Voices Of Ireland: Classic Writings Of A Rich And Rare Land - Hardcover

McCourt, Malachy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0762413360 ISBN 13: 9780762413362

Publisher: Running Press, 2002

Synopsis

Compiles excerpts from the works of twelve Irish writers, from Jonathan Swift to James Joyce, providing various perspectives on the social life, customs, and history of Ireland.

About this title

About the Author:

County Limerick native Malachy McCourt is the authority to tell the history of Ireland. He has written several books, including the best-selling A Monk Swimming, Singing My Him Song, Danny Boy, Voices of Ireland, and The Claddagh Ring. Complementing his literary work, McCourt is also a skilled actor. He appeared in the television series Oz and in feature films such as The Bonfire of the Vanities. He lives in New York City.

From Publishers Weekly:

In this excellent primer to modern Irish literature and politics, McCourt (A Monk Swimming) collects and introduces the work of 12 Irish writers. Some of the works are well known, such as Synge's The Playboy of the Western World, Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol, the early poems of Yeats or Joyce's Dubliners and Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal. Another marvelous, albeit more obscure entry, is James Stephens's The Insurrection in Dublin, an eyewitness account of what it was like to be a citizen of Dublin and live through the Easter Rising of 1916. Lady Gregory, best known as co-founder of the Abbey Theatre (with Yeats), is represented here by several selections from her collection Irish Myths and Legends, dealing extensively with the Celtic warrior, Finn. McCourt also includes selections from Maria Edgeworth's "big house novel" Castle Rackrent and William Carleton's Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry. The only contributor here who was not a professional writer is Michael Collins, the inventor of modern guerrilla warfare who negotiated the treaty that led to the Republic of Ireland. The excerpt here outlines Collins's plans for the new Irish nation. Some of McCourt's biographical introductions could be more polished, but the reader will be rewarded many times over by the insights the collection affords into the social, economic and political life of Ireland up to 1922.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Running Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0762413360
• ISBN 13: 9780762413362
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 1200