Product Description
Contents: Mobilizing Byzantium, Catherine Belsey; Doubles, Shadows, Sedan Chairs and the Past-The Ghost Stories of J. S. Le Fanu, Patricia Coughlan; National Character and National Audience-Races, Crowds and Readers, Seamus Deane; Garnering the Facts-Unreliable Narrators in Some Plays of Brian Friel, Gerald FitzGibbon; Fathers Vanquished and Victorious-A Historical Reading of Synge's PLAYBOY, Ruth Fleischmann; "It is Myself that I Remake"-The Shaping of Self in W. B. Yeats's Autobiographies, Margaret E. Fogarty; The Critical Condition of Ulster, John Wilson Foster; The Political Unconscious in the Autobiographical Writings of Patrick Kavanagh, Eamonn Hughes; English Political Writers on Ireland-Robert Southey to Douglas Hurd, Tom Paulin; The Autobiographical Imagination and Irish Literary Autobiographies, Michael Kenneally; James Joyce's "The Dead"-The Symbolist Inspiration and Its Narrative Reflection, Walter T. Rix; Wordsworth at the Flax-Dam-An Early Poem by Seamus Heaney, Nicholas Roe. Irish Literary Studies Series No. 29. ... Read more

Product Description
Hearing news of a death or marriage, consoling neighbours in sorrow or sharing their joy, looking for a husband or wife, saving turf or going fishing - Irish people have blessings and curses for every occasion, as highlighted in this book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A quick read, with a good deal of joy to bestow
This wonderful little book is a collection of authentic Irish blessings, toasts and curses, collected in Ireland, by an Irish author, for an Irish audience. I just wanted to make clear that this isn't fond American memories of the "auld sod," but is real life Irish culture. These little snippets of Irishness are a joy to read, and range from the sacred, through the noble, to the humorous, and out to the coarse (see the final section!). As a quick read, with a good deal of joy to bestow, this book has no peer. I highly recommend this book! ... Read more

Product Description
Aidan Higgins is one of the most highly respected Irish writers of the past fifty years, heir to such master stylists as James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. The short prose and fiction collected here spans Higgins's entire career, and provides American readers with a compelling introduction to a major international literary figure. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

For students of Irish literature
Flotsam & Jetsam: Selected Fiction And Prose is an anthology of writings by award winning author Aidan Higgins, one of the most respected Irish writers of the century. In the style and tradition of great men such as James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, Flotsam & Jetsam contains a varied, savory sampling of vibrant, expressive stories with profound ambience and meaning. Flotsam & Jetsam is enthusiastically recommended reading for students of Irish literature in general, and fans of Aidan Higgins stories in particular. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Thomas Flanagan — winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction — once wrote, "It is not the romantic, rather sentimental Ireland of many Irish-Americans that I love, but the actual Ireland, a complex, profound, historical society, woven of many strands, some bright and some dark." In these essays, Flanagan reflects on journeys through his own favorite parts of Ireland, past and present Irish history, and writers such as Yeats, O’Neill, Brian Moore, and John O’Hara, as well as Fitzgerald and Hemingway. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Intelligent gush, but gush all the same
There are scholars and there are critics, and then there are enthusiasts: Thomas Flangan falls somewhat into the latter camp. While this collection of pieces on Irish and Irish-American cultural figures he wrote for The New York Review of Books is often quite fine and imaginative, at times Flanagan is severely hampered by his inability to maintain a critical distance from his subjects,especially when it's someone he greatly admires, like John Ford or James Joyce or F. Scott Fitzgerald. The first two may be worthy of such high and unadulterated praise, but Fitzgerald? Even when dispelling popular myths about the latter, Flanagan has trouble reining in the gush, e.g. on THE GREAT GATSBY's status as a novel about the American Dream, Flanagan writes, "Scholars exchange their learned articles on the subject, and generations of college freshmen are told about it. If you whispered into a reader's sleeping ear the words 'Scott Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBY,' she would murmur drowsily, 'and the corruption of the American dream.'"

There's a pretty unhelpful introduction by Seamus Heaney that's more of a personal memoir of Flanagan than a way to orient oneself with regard to Flanagan's writings. ... Read more

Product Description
Journalist Marie Heaney skillfully revives the glory of ancient Irish storytelling in this comprehensive volume from the great pre-Christian sequences to the more recent tales of the three patron saints Patrick, Brigid, and Colmcille.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Nice Introduction
This book covers much of the same material as Celtic Myths and Legends but is a bit easier to read.There are some stories in each which are not in the other. Where it differs however is that Heaney has evidently attempted to make the book read well for a modern person.While in some cases, there may be some interpolation for story-telling purposes, she certainly gets the main details down and correct.The account of the Coming of the Tuatha De Dannan is worth reading in that regard.

This book provides a decent survey of Celtic myth in general.It covers the three cycles in relative depth, providing general excerpts from each.The book is not comprehensive on any of these cycles, but it provides enough for the student to get a general feel.Certainly it belongs with other surveys of Celtic myth (Rolleston, Squire, Ganz) on the bookshelf.

Those who like this book might also enjoy:
The Tain
Joseph Jacobs' Celtic, More Celtic, and European Folk and Fairy Tales, Batten
FOLKTALES OF THE BRITISH ISLES (Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library)
The Norse Myths (Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library)

A Great Place to Start
This was not one of the typical translations that one reads of the Irish Myth but I still enjoyed it. In this book Heaney worked from existing English translations and put them into a an "easier" style that is more modern and flows smoother than some of the direct translations that are available. Having read several of the other translations for the same stories I have to say she did a very good job. The language is a little elementary, I get the sense that she was writing this in hopes of the tales to be used by mid or high schooled age students, but for the most part is very loyal to the original translations. Frankly this would be better suited to someone as an introduction to the myths to be followed up later by more aggressive reads like Of Gods and Fighting Men or the more modern, scholarly translations.

Heaney in Over Nine Waves included stories from 3 of the 4 mythological cycles of Ireland. Oddly she leaves of the Historical Cycle tales and replaces them with stories of the Three Saints of Ireland (Patrick, Brigid, and Columcille) while an interesting read they also seem a little jarring next the earlier texts which are faithful in highlighting the pre-Christian deity even calling them Gods and Goddesses. I have no way of knowing but I must assume this has more to do with the religious tradition of the author than any kind of desire to reunite the Mythological, Ulster, and Finnian Cycles with the stories of the Saints (of which only the story of Oisin's return would make any sense and he does not convert anyway).

Over all I enjoyed the read and although almost all of the poetry is left out of this text so are some of the more tedious medieval structure of other translations. For someone new to Irish Myths this would be a great place to start.

A fascinating read!
This book was required reading for an Irish mythology class I took a few years ago while studying in Ireland.This book is very easy to read which makes it easy to know the characters and sympathize with them, even for someone new to this subject.For instance, I nearly cried after reading 'The Children of Lir.'A perfect book to read on a rainy afternoon - with a pint of Guiness!

GREAT!
After traveling throught out Ireland every year for the past six I have seen many books on Celtic Myths.By far Heaney's is the best.It is very helpful in the fact that there is a pronunciation key included.A greatbook just for fun, but also a good learning tool that adds anotherdimention to a very complex land.

Best introduction to Irish myth and legend
Over nine waves is a modern (and fresh) rendering of the classic Irish myths. I loved this retelling just as I love the tales themselves. After reading so many 'straight' translations to was very refreshing to read these free renderings by a modern story teller.This is an excellent introduction for anyone not familiar with Irish legend who would like to get an overview. This is Not a 'things go bump in the night' series of ghost stories (though those have their own attractions) but a full blooded account of the legendary heroes of old Ireland (Hercules and Xena eat your hearts out)Prepare to be beguiled by a storyteller of delicacy and magnificence. ... Read more

Product Description
Irish monks and missionaries played a crucial role in the conversion of the pagan Anglo-Saxons and in the formation of Christian culture in England, but the nature and extent of Irish influence on Old English poetry has remained largely undefined. Charles Wright identifies the characteristic features of Irish Christian literature which influenced Anglo-Saxon vernacular authors. Professor Wright traces the Irish background of the distinctive contents of Vercelli Homily IX and its remarkable exemplum, 'The Devil's Account of the Next World', and traces the dissemination of related stylistic and thematic material elsewhere in Old English literature, including other anonymous homilies such as Beowulf and the Solomon and Saturn texts. As a full-length study of Irish influence on Old English religious literature, the book will appeal to scholars in Old English literature, Anglo-Saxon studies, and Old and Middle Irish literature. ... Read more

Product Description
This collection contains in ten volumes representative selections from the works of Irish writers, ancient and modern, in prose and in verse.The works of three hundred and fifty Irish authors are represented, and this collection is a guide, philosopher, and friend to conduct the reader through the wide fields of Irish literary lore.

Originally published in 1904, Irish Literature gave to the world a comprehensive glance at the whole development of literary art in prose and poetry from the beginning of Ireland’s history.Even literary experts are hardly aware how many of the bright particular stars which stud the firmament of English literature are Irishmen.

From the vast storehouses of Irish literature they have extracted the choicest of its treasures –the mythology, legends, fables, folk lore, poetry, essays, oratory, history, annals, science, memoirs, anecdotes, fiction, travel, drama, wit and humor, and pathos of the Irish race are all represented.This library, therefore, focuses the whole intellectuality of the Irish people.It not only presents a view of the literary history of Ireland, but it gives also a series of historic pictures of the social development of the people, for literature is the mirror in which the life and movements of historic periods are reflected. ... Read more

Product Description
Lloyd argues that nineteenth-century Irish Nationalism, in demanding that Irish literature concentrate on representing Irish identity, actually imports a British cultural model which remains a powerful instrument of imperialist hegemony. James Clarence Mangan's writings, composed in the early decades of Irish nationalism, bear the marks of resistance to that model. ... Read more

Product Description
The essays in this collection combine historical, cultural, and literary analyses in their treatment of aspects of exile in Irish writing. Some are 'structuralist' in seeing exile as a physical state of being, often associated with absence, into which an individual willingly or unwillingly enters. Others are 'poststructuralist', considering the narration of exile as a celebration of transgressiveness, hybridity, and otherness. This type of exile moves away from a political, cultural, economic idea of exile to an understanding of exile in a wider existential sense. The volume presents readings of Irish literature, history and culture that reflect some of the historical, sociological, psychological and philosophical dimensions of exile in the 1800s and 1900s. The theme of exile is discussed in a wide range of texts including literature, political writings and song-writing, either in works of Irish writers not normally associated with exile, or in which new aspects of 'exile' can be discerned. The essays cover, among others: Butler, D'Arcy McGee, Mulholland, Joyce, Hewitt, Van Morrison, Ni Chuilleanain, Doyle, and Banville. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume introduces students to the most important figures, movements and trends in post-war British and Irish poetry.

• An historical overview and critical introduction to the poetry published in Britain and Ireland over the last half-century
• Introduces students to figures including Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, and Andrew Motion
• Takes an integrative approach, emphasizing the complex negotiations between the British and Irish poetic traditions, and pulling together competing tendencies and positions
• Written by critics from Britain, Ireland, and the United States
• Includes suggestions for further reading and a chronology, detailing the most important writers, volumes and events

Product Description
Exile has become a potent symbol of Polish and Irish cultures. Historical, political and cultural predicaments of both countries have branded them as diasporic nations: but, in Adornos dictum, for an exile writing becomes home. Olszewska offers a multifaceted picture of the figure of exile in postwar Poland and Ireland, juxtaposing politics and culture: whereas Irish exile appears more in an economic and cultural context, the essence of Polish exile is political. This comparative study of works by Polish and Irish authors Stanislaw Baranczak, Adam Zagajewski, Marek Hlasko, Kazimierz Brandys, Brian Moore, Desmond Hogan and Paul Muldoon shows a literature which not only depicts the experience of exile, but which uses exile as a literary device. ... Read more