

Susan Cooper (2012)

Bibliography

Novels:


1. Mandrake (1964)
2. The Dark Is Rising Sequence:
   1. Over Sea, Under Stone (1965)
      • Over Sea, Under Stone. 1965. Illustrated by Margery Gill. The Dark Is Rising Sequence. A Puffin Book. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.
   2. The Dark Is Rising (1973)
      • The Dark is Rising. 1973. The Dark Is Rising Sequence. A Puffin Book. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976.
   3. Greenwitch (1974)
      • Greenwitch. 1974. The Dark Is Rising Sequence. A Puffin Book. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.
   4. The Grey King (1975)
      • The Grey King. 1975. The Dark Is Rising Sequence. A Puffin Book. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.
   5. Silver on the Tree (1977)
      • Silver on the Tree. 1977. The Dark Is Rising Sequence. A Puffin Book. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982.
   • The Dark Is Rising Sequence: Over Sea, Under Stone / The Dark is Rising / Greenwitch / The Grey King / Silver on the Tree. 1965, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977. A Puffin Book. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984.
3. Dawn of Fear (1970)
   • Dawn of Fear. 1970. A Puffin Book. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975.
4. Seaward (1983)
   • Seaward. 1983. A Puffin Book. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1988.
5. The Boggart Trilogy:
   1. The Boggart (1993)
      • The Boggart. London: The Bodley Head, 1993.
   2. The Boggart and the Monster (1997)
   3. The Boggart Fights Back (2018)
6. King of Shadows (1999)
7. Green Boy (2002)
8. Victory (June 2006)
9. Ghost Hawk (2013)

Non-fiction:


10. Behind the Golden Curtain: A View of the USA (1965)
11. J. B. Priestley: Portrait of an Author (1970)
12. Dreams and Wishes: Essays on Writing for Children (1996)
13. The Magic Maker: A Portrait of John Langstaff and His Christmas Revels (2011)

Plays & Screenplays:


14. Dark Encounter (1976)
15. Foxfire, Cooper and Hume Cronyn (1982)
16. The Dollmaker (1984)
17. To Dance with the White Dog (1993)
18. Jewel (2001)

Children's picture books:


19. Jethro and the Jumbie. Illustrated by Ashley Bryan (1979)
20. The Silver Cow: A Welsh Tale. Illustrated by Warwick Hutton (1983)
21. The Selkie Girl. Illustrated by Warwick Hutton (1986)
22. Matthew's Dragon. Illustrated by Jos. A. Smith (1991)
23. Tam Lin. Illustrated by Warwick Hutton (1991)
24. Danny and the Kings. Illustrated by Jos. A. Smith (1993)
25. Frog. Illustrated by Jane Browne (2002)
26. The Magician's Boy. Illustrated by Serena Riglietti (2005)
27. The Word Pirates. Illustrated by Steven Kellogg (2019)
28. The Shortest Day. Illustrated by Carson Ellis (2019)

Susan Cooper: The Dark is Rising (1973)

•

John Crowley: Little, Big: or, The Fairies' Parliament (1981)

John Crowley
(1942 - )

In theory, at least, I'm all for the kinds of large-scale experiments John Crowley is interested in. In practice, though, I found Little, Big rather difficult to get through. It's certainly a a major contribution to the genre of modern fairy literature, though.

I haven't read his Aegypt books, so can't comment on them. They do look very intriguing.

Amelia Beamer: John Crowley (2010)

Bibliography

Novels:


1. The Deep. Illustrated by John Cayea (1975)
   • --. Illustrated by Anne Yvonne Gilbert (1984)
2. Beasts. Illustrated by John Cayea (1976)
   • --. Illustrated by Anne Yvonne Gilbert (1983)
3. Engine Summer. Illustrated by Gary Friedman (1979)
   • --. Illustrated by Anne Yvonne Gilbert (1983)
4. Little, Big: or, The Fairies' Parliament (1981)
   • --. Illustrated by Anne Yvonne Gilbert (1983)
   • Little, Big. 1981. London: Methuen, 1986.
5. The Ægypt Cycle:
   1. Ægypt [rev. as The Solitudes (2007)] (1987)
   2. Love & Sleep [rev. 2008] (1994)
   3. Dæmonomania [rev. 2008] (2000)
   4. Endless Things (2007)
6. The Translator (2002)
7. Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land (2005)
8. Four Freedoms (2009)
9. The Chemical Wedding: by Christian Rosencreutz: A Romance in Eight Days by Johann Valentin Andreae in a New Version (2016)
10. Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr (2017)
11. Flint and Mirror: A Novel of History and Magic (2022)

Short Story Collections:


12. Novelty (1989)
13. Antiquities: Seven Stories (1993)
14. Novelties and Souvenirs: Collected Short Fiction (2004)
15. Totalitopia (2017)
16. And Go Like This: Stories (2019)

Omnibus Editions:


17. Beasts / Engine Summer / Little Big (1991)
18. Otherwise: Three Novels ['The Deep', 1975; 'Beasts', 1976; 'Engine Summer', 1979] (1994)

Essay collections:


19. In Other Words (2007)
20. Reading Backwards: Essays & Reviews, 2005-2018 (2019)

John Crowley: Aegypt (1987)

•

Lord Dunsany: The King of Elfland's Daughter (1924)

Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany
(1878–1957)

Readers of my generation owe a distinct debt to the editorial enterprise of Lin Carter. The series of modern works of fantasy he edited for Ballantine Books was probably instrumental in introducing most of us to E. R. Eddison, David Lindsay, William Morris, and - Lord Dunsany.

The book-covers were garish and his editorial hand at times a little heavy-handed, but he did reveal the existence of this vast hinterland of pre-Lord of the Rings fantasy novels and stories. It was quite a revelation at the time.

Lord Dunsany should need no introduction to fans of H. P. Lovecraft, in particular, for whom he was one of the two essential authors, alongside Edgar Allan Poe. The allure of his multitudinous stories and plays may have faded somewhat since his heyday before the First World War, but they remain surprisingly readable when read without too many preconceptions.

The recent film adaptation of one of his later novels, My Talks with Dean Spanley (1936 / 2008), could not really be described as entirely successful, but it's certainly one of the oddest and most original films to have come out of the New Zealand film industry in my time.

Lord Dunsany

[Bibliography]

Novels:


1. Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley. 1922. Introduction by Lin Carter. Adult Fantasy. London: Pan / Ballantine, 1972.
2. The King of Elfland’s Daughter. 1924. A Del Rey Book. New York: Ballantine Books, 1978.
3. The Charwoman’s Shadow: Shadow Valley Chronicles II. 1926. Unicorn. London: Unwin Paperbacks, 1983.
4. My Talks with Dean Spanley. 1936. London: Collins, 1972.
5. [with Alan Sharp. Dean Spanley: My Talks with Dean Spanley / Dean Spanley: The Screenplay. Ed. Matthew Metcalfe & Chris Smith. 1936. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008.

Short Stories:


6. The Gods of Pegāna. Illustrated by S. H. Sime. 1905. London: Elkin Mathews, 1919.
7. The Food of Death: Fifty-One Tales. 1915. The Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library, 3. Hollywood, Calif.: Newcastle Publishing Company, Inc., 1974.
8. Plays of Gods and Men: "The Laughter of the Gods" / "The Queen's Enemies" / "The Tents of the Arabs" / "A Night at an Inn". London: T. Fisher Unwin, Limited, 1917.
9. The Book of Wonder: The Book of Wonder; Time and the Gods. 1912, 1906. New York: Boni and Liveright, 1918.
10. Time and the Gods: Time and the Gods, The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories, A Dreamer's Tales, The Book of Wonder, The Last Book of Wonder, & The Gods of Pegāna. 1906, 1908, 1910, 1912, 1916, 1905. Fantasy Masterworks, 32. London: Gollancz, 2000.
11. To Awaken Pegasus and Other Poems. Oxford : George Ronald, 1949.
12. At The Edge of the World. Ed. Lin Carter. Adult Fantasy. New York: Ballantine Books, 1970.
13. Beyond the Fields We Know. Ed. Lin Carter. Adult Fantasy. London: Pan / Ballantine, 1972.vGods, Men and Ghosts: The Best Supernatural Fiction of Lord Dunsany. Ed. E. F. Bleiler. Illustrations by Sidney H. Sime. New York: Dover, 1972.
14. The Ghosts of the Heaviside Layer and Other Fantasms. Foreword by Darrell Schweitzer. Illustrations by Tim Kirk. Philadelphia: Owlslick Press, 1980.
15. In the Land of Time and Other Fantasy Tales. Ed. S. T. Joshi. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2004.

Non-fiction:


16. Patches of Sunlight. London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1938.
17. Guerilla. London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1944.

Lord Dunsany: The Ghosts of the Heaviside Layer and Other Fantasms (1980)

•

Neil Gaiman: Stardust (1999)

Neil Gaiman
(1960- )

I used to find Neil Gaiman's claims to be considered as a creative artist on a par with G. K. Chesterton or C. S. Lewis more than a little absurd. His work seemed too bitty, too generically various, too obviously commercial in inspiration.

As the years have gone by, though, and his achievements have mounted, I've revised this view. What does it matter if his stories appear as novels or monthly comics or even hyperspace links? The best of them - Sandman, Coraline, Neverwhere - seem to be here to stay, even if their screen adaptations have been, at times, disappointing.

Stardust is an interesting case. It started as a novel, then became a graphic novel illustrated by the brilliant Charles Vess, then suffered a somewhat tonedeaf Hollywood incarnation. It's well worth revisiting, though - especially for those who were turned off prematurely by an overdose of Hollywood whimsy in the screen adaptation.

And, in any case, most of the objections I had to the canonisation of Gaiman as a major writer would apply just as accurately to Chesterton and Lewis ... their collected works are similarly all over the place: they are vast, they contain multitudes: how is that a bad thing?

Murdo Macleod: Neil Gaiman (2022)

[Bibliography]

Novels:


1. [with Terry Pratchett]. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. A Novel. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1990.
2. Neverwhere. 1996. New York: HarperTorch, 2001.
3. Neverwhere: Author's Preferred Text, with How the Marquis Got His Coat Back. 1996 & 2014. William Morrow. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2016.
4. Stardust. London: Headline Book Publishing, 1999.
5. American Gods. London: Headline Book Publishing, 2001.
6. American Gods: The Author's Preferred Text. 2001 & 2004. Review. London: Headline Book Publishing, 2005.
7. Coraline. Illustrations by Dave McKean. 2002. New York: Harper Trophy, 2003.
8. Anansi Boys. London: Headline Book Publishing, 2005.
9. The Graveyard Book. Illustrated by Chris Riddell. 2008. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2009.
10. The Ocean at the End of the Lane. London: Headline Publishing Group, 2013.

Short Stories:


11. Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions. London: Headline Book Publishing, 1999.
12. Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders. 2006. London: Headline Publishing Group, 2013.
13. Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances. London: Headline Publishing Group, 2015.
14. The Neil Gaiman Reader: Selected Fiction. Foreword by Marlon James. London: Headline Publishing Group, 2020.

Non-fiction:


15. [with Kim Newman. Ghastly Beyond Belief. Introduction by Harry Harrison. London: Arrow Books, 1985.
16. The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Non-fiction. London: Headline Publishing Group, 2016.
17. Norse Mythology. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2017.

Neil Gaiman: Neverwhere (1996 / 2014)

•

Lady Gregory: Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland (1920)

Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory
(1852-1932)

... when Denis Johnston submitted to the Abbey his first play, Shadowdance, it was rejected by Lady Gregory and returned to the author with "The Old Lady says No" written on the title page. Johnston decided to rename the play, and The Old Lady Says 'No!' was eventually staged by the Gate Theatre in 1928.

... the Irish writer Oliver St. John Gogarty once wrote "the perpetual presentation of her plays nearly ruined the Abbey".

- Wikipedia

Dissentient voices apart, Lady Gregory remains an inescapable part of the Irish Literary Revival - and not just for her encouragement of (and influence on) John Synge, W. B. Yeats, and other mainstays of the Modernist canon.

Whatever one thinks of her plays - and they are now seldom performed - her translations and adaptations from the Irish have had a lasting influence. This compendium of folklore from the West of Ireland is one of her most delightful books, however. Her collection methods may not fit the standards of contemporary folklorists, but the results are certainly very entertaining to read.

The two essays by Yeats included in the text are a salutary reminder of what a nutter he could be at times. I've always thought it one of his most endearing traits.

Lady Gregory

Bibliography

Imaginative Prose:


1. Cuchulain of Muirthemne: The Story of the Men of the Red Branch of Ulster (1902)
   • Cuchulain of Muirthemne: The Story of the Men of the Red Branch of Ulster. 1902. Preface by W. B. Yeats. The Coole Edition, II. 1970. Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe, 1984.
   • Included in: Complete Irish Mythology: Gods and Fighting Men & Cuchulain of Muirthemne. 1904 & 1902. Preface by W. B. Yeats. 1994. London: Bounty Books, 2004.
2. Gods and Fighting Men: The Story of the Tuatha de Danann and of the Fianna of Ireland (1904)
   • Included in: Complete Irish Mythology: Gods and Fighting Men & Cuchulain of Muirthemne. 1904 & 1902. Preface by W. B. Yeats. 1994. London: Bounty Books, 2004.
3. A Book of Saints and Wonders, Put Down Here by Lady Gregory According to the Old Writings and the Memory of the People of Ireland (1907)
4. The Kiltartan History Book (1909)
5. The Kiltartan Wonder Book (1911)
6. Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland Collected and Arranged by Lady Gregory: With Two Essays and Notes by W. B. Yeats (1920)
   • Visions & Beliefs in the West of Ireland. With Two Essays and a Note by W. B. Yeats. 1920. The Coole Edition, I. 1970. Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe, 1992.
7. Lady Gregory's Early Irish Writings 1883-1893 (2018)

Plays:


8. Kincora: A Drama in Three Acts (1905)
9. Spreading the News, The Rising of the Moon By Lady Gregory; The Poorhouse by Lady Gregory and Douglas Hyde (1906)
10. The Hyacinth Galvey: A Comedy (1906)
11. Seven Short Plays: Spreading the News; Hyacinth Halvey; The Rising of the Moon; The Jackdaw; The Workhouse Ward; The Travelling Man; The Gaol Gate (1909)
12. Spreading the News (1911)
13. Irish Folk-History Plays, 1st series. The Tragedies: Grania – Kincora—Dervorgilla (1912)
14. Irish Folk-History Plays, 2nd series: The Tragic-Comedies: The Canavans – The White Cockade – The Deliverer (1912)
15. New Comedies: The Bogie Men; The Full Moon; Coats; Damer's Gold; McDonough's Wife (1913)
16. Damer's Gold: A Comedy in Two Acts (1913)
17. Coats (1913)
18. [with W. B. Yeats] The Unicorn from the Stars: And Other Plays (1915)
19. Shanwalla (1915)
20. The Golden Apple: A Play for Kiltartan Children (1916)
21. The Dragon: A Wonder Play in Three Acts (1920)
22. The Image and Other Plays: Hanranhan's Ghost; Shanwalla; The Wrens (1922)
23. Three Wonder Plays: The Dragon; Aristotle's Bellows; The Jester (1922)
24. [with W. B. Yeats] Plays in Prose and Verse: Written for an Irish Theatre, and Generally with the Help of a Friend (1922)
25. The Story Brought by Brigit (1924)
26. Mirandolina (1924)
27. On the Racecourse (1926)
28. Three Last Plays: Sancho's Master; Dave; The Would-Be Gentleman (1928)
29. My First Play (Colman and Guair) (1930)
30. Collected Plays. 4 vols. The Coole Edition, V-VIII. Ed. Ann Saddlemyer (1971)
    1. The Comedies
       • The Comedies. Ed. Ann Saddlemyer. 1971. Collected Plays 1. The Coole Edition, V. Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe, 1979.
    2. The Tragedies & Tragic-Comedies
       • The Tragedies & Tragic-Comedies. Ed. Ann Saddlemyer. 1971. Collected Plays 2. The Coole Edition, VI. Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe, 1979.
    3. The Wonder & Supernatural Plays
       • The Wonder & Supernatural Plays. Ed. Ann Saddlemyer. 1971. Collected Plays 3. The Coole Edition, VII. Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe, 1979.
    4. The Translations and Adaptations, and her Collaborations
       • The Translations and Adaptations of Lady Gregory and her Collaborations with Douglas Hyde and W. B. Yeats. Ed. Ann Saddlemyer. 1971. Collected Plays 4. The Coole Edition, VIII. Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe, 1979.

Non-fiction:


31. Arabi and His Household (1882)
32. Over the River (1888)
33. [Anon.] A Phantom's Pilgrimage, or Home Ruin (1893)
34. Our Irish Theatre – A Chapter of Autobiography (1913)
35. Hugh Lane's Life and Achievement, with Some Account of the Dublin Galleries. With Illustrations (1921)
36. Coole (1931)
37. Seventy Years, 1852-1922, Being the Autobiography of Lady Gregory (1974)
    • Seventy Years: Being the Autobiography of Lady Gregory, 1852-1922. Ed. Colin Smythe. 1974. The Coole Edition, XIII. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1976.

Translated:


38. Douglas Hyde. Casadh an t-súgáin; or, The Twisting of the Rope (1902)
39. Poets and Dreamers: Studies and Translations from the Irish (1903)
40. The Kiltartan Molière: The Miser. The Doctor in Spite of Himself. The Rogueries of Scapin (1910)
41. The Kiltartan Poetry Book: Prose Translations from the Irish (1919)

Edited:


42. Sir William Gregory, K.C.M.G., Formerly Member of Parliament and Sometime Governor of Ceylon: An Autobiography (1894)
43. Mr. Gregory's Letter Box 1813–1830 (1898)

Diaries:


44. Lady Gregory's Journals (1947)
45. The Journals. Part 1. 10 October 1916 – 24 February 1925 (1978)
46. The Journals. Part 2. 21 February 1925 – 9 May 1932 (1987)
47. Lady Gregory's Diaries 1892-1902 (1996)

Lady Gregory: Complete Irish Mythology (1902-4)

•

James Stephens: The Crock of Gold (1912)

James Stephens
(1880-1950)

I suppose the one thing that everyone knows about James Stephens is that James Joyce once described him as the only writer who could conceivably finish Finnegans Wake for him:

Of course he would never take a fraction of the time or pains I take but so much the better for him and for me and possibly for the book itself. If he consented to maintain three or four points which I consider essential and I showed him the threads he could finish the design. JJ and S (the colloquial Irish for John Jameson and Son’s Dublin whisky) would be a nice lettering under the title.

This may seem surprising to those more familiar with Stephens poems such as the once-popular "The Snare":

I hear a sudden cry of pain!
There is a rabbit in a snare:
Now I hear the cry again,
But I cannot tell from where.

But I cannot tell from where
He is calling out for aid!
Crying on the frightened air,
Making everything afraid!

Making everything afraid!
Wrinkling up his little face!
And he cries again for aid;
- and I cannot find the place!

And I cannot find the place
Where his paw is in the snare!
Little One! Oh, Little One!
I am searching everywhere!

Heartfelt, certainly, but not precisely ... Joycean.

Stephens is far more than a mere sentimentalist, though. His early novel The Crock of Gold is one of the maddest, most inventive works of the Irish Renaissance. Its merits are a little difficult to describe to anyone who hasn't experienced them firsthand, but try and imagine a kind of amalgam of Flann O'Brian and W. B. Yeats with a little bit of Oscar Wilde mixed in, and you'll be getting close.

Here's a characteristic quote from the book, a snippet of dialogue between a donkey and a spider:

"Does anybody ever kick you in the nose?" said the ass to him.
"Ay does there," said the spider; "you and your like that are always walking on me, or lying down on me, or running over me with the wheels of a cart."
"Well, why don't you stay on the wall?" said the ass.
"Sure, my wife is there," replied the spider.
"What's the harm in that?" said the ass.
"She'd eat me," said the spider, "and, anyhow, the competition on the wall is dreadful, and the flies are getting wiser and timider every season. Have you got a wife yourself, now?"
"I have not," said the ass; "I wish I had."
"You like your wife for the first while," said the spider, "and after that you hate her."
"If I had the first while I'd chance the second while," replied the ass.
"It's bachelor's talk," said the spider; "all the same, we can't keep away from them," and so saying he began to move all his legs at once in the direction of the wall. "You can only die once," said he.

Fluent in Irish as well as English, Stephens was able to transplant some of the spirit of the older literary tradition into the twentieth-century world of hunger-strikes and the 1916 rising. He's distinctly underrated, and well worth reading.

Patrick Tuohy: James Stephens

Bibliography

Poetry:


1. Insurrections (1909)
2. The Hill of Vision (1912)
3. Five New Poems (1913)
4. Songs from the Clay (1915)
5. The Adventures of Seumas Beg: The Rocky Road to Dublin (1915)
6. Green Branches (1916)
7. Reincarnations (1918)
   • Reincarnations. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1918.
8. A Poetry Recital (1925)
9. Collected Poems (1926)
   • Collected Poems. 1926. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1931.
10. The Outcast. Illustrated by Althea Willoughby. Ariel Poems (1929)
11. Strict Joy: Poems (1931)
12. Kings and the Moon (1938)
13. The Poems of James Stephens. Ed. Shirley Stevens Mulligan (2001)

Novels:


14. The Charwoman's Daughter [aka Mary, Mary] (1912)
    • The Charwoman’s Daughter. 1912. Introduction by Augustine Martin. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1972.
    • Included in: James Stephen: A Selection. Ed. Lloyd Frankenberg. Preface by Padraic Colum. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1962.
15. The Crock of Gold (1912)
    • The Crock of Gold. 1912. Foreword by Walter de la Mare. 1953. Oxford Children’s Library. London: Pan Books, 1965.
    • The Crock of Gold. 1912. Illustrated by Thomas Mackenzie. 1926. Facsimile Classics Series. London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980.
16. The Demi-Gods (1914)
    • The Demi-Gods. 1914. Introduction by Augustine Martin. Dublin: Butler Sims Publishing Ltd., 1982.
17. Deirdre (1923)
    • Deirdre. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1923.
18. In the Land of Youth (1924)

Short Stories:


19. Here Are Ladies (1913)
20. [as James Esse,] Hunger: A Dublin Story (1918)
21. Irish Fairy Tales (1920)
    • Irish Fairy Tales. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. 1924. Facsimile Classics Series. London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1979.
22. Etched in Moonlight (1928)
23. How St Patrick Saved the Irish (1931)
24. Desire and Other Stories. Ed. Augustine Martin (1981)

Plays:


25. Julia Elizabeth: A Comedy, in One Act (1929)
26. The Optimist (1929)

Miscellaneous:


27. The Insurrection in Dublin (1916)
28. Arthur Griffith: Journalist and Statesman (1922)
29. Little Things (1924)
30. Danny Murphy (1925)
31. Christmas in Freelands (1925)
32. On Prose and Verse (1928)
33. Themes and Variations (1930)
34. Stars Do Not Make a Noise (1931)
35. James Stephens: A Selection (1962)
    • James Stephen: A Selection. Ed. Lloyd Frankenberg. Preface by Padraic Colum. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1962.
36. James, Seumas and Jacques: Unpublished Writings. Ed. Lloyd Frankenburg (1964)
37. Uncollected Early Writings of James Stephens. Ed. Patricia McFate (1975)
38. Uncollected Prose of James Stephen. Ed. Patricia McFate. 2 vols (1983)

Letters:


39. Letters of James Stephens. Ed. Richard J. Finneran (1974)

James Stephens: Irish Fairy Tales (1924)

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Sylvia Townsend Warner: Kingdoms of Elfin (1977)

Sylvia Townsend Warner
(1893-1978)

People thought managing editor William Shawn was mad for including quite so many of Sylvia Townsend Warner's stories about fairies in the New Yorker in the last decade of her life.

What he could see and they couldn't, was that the curious amalgam of Marxism, Lesbianism, profound musical scholarship, and fabular thinking which had swayed her from one direction to another in her earlier writing had found safe harbour in this most artificial of forms.

Eventually even he felt that enough was enough (much to her sorrow and displeasure). However by then she'd accumulated sufficient material to turn into this, the last of her books to appear in her lifetime.

How can one characterise it as a collection? It's cruel and heartless in parts: a recurring feature of her clipped, decisive style of writing. It does have far more of the flavour of folklore of most "fairy literature" before Susanna Clarke, however. I highly recommend it.

Sylvia Townsend Warner

[Bibliography]

Poetry:


1. Collected Poems. Ed. Claire Harman. Manchester: Carcanet New Press / New York: The Viking Press, 1982.
2. New Collected Poems. Ed. Claire Harman. Fyfield Books. Manchester: Carcanet Press Limited, 2008.

Novels:


3. Lolly Willowes. 1926. London: Penguin, 1937.
4. Mr Fortune’s Maggot. 1927. London: Virago, 1978.
5. The True Heart. 1929. London: Virago, 1978.
6. Summer Will Show. 1936. Introduction by Claire Harman. New York: Penguin Books / Virago Press, 1987.
7. After the Death of Don Juan. 1938. Introduction by Wendy Mulford. London: Virago, 1989.
8. The Corner That Held Them. 1948. Introduction by Claire Harman. London: Virago, 1988.
9. The Flint Anchor. 1954. Introduction by Claire Harman. London: Virago Modern Classics, 1997.

Stories:


10. The Museum of Cheats and Other Stories. London: Chatto & Windus, 1947.
11. The Innocent and the Guilty. London: Chatto & Windus, 1971.
12. Kingdoms of Elfin. 1977. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.
13. One Thing Leading to Another. Ed. Susanna Pinney. London: Chatto & Windus / The Hogarth Press, 1984.
14. Selected Stories. Ed. Susanna Pinney & William Maxwell. 1989. London: Virago, 1990.
15. The Music at Long Verney: Twenty Stories. Ed. Michael Steinman. Foreword by William Maxwell. London: The Harvill Press, 2001.

Letters & Diaries:


16. Letters. Ed. William Maxwell. London: Chatto & Windus, 1982.
17. I'll Stand by You: Selected Letters of Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland, with Narrative by Sylvia Townsend Warner. Ed. Susanna Pinney. Pimlico. London: Random House Ltd., 1998.
18. The Diaries of Sylvia Townsend Warner. Ed. Claire Harman. London: Chatto & Windus, 1994.

Secondary:


19. Ackland, Valentine. For Sylvia: An Honest Account. Foreword by Bea Howe. 1985. London: Chatto & Windus Ltd., 1989.
20. Harman, Claire. Sylvia Townsend Warner: A Biography. London: Chatto & Windus, 1989.

Sylvia Townsend Warner: Lolly Willowes; or The Loving Huntsman (1926)

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Tad Williams: The War of the Flowers (2003)

Robert Paul [Tad] Williams
(1957- )

In a previous post about Tad Williams, I concentrated mainly on his work in the field of epic fantasy. I did, however, mention there his claims to be regarded as the modern fantasy author:

who's tried hardest and most consistently to experiment with different levels and concepts of reality: from the celestial cyberpunk of the "Bobby Dollar" books to the copyrighted virtual reality domains of the "Otherworld" tetralogy.

I still stand by that definition. One of the most intriguing of these side-projects to his main business of multi-volume fantasy epics is the novel pictured above, The War of the Flowers.

It's quite a cruel and violent book in parts, but strangely, the main impression it left with me was the delightful precision of his reimagining of Fairyland as an Edwardian landscape complete with bicycles and steam-engines. Very original, I thought.

Tad Williams

[Bibliography]

Novels:


1. Tailchaser's Song. 1985. Legend Books. London: Random Century Group, 1991.
2. [with Nina Kiriki Hoffman]. Child of an Ancient City. Legend Books. London: Century, 1992.
3. Caliban's Hour. 1994. Legend Books. London: Random House UK Limited, 1995.
4. The War of the Flowers. An Orbit Book. London: Time Warner Books UK, 2003.

Series:


5. Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn (1988-93):
   1. The Dragonbone Chair. Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Book 1. 1988. Legend Books. London: Arrow Books Limited, 1990.
   2. Stone of Farewell. Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Book 2. 1990. Legend Books. London: Arrow Books Limited, 1991.
   3. To Green Angel Tower. Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Book 3. Legend Books. London: Random House Group, 1993.
   4. Brothers of the Wind: A Prequel to Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. London: Hodder & Stoughton, Ltd., 2021.
6. Otherland (1996-2001):
   1. City of Golden Shadow. Otherland, Book 1. Legend Books. London: Random House UK Limited, 1996.
   2. River of Blue Fire. Otherland, Book 2. An Orbit Book. London: Little, Brown & Company (UK), 1998.
   3. Mountain of Black Glass. Otherland, Book 3. 1999. An Orbit Book. London: Little, Brown & Company (UK), 2000.
   4. Sea of Silver Light. Otherland, Book 4. 2001. An Orbit Book. London: Time Warner Books UK, 2002.
7. Shadowmarch (2004-10):
   1. Shadowmarch. Shadowmarch, Book 1. An Orbit Book. London: Time Warner Book Group UK, 2004.
   2. Shadowplay. Shadowmarch, Book 2. An Orbit Book. London: Little, Brown Book Group, 2007.
   3. Shadowrise. Shadowmarch, Book 3. DAW Book Collectors No. 1500. New York: DAW Books, Inc., 2010.
   4. Shadowheart. Shadowmarch, Book 4. An Orbit Book. London: Little, Brown Book Group, 2010.
8. Bobby Dollar (2012-14):
   1. The Dirty Streets of Heaven. Bobby Dollar, Book 1. London: Hodder & Stoughton, Ltd., 2012.
   2. Happy Hour in Hell: A Bobby Dollar Novel. Bobby Dollar, Book 2. 2013. New York: DAW Books, Inc., 2014.
   3. Sleeping Late on Judgement Day. Bobby Dollar, Book 3. London: Hodder & Stoughton, Ltd., 2014.
9. The Last King of Osten Ard (2017-19):
   1. The Heart of What Was Lost: A Novel of Osten Ard. London: Hodder & Stoughton, Ltd., 2017.
   2. The Witchwood Crown. The Last King of Osten Ard, Book 1. London: Hodder & Stoughton, Ltd., 2017.
   3. Empire of Grass. The Last King of Osten Ard, Book 2. London: Hodder & Stoughton, Ltd., 2019.

Short Stories:


10. Rite: Short Work. 2006. Burton, MI: Far Territories, 2008.
11. A Stark and Wormy Knight: Tales of Fantasy, Science Fiction and Suspense. Ed. Deborah Beale. Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2012.

Tad Williams: Tailchaser's Song (1985)

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Bronwyn Carlton: The Books of Faerie (2006)

Secondary Literature

Clearly one could expand such a list almost indefinitely. I've tried to keep it to the truly essential works within the genre, but also, below, to cover as many different flavours of analysis as possible.

On the one hand, then, I've included such purely folkloric works as Walter Evans-Wentz's The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries; on the other hand there are first-hand accounts of Fairies at Work and Play, as observed by theosophist Geoffrey Hodson. In between there are essentially unclassifiable works such as Brian Froud and Alan Lee's Faeries:

An illustrated compendium of faerie mythology, legends and folklore, [which] explores the history, customs and habitat of faeries in the manner of a field guide, complete with hand annotations.

Brian Froud & Alan Lee: Faeries (1978)

Bibliography

1. Carlton, Bronwyn. The Books of Faerie. 1993-99. New York: Vertigo/DC Comics, 1998.
2. Carlton, Bronwyn. The Books of Faerie: Auberon’s Tale. 1997-99. New York: Vertigo/DC Comics, 2007.
3. Cooper, Joe. The Case of the Cottingley Fairies. Foreword by Colin Wilson. 1990. Pocket Books. London: Simon & Schuster Ltd., 1997.
4. Duffy, Maureen. The Erotic World of Faery. 1972. London: Cardinal, 1989.
5. Evans-Wentz, W. Y. The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries. 1911. Foreword by Leslie Shepard. 1966. Introduction by Terence McKenna. 1990. New York: Citadel Press, 2003.
6. Froud, Brian & Alan Lee. Faeries: Described and Illustrated. Ed. David Larkin. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1978.
7. Harpur, Patrick. Daimonic Reality: A Field Guide to the Other World. 1994. Ravensdale, WA: Pine Winds Press, 2003.
8. Hodson, Geoffrey. Fairies at Work and Play, observed by Geoffrey Hodson. London: The Theosophical Publishing House Ltd., 1925.
9. Purkiss, Diane. Troublesome Things: A History of Fairies and Fairy Stories. 2000. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2001.
10. Yeats, W. B. Mythologies: The Celtic Twilight; The Secret Rose; Stories of Red Hanrahan; Rosa Alchemica; The Tables of the Law; The Adoration of the Magi; Per Amica Silentia Lunae. 1893, 1897, 1905, 1904, 1918. London: Macmillan & Co Ltd., 1959.
11. Yeats, W. B. Writings on Irish Folklore, Legend and Myth. Ed. Robert Welch. Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1993.

W. Y. Evans-Wentz: The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries (1911)

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• category - Fantasy Literature: Authors

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