This topic is currently marked as "dormant"—the last message is more than 90 days old. You can revive it by posting a reply.
1Marensr
Anyone have good recommendation for Irish Virago authors? Especially anyone who covers time period of the revolution and/or civil war?
2lauralkeet
Molly Keane (M.J. Farrell) was Irish, and her novels generally covered the decline of Irish gentry around that civil war time period. I like her later novels better than the earlier ones, with Good Behaviour very much a favorite.
4rainpebble
Mary Lavin, Maura Laverty, & Julia O'Faolain.
Elizabeth Bowen is not a Virago author but is Irish and wrote the introduction of an edition of Frost in May. Likewise Marian Keyes, the same but wrote the introduction of an edition of Good Behaviour.
Mary Beckett is not a well read author & not a Virago author, but Irish and she wrote Irish historical fiction.
Hope this is of some help Maren & how lovely to 'see' you here after a bit of a dry spell. ♥
Elizabeth Bowen is not a Virago author but is Irish and wrote the introduction of an edition of Frost in May. Likewise Marian Keyes, the same but wrote the introduction of an edition of Good Behaviour.
Mary Beckett is not a well read author & not a Virago author, but Irish and she wrote Irish historical fiction.
Hope this is of some help Maren & how lovely to 'see' you here after a bit of a dry spell. ♥
5elkiedee
I think Molly Keane's books are mostly set a bit later than the civil war (1921) - she didn't write historical novels, generally, and her books were written in the 1940s/1950s, I think, then the last 3 in the 1980s. Looking her up, she started at the end of the 20s, but the aftermath of the civil war is backdrop rather than subject.
Jennifer Johnston isn't a Virago author but she also writes about the Anglo Irish in their big houses, and also more consciously about the politics.
The other authors mentioned also wrote some time after the civil war in Ireland - Kate O'Brien was quite a political writer but it seems that her most political writing was about Spain.
I remember really enjoying Maura Laverty's two books that have been published by Virago.
It's an interesting question - are there some early 20th century Irish women writers, as opposed to mid and late 20th century, who haven't been revived, or who have been forgotten?
Julia O'Faolain wrote a novel about Irish politics in the 1980s, but I think her Virago published novel is historical and set somewhere else.
What revolution? Sadly, I don't think there was one - partial independence and the division of Ireland weren't the result of a revolution.
Jennifer Johnston isn't a Virago author but she also writes about the Anglo Irish in their big houses, and also more consciously about the politics.
The other authors mentioned also wrote some time after the civil war in Ireland - Kate O'Brien was quite a political writer but it seems that her most political writing was about Spain.
I remember really enjoying Maura Laverty's two books that have been published by Virago.
It's an interesting question - are there some early 20th century Irish women writers, as opposed to mid and late 20th century, who haven't been revived, or who have been forgotten?
Julia O'Faolain wrote a novel about Irish politics in the 1980s, but I think her Virago published novel is historical and set somewhere else.
What revolution? Sadly, I don't think there was one - partial independence and the division of Ireland weren't the result of a revolution.
6lauralkeet
Thanks for the clarification about Molly Keane, Luci.
7Marensr
Oh yes, I love Good Behaviour but it is not really appropriate to give to the cast to get a sense of 1920s Dublin. I suppose I should have been more specific. Many of these are ones I have read
#4 Thanks Belva, I have been reading certainly but just not on line as much too much teaching and theater and administrating.
#5 I admit elkiedee that the Irish war of independence is complicated, given that I went through several books on the subject. I am working on a production of Juno which is the musical adaptation of O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock.
I hoped there was a period novel that might deal with the way the War of Independence devolved into the Civil War and the split between pro and anti-treaty republicans. Certainly there was a war fought which was a War of Independence (or a revolution) in which people died whether or not the outcome is successful is still a complicated and unfolding political and historical question. Historians at least seem to refer to it as a revolution or war of independence, they have to have something to call it. Saying there wasn't a revolution seems to minimize those deaths.
I am afraid Ango-Irish doesn't help them much either since these are Catholic women in tenements. I found some historical writings so they are set, but a novel is often easier for someone to get into. We have a Dubliner in the cast as well which is helpful, but I just wanted something special for the women since so much of the history is about the men.
That is an interesting question, whether or not there are some Irish women writers from that period who have been neglected. So much of the literary scene is dominated by the Abbey which has decidedly Anglo-Irish roots even if their sympathies were with Ireland. O'Casey too.
#4 Thanks Belva, I have been reading certainly but just not on line as much too much teaching and theater and administrating.
#5 I admit elkiedee that the Irish war of independence is complicated, given that I went through several books on the subject. I am working on a production of Juno which is the musical adaptation of O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock.
I hoped there was a period novel that might deal with the way the War of Independence devolved into the Civil War and the split between pro and anti-treaty republicans. Certainly there was a war fought which was a War of Independence (or a revolution) in which people died whether or not the outcome is successful is still a complicated and unfolding political and historical question. Historians at least seem to refer to it as a revolution or war of independence, they have to have something to call it. Saying there wasn't a revolution seems to minimize those deaths.
I am afraid Ango-Irish doesn't help them much either since these are Catholic women in tenements. I found some historical writings so they are set, but a novel is often easier for someone to get into. We have a Dubliner in the cast as well which is helpful, but I just wanted something special for the women since so much of the history is about the men.
That is an interesting question, whether or not there are some Irish women writers from that period who have been neglected. So much of the literary scene is dominated by the Abbey which has decidedly Anglo-Irish roots even if their sympathies were with Ireland. O'Casey too.
8elkiedee
There was a struggle of independence and there was later a civil war - there were people with various flavours of revolutionary politics involved, but I've heard of people being referred to as "revolutionaries" but haven't really come across references to a revolution as such. What I've read about that period is recently published historical novels by men, such as Roddy Doyle's first Henry Smart novel, and After the Lockout by Darran McCann.
