Famine
by Liam O'Flaherty
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Description
Famine is the story of three generations of the Kilmartin family set in the period of the Great Famine of the 1840s. It is a masterly historical novel, rich in language, character, and plot -- a panoramic story of passion, tragedy, and resilience.Tags
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Member Reviews
A sobering read. Famine also gives an interesting perspective on Irish history. It misses 5 stars only for the ending in which the means of escape from the horrors of their daily life for the 'hero' and 'heroine' of the story seemsed altoghether too easy and at odds with the pain and difficulty of the rest of the book. The ending was a little too neat and easy in a book portraying a reality that was anything but this.
A panoramic story of the Great Famine in Ireland during the 1840s. Like the Holocaust, immensely difficult subject matter to treat as fiction, but O'Flaherty brings it off.
Famine is the story of three generations of the Kilmartin family set in the period of the Great Famine of the 1840s. It is a masterly historical novel, rich in language, character, and plot -- a panoramic story of passion, tragedy, and resilience. Source: Publisher
I first read this book when I was touring Ireland and was in Westport on the coast of the west of Ireland, it brought real meaning to what I saw and the recent history in Ireland. A really good read truely believeable, genuine reality.
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Authors from Ireland
17 works; 1 member
Author Information
81+ Works 1,471 Members
Liam O'Flaherty (aka Liam Ó Flaithearta) was a significant Irish novelist and short story writer and a major figure in the Irish literary renaissance, born August 28, 1896, died September 7, 1984. At the age of 12, he went to Rockwell College. This was followed by enrollments at Holy Cross and University College, Dublin. In 1923, O'Flaherty show more published his first novel, Thy Neighbour's Wife, thought to be one of his best. In 1935, his novel The Informer (for which he had been awarded the 1925 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction) was made into a film by John Ford. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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detebe (21330)
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Famine
- Original title
- Famine
- Original publication date
- 1937
- People/Characters
- Mary Kilmartin; Michael Kilmartin; Kitty Hernon; Ellie; Mr. Chadwick; Thomsy Kilmartin (show all 7); Brian Kilmartin
- Important places
- Ireland
- Important events
- Irish Potato Famine
- Dedication
- To JOHN FORD [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ford(...) ]
- First words
- The cocks had just heralded the break of day when the first clap of thunder burst above Black Valley.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Then he lay down on his side and nestled against the old man's shoulder.
- Blurbers
- Burgess, Anthony; Broderick, John
- Original language
- English
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 264
- Popularity
- 123,120
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (3.85)
- Languages
- Dutch, English, French, German
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 13
- ASINs
- 8
