Chapter XII: Part I: tells how a peasant girl is, after a week’s (1)

acquaintance, enticed from her home by a man who, it
transpires, is already married. In Part II. their daughter,
adopted by a saintly English clergyman, learns her parentage
on the morrow of her engagement. She releases her betrothed;
but a year afterwards marries a charming elderly baronet (the
“gentleman” of the story). The first part is rather coarse. The
book is witty, the plot well worked out, some of the characters
most amusing; the end unexpected. By the same Author: _John
Darker_.

=LEFANU, J. Sheridan.= B. in Dublin, 1814. Ed. T.C.D. Contributed largely to DUBL. UNIV. MAGAZINE, of which he became ed. and owner, as well as of the DUBLIN EVENING PACKET and EVENING MAIL. D. 1873. His chief power was in describing scenes of a mysterious or grotesque character, and in the manipulation of the weird and the supernatural.

This Author also wrote _Uncle Silas_, _In a Glass Darkly_, _The
Tenants of Malory_, _Willing to Die_, _The Rose and Key_, _The
Evil Guest_, _The Room in the Dragon Volant_, _A Chronicle of
Golden Friars_, _Checkmate_, _The Watcher_, _Wylder’s Hand_,
_All in the Dark_, _Guy Deverel_, _Wyvern Mystery_, &c. Nearly
all published by Downey & Co. Messrs. Duffy publ. a set of
eight of his novels at 3_s._ 6_d._ each.

⸺ THE COCK AND ANCHOR: A Tale of Old Dublin. Pp. 358. (_Duffy_). 3_s._ 6_d._ [1845]. 1909.

A dreadful story of the conspiracy of a number of
preternaturally wicked and inhuman villains to ruin a young
spendthrift baronet, and to compel his sister to marry one
of themselves. The threads of the story are woven with
considerable skill. The tale, a gloomy one throughout, reaches
its climax in a scene of intense and concentrated excitement.
The time is the Viceroyalty of the Earl of Wharton, the story
ending in 1710, but, except for the incidental introduction
in one scene of Addison, Swift, and the Viceroy himself, the
events or personages of the time are not touched upon. There
are some slight pictures of the life of the people of the
period, but of Ireland there is nothing unless it be the talk
of some comic Irish servants.

⸺ THE FORTUNES OF COL. TORLOGH O’BRIEN. Pp. 342. (_Routledge_). 3_s._ 6_d._ Twenty-two Plates by Phiz. [_Anon._: 1847]. Several other eds. 1904.

Reckoned among the three or four best Irish historical novels.
Main theme: the efforts of the hero, an officer in the Jacobite
army, to regain possession of his estates in Tipperary, which
are held by the Williamite, Sir Hugh Willoughby, whose daughter
O’Brien loves. There are many minor plots and subordinate
issues, among them the unscrupulous and nearly successful
conspiracy against Sir Hugh. The history is not the main
interest, but there is an account of the causes of Jacobite
downfall, descriptions of James’s Court at Dublin, and a
fine description of Aughrim. There are excellent pictures
of scenery, and some skilful though roughly drawn character
sketches. The action closes shortly after the Treaty of
Limerick.

⸺ THE HOUSE BY THE CHURCHYARD. (_Duffy_). 3_s._ 6_d._ [1863].

“A sensational story with a mystery plot based on a murder.
Black Dillon, a sinister and ingenious ruffian, is a grim
figure of melodramatic stamp. The setting gives scenes of
social life in a colony of officers and their families near
Dublin.”—(_Baker_, 2).—Chapelizod.

⸺ THE PURCELL PAPERS. Three Vols. (_Bentley_). 1880.

Short stories collected and ed. by Mr. A. P. Graves, with
short memoir of the Author prefixed. For the most part they
are either rollicking comic stories, told in broad brogue, or
tales of mystery and terror in the vein of this Author’s longer
novels. Examples of the former are:—“Billy Malowney’s taste of
love and glory” and “The Quare Gander.” These are not meant as
“stage-Irish” ridicule, but as pure fun. Examples of the latter
type:—“Passages in the Secret History of an Irish Countess”
and “A Chapter in the history of a Tyrone family.” There are
also pure adventure stories, such as:—“An Adventure of Hardress
Fitzgerald, a Royalist Captain.” All are admirably told. All
but one are of Irish interest. They were originally contributed
to the DUBLIN UNIV. MAGAZINE.

=LENIHAN, D. M.=

⸺ THE RED SPY: A Story of Land League Days. Pp. 236. (_Duffy_). 3_s._ 6_d._ _n.d._ (in print).

Appears to be largely autobiographical. A story of Land
League days, full of incident. The interest chiefly turns
on the interplay of plot and counterplot, in which the
various parties—the moonlighters, the Castle, and Parnell’s
followers—figure. The centre of all the plots is McGowan, the
“Red Spy,” a secret service agent of the Castle. The scene
shifts from America to Ireland—Dublin, Kildare, the Kerry
border (good description), Lisdoonvarna. Types well studied—the
genial landlord Col. O’Hara; the sporting squire Sir Thady
Monroe; the weak-minded oppressor Sir Richard A⸺; the American
journalist, &c. The “Red Spy” in real life was “Red Jim”
McDermott.

=LEPPER, J. H.=

⸺ CAPTAIN HARRY. (_Sealy, Bryers_). 6_d._ 1908.

“Tale of Parliamentary Wars, introducing the principal
characters who took part on the Royalist and the Parliamentary
sides.”

⸺ FRANK MAXWELL. (_Sealy, Bryers_). 6_d._ Paper.

Adventures of an Irish Puritan planter’s son, who by an unlucky
series of accidents finds himself on the royalist and Irish
side just before the rebellion of 1641. The central incident
of the story is the journey of one Hugh O’Donnell to Glasgow,
where he meets Charles secretly, and is returning as Viceroy
when he is wrecked, and Frank Maxwell along with him, on the
coast of Antrim. The Irish are, on the whole, represented as
rather bloodthirsty and barbaric, especially “Hugh O’Donnell.”
A good “adventure” book.

=LESTER, Edward.=

⸺ THE SIEGE OF BODIKE: A Prophecy of Ireland’s Future. Pp. 140. (LONDON: _Heywood_). 1886.

A political skit written from a strongly Tory standpoint, in
which the Author tells us how _he_ would deal with the Irish
question. The time is 188-, yet an imaginary Fenian rebellion
is described. Kilkenny falls into the hands of the enemy,
and a bomb is dropped from a balloon on Bodike, a village in
Kilkenny. The whole is wildly improbable, but it is probably
meant to be so.

=LETTS, W. M.= A granddaughter of Alexander Ferrier, Esq., of Knockmaroon Park, Co. Dublin, where she spent many summers. She resides in Blackrock, Co. Dublin. Ed. at St. Anne’s, Abbots Bromley, and Alexandra College, Dublin. Has written _Diana Dethroned_, _Christina’s Son_, _The Rough Way_ (Wells, Gardner), short Irish stories for children in the MONTH and other periodicals. She is coming to be very well known as a poet, and has written some plays for the Abbey Theatre.

⸺ THE MIGHTY ARMY. Pp. 128. (_Wells, Gardner_). 5_s._ net. Ill. by Stephen Reid. 1912.

Stories from the lives of saints, including St. Columba.

=LEVER, Charles.= Born (1806) in Dublin, of English parentage; graduated at T.C.D. Wrote much for the NATIONAL MAGAZINE, the D.U. MAGAZINE, BLACKWOOD’S, the CORNHILL, &c. Consul in Spezzia, 1858, and at Trieste, 1867. Here he died in 1872. Is by far the greatest of that group of writers who, by education and sympathies, are identified with the English element in Ireland. He was untouched by the Gaelic spirit, was a Tory in politics, and a Protestant. “His imagination,” says Mr. Krans, “did not enable him to see with the eyes of the Catholic gentry or the peasantry. He knew only one class of peasants well—servants and retainers, and he only knew them on the side they turned out to their masters. Most of his peasants are more than half stage-Irishmen.” He had no sympathy with the religious aspirations of Catholics, and his pictures of their religious life are sometimes offensive. These are his limitations. On the other hand, his books are invariably clean and fresh, free from vulgarity, morbidness, and mere sensationalism. His first four books overflow with animal spirits, reckless gaiety, and fun. It has been well remarked by his biographer, W. J. Fitzpatrick, that his genius was much more French than English. After _Hinton_ he is more serious, more attentive to plot-weaving, and to careful character-drawing. His books give a wonderful series of pictures of Irish life from the days of Grattan’s Parliament to the Famine of 1846. Many of these pictures, though true to certain aspects of Irish life, create a false impression by directing the eye almost exclusively to what is grotesque and whimsical. Lever’s portrait gallery is one of the finest in fiction. It includes the dashing young soldiers of the earlier books; the comic characters, an endless series; diplomatists, doctors, lawyers, politicians, usurers, valetudinarians, aristocrats, typical Irish squires, adventurers, braggarts, spendthrifts, nearly all definite and convincing. See Art, in BLACKWOOD, Apr., 1862, and in DUBL. REV., 1872, Vol. 70, p. 379. Also Edmund Downey’s book, _Charles Lever: his Life and Letters_. Many of Lever’s novels were originally published in shilling monthly parts, with two illustrations by “Phiz” (Hablot K. Browne), and had as great a vogue as those of Dickens. There have been many editions since by _Routledge_ (3_s._ 6_d._) and _Chapman & Hall_ (2_s._), with and without illustrations, but the finest ever issued is:—

⸺ COMPLETE NOVELS. Edited by the Novelist’s Daughter. Thirty-seven Vols. (_Downey_). Publ. £19 18_s._ Cloth. 1897-9.

The only complete and uniform ed. of Lever. Contains all
the original steel engravings and etchings by “Phiz” and
Cruikshank, and many ill. by Luke Fildes and other artists.
Ed. and annotated by means of unpublished memoranda found
among Author’s papers. Lever’s prefaces are printed, and
bibliographical notes appended to each story.

⸺ HARRY LORREQUER. Pp. 380. (N.Y.: _Dutton_). 1.00. [1839].

The first of Lever’s rollicking military novels. The hero is
a dashing young English officer, who comes to Cork with his
regiment, and there passes through what the Author calls “a
mass of incongruous adventures. Such was our life in Cork,
dining, drinking, riding steeplechases, pigeon-shooting, and
tandem-driving.” The book abounds in humorous incidents, and
is packed with good stories and anecdotes. All sorts of Irish
characters are introduced. There are sketches of Catholic
clerical life in a vein of burlesque. The latter part of the
story takes the reader to the Continent (various parts of
France and Germany), where we meet Arthur O’Leary, afterwards
made the hero of another story. Mr. Baker describes the book
well as “very Irish in the stagey sense, very unreal.”

⸺ CHARLES O’MALLEY. Pp. 632, close print. (N.Y.: _Putnam_). 1.00. [1841].

From electioneering, hunting, and duelling with the Galway
country gentry, the scene changes to Trinity, where the hero
goes in for roistering, larking, and general fast living with
the wildest scamps in town. Then he gets a commission in the
dragoons, and goes to the Peninsula (p. 147). There he goes
through the whole campaign, and ends by viewing Waterloo from
the French camp. Throughout, the narrative is enlivened by the
raciest and spiciest stories. The native Irish, where they
appear, are drawn in broad caricature. “Major Monsoon” was the
portrait of a real personage, and so was the tomboy Miss “Baby
Blake.” “Mickey Free” is the best known of Lever’s farcical
Irish characters.

⸺ JACK HINTON. Pp. 402. (BOSTON: _Little, Brown_). 5.00. [1843].

Adventures of a young English officer who arrives in Ireland
during the Viceroyalty of the Duke of Grafton. The hero’s Irish
experiences include steeplechasing, fox-hunting, “high life”
in Dublin, a glimpse of society life in the Castle, love,
duelling, and murder. But Lever wrote the book to show how
Irish character and Irish ways differed wholly from English,
and he represents Hinton as constantly having his prejudiced
English eyes opened with a vengeance. This novel contains some
of Lever’s most famous characters: Corny Delaney, Hinton’s
body servant; Mr. and Mrs. Paul Rooney, parvenu leaders of
Dublin society; Father Tom Loftus, Lever’s idea of the jolly
Irish priest; Bob Mahon, the devil-may-care impecunious Irish
gentleman; most of all Tipperary Joe. “For these,” says the
Author (Pref.,) “I had not to call upon imagination.” Tipperary
Joe was a real personage. For the last 100 pages the scene
shifts to Spain, France, and Italy. Throughout, event succeeds
event at reckless speed. There are some scenes of Connaught
life, and a fine description of a meeting of “The Monks of the
Screw.”

⸺ TOM BURKE OF “OURS.” Pp. 660. (N.Y.: _Dutton_). [1844].

The early scenes (150 pp.) of Tom’s life (told throughout in
the first person) take place in Ireland. Lever tells us (Pref.)
that he tried to make Tom intensely Irish before launching
him into French life. Tom enlists, but in consequence of a
quarrel with a fatal ending has to fly the country. He goes
to France, then under the First Consul, and joins the army.
Military, civil, and political life at Paris is described with
wonderful vividness and knowledge. These form a background to
the exciting and dramatic adventures and love affairs of the
hero. Then there is the Austerlitz campaign fully described;
then life at Paris in 1806. Then the campaign of Jena. Finally,
we have a description of the last campaign that ended with
the abdication at Fontainebleau. The portrait of Napoleon is
lifelike and convincing. Lever throws himself thoroughly into
his French scenes. A pathetic episode is the love of Minette,
the Vivandière, for Tom, and her heroic death at the Bridge
of Montereau. Darby the Blast is a character of the class of
Mickey Free and Tipperary Joe, yet quite distinct and original.
The scene near the close where Darby is in the witness-box is
a companion picture to Sam Weller in court, and is one of the
best things of its kind in fiction.

⸺ ARTHUR O’LEARY. Pp. 435. (N.Y.: _Dutton_). 1.00. [1844].

Rather a collection of stories of adventure than a novel. Lever
has worked into it many of his own experiences in Canada, and
also at Göttingen. There is a good deal about Student life in
Germany. Many stories (of the Napoleonic wars chiefly) are
told by the various characters all through the book. Some
contemporary critics thought this the best of Lever’s books.

⸺ ST. PATRICK’S EVE. Pp. 203. (_Chapman & Hall_). illustr. by “Phiz.” (N.Y.: _Harper_). [1845].

A short and somewhat gloomy tale of a period that Lever knew
well—the pestilence of 1832. Scene: borders of Lough Corrib.
The life described is that of the small farmer and the peasant
struggling to make ends meet. Faction-fighting is dealt with in
the opening of the tale, and the relations between landlord and
agent and tenantry, at the period, are described with insight.
“When I wrote it, I desired to inculcate the truth that
prosperity has as many duties as adversity has sorrows.” It is
far the most national of Lever’s stories, and there is a depth
of feeling and of sympathy in it that would surprise those
acquainted only with _Charles O’Malley_ and _Harry Lorrequer_.

⸺ THE O’DONOGHUE. Pp. 369. (_Routledge_). [1845].

Scene: Glenflesk (between Macroom and Bantry) and Killarney.
Period: from just before to just after the French expedition to
Bantry. The O’Donoghue, poor and proud, is intended as a type
of the decaying Catholic gentry of ancient lineage, living
in a feudal, half-barbaric splendour, beset by creditors and
bailiffs whom fear of the retainer’s blunderbuss alone kept
at a distance. Mark O’Donoghue, proud, gloomy, passionate,
filled with hatred of the English invader, wears a frieze
coat like the peasants, sells horses, hunts and fishes for a
livelihood. He joins the United Irishmen, who are represented
as making an ignoble traffic of conspiracy, and takes part
in Hoche’s attempted invasion. Other characters are: Kate
O’Donoghue, educated abroad; Lanty Lawler, horse-dealer, who
supplies plenty of humour; in particular Sir Marmaduke Travers,
a well-meaning but self-sufficient Englishman, who, knowing
nothing of Ireland, makes ludicrous attempts to better his
tenants’ condition. “I was not sorry to show,” says Lever
(Pref.), “that any real and effective good to Ireland must have
its base in the confidence of the people.” For this book Lever
was bitterly accused of Repeal tendencies.

⸺ THE MARTINS OF CRO’ MARTIN. Pp. 625. (N.Y.: _Harper_). 1856. [1847].

Scene: chiefly Connemara; the novel opening with a fine picture
of the old-time splendours of Ballynahinch Castle, the seat of
the “Martins.” For awhile the scene shifts to Paris during the
Revolution of 1830. The story illustrates the practical working
of the Emancipation Act. Martin is a type of the ease-loving
Irish landlord, “shirking the cares of his estates, with an
immense self-esteem, narrow, obstinate, weak, without ideas,
and with a boundless faith in his own dignity, elegance, and
divine right to rule his tenants” (Krans). Rejected by his
tenantry at an election he quits the country in disgust,
leaving them to the mercies of a Scotch agent. Lever pictures
vividly the sufferings of the people both from this evil
and from the cholera, drawing for the latter upon his own
experiences when ministering to cholera patients in Clare. He
says of the people that “no words of his could do justice to
the splendid heroism they showed each other in misfortune.”
Mary Martin is one of Lever’s most admirable heroines. There
is a fine study, also, of a young man of the people, son of a
small shopkeeper in Oughterard, who, by his sterling worth,
raises himself to the highest positions.

⸺ THE KNIGHT OF GWYNNE. (PHILADELPHIA: _Peterson_). 1847.

A close study, based on considerable knowledge, of the ways
and means adopted by the English Government to destroy the
Irish Parliament. Castlereagh figures in no flattering
fashion. Con Heffernan is a type of his unscrupulous tools.
The Knight himself is an engaging portrait of a lovable old
Irish gentleman, frank, high-spirited, courteous, chivalrous.
At first placed in ideal circumstances for the display of
all his best qualities, he shows himself no less noble in
meeting adversity. Other notable characters are Bagenal Daly
(a portrait of Beauchamp Bagenal), the villainous attorney
Hickman, and Mr. Dempsey, the story-telling innkeeper. In
describing the coasts of Antrim and Derry and the country about
Castlebar and Westport, Lever draws upon his own experiences.

⸺ ROLAND CASHEL. Pp. 612. [1850]. (N.Y.: _Harper_). 1849.

Opens with wonderfully vivid and picturesque description of
life in the Republic of Columbia. A harum-scarum young Irish
soldier of fortune almost promises marriage to the daughter
of a Columbian adventurer. Then he learns he is heir to a
large property in Ireland, and he immediately returns there.
In Dublin the daughters of his lawyer, Mr. Kennyfeck, and
others try to capture the young heir, but instead he falls
in love with a penniless girl. Then there are exciting and
romantic adventures. The villain, Tom Linton, with the
intention of ruining Roland, introduces him to fast society,
nearly implicates him with the young wife of Lord Kilgoff;
the Columbian adventurer turns up to claim him; he is charged
with murder; but eventually all is well. Lady Kilgoff is an
admirably drawn character, as also is the Dean of Drumcondra,
a portrait of Archbishop Whately. In the last chapter there
is a passage which seems to show how Lever realized that the
anglicized society of the Pale is far from being the true
Ireland. Incidentally, too, the evils of landlordism are
touched upon.

⸺ THE DALTONS; or, Three Roads in Life. Pp. 700. (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 1.50. [1852].

The longest and most elaborate of Lever’s novels. Subject: the
careers of Peter Dalton, an absentee Irish landlord—needy,
feckless, selfish, Micawberish—and his children, on the
Continent in Germany, Austria, and Italy. Some of the leading
characters are involved in the Austro-Italian campaign of 1848,
and in the Tuscan Revolution. There is a study—a flattering
one—to Austrian military life, and lively, amusing pictures of
Anglo-Italian life in Florence. A noteworthy character is the
Irish Abbé d’Esmonde, who towards the close of the book takes
part in some dramatic incidents during a visit to Ireland,
undertaken in the cause of the Church. There is in the book a
good deal about “priest-craft.”

⸺ MAURICE TIERNAY. (N.Y.: _Harper_). 1.00. [1852].

Adventures of a young Jacobite exile in many lands, 1793-1809.
Opens with vivid description of “The Terror.” Later Maurice
joins the Army of the Rhine, and then Humbert’s expedition to
Ireland. The latter is fully related, and also the capture and
death of Wolfe Tone. After some adventures in America, the hero
returns to Europe, and is in Genoa during its siege by the
Austrians. Taken prisoner by the latter, he escapes and joins
Napoleon, of whose Austrian campaign a brilliant description is
given. Napoleon and some of his great marshals loom large in
the story, and the military life of the period on the Continent
is described. But perhaps the best part of the book is the
account of Humbert’s invasion of Ireland.

⸺ CON CREGAN. Pp. 496. (PHILADELPHIA: _Peterson_). [1854].

Lever describes his hero as the “Irish Gil Blas.” Born on the
borders of Meath, Cregan goes to Dublin, where he has some
exciting experiences, ending in his being carried off in the
yacht of an eccentric baronet. He is wrecked on an island off
the coast of North America. Here he meets a runaway negro
slave, Menelaus Crick, one of the most striking characters
in the book. There follow experiences (tragic and comic) in
Quebec, and afterwards in Texas and Mexico, life in which is
described with remarkable vividness and wealth of colour. At
last Cregan returns to Ireland, and marries a Spanish lady whom
he had met in Mexico.

⸺ SIR JASPER CAREW. Pp. 490. (N.Y.: _Harper_). [1855].

The early part (152 pages) deals with the career of the hero’s
father, a wealthy Irish gentleman of Cromwellian stock, who has
estates and copper and lead mines in Wicklow. He goes to Paris,
allies himself by a secret marriage with the party of the Duke
of Orleans, then returns to Ireland, where he kills a Castle
official in a duel, receiving himself a mortal wound. His widow
is deprived of the property, and left in poverty. She retires
to Mayo, with her son, Jaspar. In this part there are elaborate
pictures of politics in the early days of the Irish Parliament,
and of the wild, extravagant social life of the period. Jasper
goes to France, is involved in revolutionary plots, is sent to
London as secret agent, and there has interviews with Pitt and
Fox. Finally he returns to Ireland to claim his birthright.
The story is told in the first person, and Lever intended the
narrative to reveal the intimate character of the teller. The
book is crammed with adventure. It was a favourite with the
Author.

⸺ THE FORTUNES OF GLENCORE. Pp. 395. (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 1.50. [1857].

Intended (_see_ Pref.) as an experiment to bear out (or the
contrary) his conviction that “any skill I possess lies in the
delineation of character and the unravelment of that tangled
skein that makes up human motives.” The scene at first is in
a castle on the shores of the Killaries, between Mayo and
Galway; afterwards it is on the Continent. Lord Glencore is a
passionate, proud, soured man, misanthropical and suffering
from disease. A scandal connected with his wife has filled
him with hatred and bitterness. He determines to disown his
son, who, after a terrible scene, runs away from home. The
book is largely taken up with the adventures in Italy and
elsewhere of Sir Horace Upton, a distinguished diplomatist
and a valetudinarian, together with the doings and sayings
of his follower, Billy Traynor, formerly poor scholar,
hedge-schoolmaster, fiddler, journalist, now unqualified
medical practitioner—a strange character drawn from a real
personage. Many of the characters are cosmopolitan political
intriguers. In the end Lady Glencore’s innocence is established.

⸺ DAVENPORT DUNN. (PHILADELPHIA: _Peterson_). 1859.

The astonishing histories of two adventurers. Dunn is an
ambitious, clever man who by shady means lifts himself into
a high position as a financier and launches into immense
financial schemes. This character was drawn from John Sadlier,
Junior Lord of the Treasury, who was the associate of Judge
Keogh in “The Pope’s Brass Band,” (so-called) and closed
an extraordinary career by committing suicide on Hampstead
Heath. Grog David, a blackleg, rivals Dunn in another sphere,
his sporting cheats being as vast as the other’s financial
swindles. Davis’ high-hearted daughter, Lizzie, is a
finely-drawn character.

⸺ ONE OF THEM. Pp. 420. (N.Y.: _Harper_). 0.50. (1861).

Scene varies between Florence and the North of Ireland, many of
the incidents described being real experiences of his own gone
through in each of these places. Lever having been asked which
of his novels he deemed best suited for the stage, replied
that if a sensation drama were required, he thought _One of
Them_ a good subject. Deals largely with the adventures on the
Continent of a queer type of Irish M.P.; but its outstanding
character is Quackinboss, a droll specimen of Yankee.

⸺ BARRINGTON. (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 0.50. [1862].

A novel of social and domestic life in the middle classes.
Scene: a queer little inn, “the Fisherman’s Home,” on the banks
of the Nore, Co. Kilkenny. Here the Barringtons live. Among
the striking characters are the fire-eating Major M’Cormack;
Dr. Dill, an excellent study of a country medical man, and
his lively daughter, Polly. The interest largely turns on
the disgrace and subsequent vindication of Barrington’s son,
George. In this Lever portrays his own son and his career.

⸺ A DAY’S RIDE. Pp. 396. (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 1.50. [1863].

The whimsical adventures of Algernon Sydney Potts, only son
of a Dublin apothecary. An extravaganza in the vein of _Don
Quixote_, and quite unlike Lever’s other works. Potts’s
experiences begin in Ireland, but most of them take place on
the Continent.

⸺ THE DODD FAMILY ABROAD. Pp. 565. (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 0.50. [1863-65.]

Humorous adventures on the Continent of an Anglo-Irish family
filled with preposterously false ideas about the manners and
customs of the countries they visit. Told in a series of
letters in which the chief personages are made the unconscious
exponents of their own characters, follies, and foibles, each
character being so contrived as to evoke in the most humorous
form the peculiarities of all the others. There are many acute
reflections on Irish life, especially in the letters of Kenny
Dodd to his friend in Bruff (Co. Limerick). Kenny Dodd is a
careful and thoughtful character-study. The Author considered
Kate Dodd to be the true type of Irishwoman. Biddy Cobb,
servant of the Dodds, is one of Lever’s most humorous women
characters. Lever held that he had never written anything equal
to “The Dodds.”

⸺ LUTTRELL OF ARRAN. (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 1.50. [1865].

Opens in Innishmore, Aran Islands, off the coast of Galway.
Luttrell, a proud, morbid man of broken fortunes arrives there
with his wife, the daughter of an Aran peasant. The latter
dies, leaving an only son, Harry. Shortly afterwards Sir
Gervais Vyner, a wealthy Englishman, calls at the island in his
yacht, and renews acquaintance with Luttrell. Vyner then goes
to Donegal, where he meets with and adopts a beautiful peasant
girl. The interest turns largely on the success of Vyner’s
experiment in making a fine lady out of the girl. She is one
of Lever’s most charming heroines. After many vicissitudes she
comes to Innishmore. Here she meets Harry, who had returned
from an adventurous career at sea, and they are married. Tom
O’Rorke, who keeps an inn in a wild part of Donegal, provides
a good deal of the humour. His inveterate hatred of everything
English, his wit and his audacity (not always commendable),
mark him out for special mention. There is also an amusing
American skipper.

⸺ TONY BUTLER. (N.Y.: _Pratt_). 1.50. [1865].

Scene: partly in North of Ireland, partly on the Continent.
Tony gets a post in the diplomatic service, and has many
adventures, strange, humorous, or stirring. Diplomatic life
(Lever was a British Consul abroad for most of his days) is
described with a cunning hand. Some of Tony’s experiences take
place during the Garibaldian war. The most striking figure in
the book is Major M’Caskey, the noisy, swaggering, impudent
soldier of fortune. Skeff Damer, the young diplomat, is also
interesting, and Dolly Stewart is a most pleasing study.

⸺ SIR BROOKE FOSBROOKE. [1866]. (_Routledge, &c._). 3_s._ 6_d._ (N.Y.: _Harper_). 0.50.

“Reproduces much of the humour and frolic of his earlier tales,
the mess-room scene in the officers’ quarters at Dublin, with
which the drama opens, recalling the sprightly comedy of Harry
Lorrequer. The vigorous story that follows contains much more
serious characterization and portraiture of real life than the
earlier books.”—(_Baker_).

⸺ THE BRAMLEIGHS OF BISHOP’S FOLLY. (N.Y.: _Harper_). 0.50. [1868].

Scene of first portion: North of Ireland, near Coleraine, Co.
Londonderry; afterwards Italy. Deals with the experiences of a
rich English banker and his family, who come to Ireland, but
the central figure is the selfish old peer, Viscount Culduff,
a neighbouring landowner, on whose estate coal is found. Much
of the novel deals with the exploiting of the Culduff mine. Tom
Cutbill, a bluff, vulgar, humorous engineer, who comes to work
this mine, provides most of the fun, which is scattered through
the story. All the characters are vividly drawn, among others
that of a young Irish Protestant clergyman, the only one that
appears prominently in Lever’s pages. The mystery that runs
through the book is kept veiled with great cleverness to the
very end. Finally, the book is packed with witty epigrammatic
talk.

⸺ LORD KILGOBBIN. (N.Y.: _Harper_). 1.00. [1872].

Lever’s last novel. It pictures social and political conditions
in Ireland about 1865, the days of the Fenians. The book is
marked by almost nationalist sympathies, one of the finest
characters being Daniel Donogan, Fenian Head-Centre and
Trinity College student, who while “on his keeping” is elected
M.P. for King’s County. Matthew Kearney, styled locally Lord
Kilgobbin, is a shrewd, good-natured, old-fashioned type of
broken-down Catholic gentility, living in an old castle in
King’s County. His daughter Kate, is a high-spirited, clever,
and amiable girl, but the real heroine is the brilliant Nina
Kostalergi, of mixed parentage (the mother Irish, the father a
Greek prince and adventurer), who bewitches in turn Fenians,
soldiers, politicians, and Viceregal officials. A remarkable
creation is Joe Atlee, a kind of Bohemian student of Trinity,
cynical, indolent, but miraculously clever and versatile. It
teems with witty talk and dramatic situations. Throughout there
is food for thought about the affairs of Ireland. Has been
illustr. by Luke Fildes (Macmillan). 3_s._ 6_d._

⸺ GERALD FITZGERALD. (N.Y.: _Harper_). 0.40. [First ed. in book form, 1899].

The hero is a legitimate son of the Young Pretender,
offspring of a secret marriage with an Irish lady. Recounts
his surprising adventures and his relations with Mirabeau
(whose death is powerfully described), the poet Alfieri,
Madame Roland, the Pretender himself, whose court at Rome is
described, &c., &c. There is little humour, the book being a
sober historical or quasi-historical romance. There are some
passages offensive to Catholic feeling.

Lever also wrote:—_A Rent in a Cloud_; _That Boy of Norcott’s_;
_Paul Goslett’s Confessions_; _Nuts and Nutcrackers_, 1845;
_Tales of the Trains_, 1845; _Horace Templeton_, 1848;
_Cornelius O’Dowd_, 1873.

=LIPSETT, Caldwell.=

⸺ WHERE THE ATLANTIC MEETS THE LAND. Pp. 268. (_Lane_). 3_s._ 6_d._ net. 1896.

Sixteen stories, many of them artistically constructed, and
told with literary grace and finish. The Irish character is
viewed from an unsympathetic and, at times, hostile standpoint.
Only a few of the stories deal with the peasants or have any
special bearing on Irish life. Two or three deal with seduction
in rather a light manner.

=LIPSETT, E. R.=

⸺ DIDY. Pp. 301. (_Duckworth_). 6_s._ $1.30. Eight full-page Illustr. by Joseph Damon. 1912.

Published in U.S.A. by the John Lane Co., N.Y., under the title
of _The House of a Thousand Welcomes_ (price 1.50), this being
the name of a boarding house in New York opened by Mr. and
Mrs. Dunleary and their daughter Didy, who have emigrated from
Cork. The story is chiefly concerned with the lodgers in this
house—the eccentric Dr. O’Dowd, a journalist, and the son of
a big landlord in Ireland—all of whom fall in love with Didy.
The last named is successful, and he makes the journalist, a
Protestant named Healy (the remainder of the personages are
Catholics), editor of the principal Irish Unionist paper,
which he owns, in order “to make it a message of peace to all
Ireland.” The author avoids religious or political bias, and
tells a merry, good-humoured story.

=“LISTADO, J. T.”=

⸺ MAURICE RHYNHART. Two Vols. (_Chapman & Hall_). 1871.

“Or, A few passages in the life of an Irish rebel.” The hero,
descended from a Williamite soldier, “in every respect the very
model of a respectable young Protestant,” is a clerk in Selskar
(Wexford) and in love with Miss Rowan, socially much above him.
An ardent young Irelander, he joins the local branch and works
might and main for the movement. Soon he is “on his keeping,”
but escapes to London. There he marries Miss Rowan. After many
hardships they go to Australia, where he rises to be Premier
and is knighted. Returns, and is made M.P. for Selskar. Reminds
one of the career of Sir C. Gavan Duffy. Splendidly told, the
interest never flagging. Protestant dissenting tea-parties hit
off cleverly. The whole atmosphere of the critical summer of
’48 is reproduced with vividness and fidelity. Dialogue good
and characterisation life-like.

=LOCHHEAD, A.=

⸺ SPRIGS OF SHILLELAH. Pp. 158. (DUNDEE: _Leng_). 1907. 6_d._

Sixteen humorous sketches, “founded on fact—more or less,”
reprinted from the PEOPLE’S FRIEND.

=LOGAN, J.=

⸺ THE McCLUSKY TWINS. Pp. 112. (_Drane_). 1912. 1_s._

A tale of twin tomboys, who provide gossip for an Ulster
countryside. Dialect well handled.—(I.B.L.).

=LOUGH, Desmond.=

⸺ THE BLACK WING. (_“Ireland’s Own” Library_). 6_d._ _n.d._ (1914).

A story of secret societies and of revenge. Scene: Kerry and
Corsica. Unconvincing, but unobjectionable.

⸺ RED RAPPAREE. Pp. 179. (_“Ireland’s Own” Library_). 6_d._ _n.d._

Thrilling adventures and hairbreadth escapes of Cahir Ronayne,
who has taken to the road in revenge for his father’s
execution. A fair lady is involved, also a dissolute lord, and
there are plenty of plots and counter plots, duels and combats.

=LOUGHNAN, Edmond Brenan.=

⸺ THE FOSTER SISTERS. Three Vols. (_Tinsley_). 1871.

Opens in Sligo, near Lough Arrow. Largely concerned with an
intricate family history and mysteries of identity. Scene soon
shifts to Paris, where many of the personages have gone and
where most of the action takes place. The chief interest is a
very melodramatic murder in the secret room of the _Chat Noir_,
and the subsequent tracing of the crime to the murderer, a
typical stage villain. The story is pretty well told, but the
conversations are most artificial.

=LOVER, Samuel.= B. in Dublin, 1797. Was not only a novelist but a musician, a painter, and a song-writer (he wrote some 300 songs, and composed the music for most of them). He ed. the DUBLIN NATIONAL MAGAZINE and the SATURDAY MAGAZINE. D. 1868. _See_ “Lives” by J. A. Symington and Bayle Bernard. “Lover,” says Mr. D. J. O’Donoghue, “is first and last an Irish humourist.” Readers should bear this fact in mind. His humour is of the gay, careless, rollicking type. He is sometimes coarse, but never merely dull. He does not caricature the Irish character, for his sympathies were strongly Irish; but wrote to amuse his readers, not to depict Irish life. He was often accused by his friends of exaggerating the virtues of his countrymen, and it may be admitted that he sometimes did so. “The chief defect of his novels,” says Maurice Francis Egan, _q.v._, “is that they were written with an eye on what the English reader would expect the Irish characters to do.”

⸺ RORY O’MORE. Pp. 452. (_Constable_). 3_s._ 6_d._ [1837]. (N.Y.: _Dutton_). 1.00. 1897.

Introduction and notes by D. J. O’Donoghue, who considers this
to be Lover’s best long story. A tale of adventure in 1798,
with a slight historical background. National in sentiment,
without being unfairly biased. Contains some of Lover’s best
humour, especially the endless drollery and whimsicalities of
the hero, Rory. Some of the types are very true to life. There
are passages of genuine pathos. Tries to prove that the more
heinous atrocities in ’98 were due to a few desperadoes.

⸺ HANDY ANDY. Pp. 460. (_Constable_). 3_s._ 6_d._ Portrait of Lover. [1842]. 1898. Critical Introd. and Notes by D. J. O’Donoghue. (N.Y.: _Dutton_). 1.00.

A series of side-splitting misadventures of a comic, blundering
Irishman. Does not pretend to be a picture of real Irish life,
yet, though exaggerated, it is not without truth. Besides
Andy’s adventures there are scenes from the life of the
harum-scarum gentry, uproarious dinners, a contested election,
practical jokes. The characters include peasants, duellists,
hedge-priests, hedge-schoolmasters, beggars, and poteen
distillers. There is a good deal of vulgarity.

⸺ TREASURE TROVE; or, He Would be a Gentleman. Pp. 469. (_Constable_). 3_s._ 6_d._ [1844]. Many since. (BOSTON: _Little, Brown_). 1.00. 1899.

Critical introduction by D. J. O’Donoghue. Adventures of a
somewhat stagey hero, Ned Corkery, with the Irish Brigade in
the service of France and of the Young Pretender. Fontenoy,
and the ’45 in Scotland, are introduced. The novel, says
the editor, can only be called pseudo-historical. The
writer had but imperfectly mastered the history, and treats
it unconvincingly. The humour is below the author’s usual
standard, but the interest is well sustained. It is coarse and
vulgar in parts.

⸺ LEGENDS AND STORIES OF IRELAND. Two Vols. Pp. xix. + 240, and xvi + 274. (_Constable_). 3_s._ 6_d._ each. [1832 and 1834; many editions since]. 1899. (N.Y.: _Sadlier_). 1.50.

Introductions by the Author and by the editor, D. J.
O’Donoghue. A miscellany consisting chiefly of humorous stories
with regular plots. It contains also some old legends told
in comic vein, yarns told by guides and boatmen, and several
serious stories. There is nothing to offend Catholic feeling.
There is a most sympathetic sketch of a priest and a story
about the secret of the confessional that any Catholic might
have written. The peasantry are seen only from outside, though
the author mixed much among them. They are not caricatured,
though chiefly comic types are selected. There is plenty of
brogue, faithfully rendered on the whole. The first volume
contains a humorous essay on Street Ballads, with specimens.
Lover is at his best in uproariously laughable stories such us
“The Gridiron” and “Paddy the Sport.”

⸺ FURTHER STORIES OF IRELAND. Pp. 220. (_Constable_). 3_s._ 6_d._ 1899. Critical and biographical introduction (pp. xxviii.) by D. J. O’Donoghue.

Chiefly very short, humorous sketches. Some are stories written
around various national proverbs.

⸺ IRISH HEIRS: A Novel. Pp. 173. (N.Y.: _Dick & Fitzgerald_). Illustr. 187-.

Mentioned in catal. of N. Y. Library. _Treasure Trove_ bore on
original title-page the announcement that it was “the first of
a series of accounts of Irish Heirs.”

=LOVER and CROKER.=

⸺ LEGENDS AND TALES OF IRELAND. Pp. 436. (_Simpkin, Marshall_, &c.). _n.d._ Now in print.

Contains:—Lover’s _Legends and Tales of Ireland_ (twenty-four
in all), and Croker’s _Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland_.
“Croker and Lover,” says W. B. Yeats, “full of the ideas of
harum-scarum Irish gentility, saw everything humourized. The
impulse of the Irish literature of their time came from a class
that did not—mainly for political reasons—take the people
seriously, and imagined the country as a humorist’s Arcadia;
its passion, its gloom, its tragedy they knew nothing of.
What they did was not wholly false; they merely magnified an
irresponsible type, found oftenest among boatmen, carmen, and
gentlemen’s servants, into the type of a whole nation, and
created the Stage-Irishman.”—(Introd. to _Fairy and Folk-tales
of the Irish Peasantry_).

=LOWRY, Frank M.=

⸺ THE DUBLIN STATUES “AT HOME”: A New Year’s Tale. 4to. (_Sealy, Bryers_). Illustr. with Seven Cartoons. 1912.

=LOWRY, Mary.=

⸺ THE ENCHANTED PORTAL. Pp. 142. (_Sealy, Bryers_). 6_d._ Paper. _c._ 1910.

Scene: Antrim coast, whose scenery is vividly pictured. A novel
of romance, intrigue, and adventure, pleasant and healthy in
tone, but fanciful and somewhat unreal.

Author has also written _The Clans of Ireland_, _Old Irish Laws
and Customs_, and _The Story of Belfast_.

=“LYALL, Edna”; Ada Ellen Bayley.= Was born and educated at Brighton, and resided there and at Eastbourne. Her first story, _Won by Waiting_, appeared in 1879. Titles of eighteen of her books are to be found in Mudie’s LIST.

⸺ DOREEN. Pp. 490. (_Longmans_). Various prices from 6_d._ to 6_s._ [1894]. 1902.

Doreen, daughter of an old ’48 man and Fenian, and herself an
ardent Nationalist, is a professional singer, but helps the
Home Rule cause by her singing. The chief interest is a love
story, but in the background there is the national struggle
and a vivid picture is drawn of the feelings of those engaged
on both sides. The author is on the nationalist side, and the
most striking figure in the book is Donal Moore, a Nationalist
member. The first ed. was dedicated to Gladstone.

=LYNAM, Col. William F.= Belonged to the 5th Royal Lancashire Militia. Lived at Churchtown Ho., Dundrum, 1863-87, and then at Clontarf till his death in 1894. He was a Catholic and a man of much piety. He lived a very retired life.

⸺ MICK McQUAID.

Magazine stories that have never been published in a volume
do not come within the scope of this work. But I think an
exception must be made in this case. The serial or series of
serials centering in the character of Mick McQuaid has made a
record in literature. It began in the pages of the SHAMROCK on
Jan. 19th, 1867. With short interruptions it has been running
ever since in the pages of that periodical, and is running
still, though the Author died in 1894. The following are some
of the series that appeared:—1. “M. McQ.’s Conversion,” 1867;
2. “M. McQ., the Evangeliser,” 1868-9; 3. “M. McQ. Under
Agent,” 52 chapters, 1869-70; 4. “M. McQ., M.D.,” 28 ch., 1872;
5. “M. McQ., M.P.,” 51 ch., 1872-3; 6. “M. McQ., Solicitor,” 43
ch., 1873-4; 7. “M. McQ.’s Spa,” 91 ch., 1876-8; 8. “M. McQ.,
Alderman,” 61 ch., 1879-80; 9. “M. McQ., Moneylender,” 47 ch.,
1880-1; 10. “M. McQ., Gombeen Man,” 48 ch., 1881-2; 11. “M.
McQ.’s Story,” 1884; 12. “M. McQ., Workhouse Master,” 1885; 13.
“M. McQ., Sub-Sheriff,” pt. 1, 47 ch., 1888-9; 14. “M. McQ.,
Sub-Sheriff,” pt. 2, 1889; 15. “M. McQ., Stockbroker,” 61 ch.,
1889-90; 16. “M. McQ., Removable,” 1890.

The Author himself tired of Mick McQuaid, and tried to put
other creations in the field:—“Dan Donovan,” “Corney Cluskey,”
“Japhet Screw,” “Sir Timothy Mulligan,” and so on. But after a
few chapters the readers invariably demanded “Mick” again, and,
if the Author had not new adventures ready, he had to reproduce
the already published adventures. More than once editors tried
to drop the series, but the circulation which was 60,000 fell
at once, and “Mick” had to appear again. Apart from their issue
in the SHAMROCK many of “Mick’s” adventures were reproduced
in penny numbers, and sold far and wide. After the Author’s
death the editors simply reproduced the series over again.
Harry Furniss began his artistic career by illustrating _Mick
McQuaid_. Besides _Mick McQ._ another humorous series, _Darby
Darken, P.L.G._, ran in the IRISH EMERALD.

=LYNCH, E. M.=

⸺ KILBOYLAN BANK; or, Every Man his own Banker. Pp. 240. (_Kegan Paul_). 3_s._ 6_d._ 1896.

Father O’Callaghan returning from Italy greatly impressed by
what he has seen of the Raffeisen Banking System at work, tries
to start a similar system in Kilboylan. The book is the story
of his efforts, difficulties, and final success. The local
types—landlord, strong farmer, miller, publican, schoolmaster,
“pote,” and “chaney merchant” are cleverly hit off, and their
conversation rings true. The book is primarily a lesson in
economics, but the characters are well brought out, and a
little love-story runs through the whole. Miss Lynch also wrote
for Sir Charles Gavan Duffy’s “New Irish Library” a story
adapted from the French—_A Parish Providence_. It was intended
to teach certain economic lessons to Irishmen.

=LYNCH, Hannah.= B. in Dublin. Lived much in Spain, in Greece, and in France, publishing various articles and books about them, notably a book on Toledo and _French Life in Town and Country_. Among her novels are _Prince of the Glades_, _Dr. Vermont’s Fantasy_, _Daughters of Men_, _Jimmy Blake_, _Clare Monroe_. She was associated with Miss Anna Parnell in the Ladies’ Land League in the eighties. When UNITED IRELAND was suppressed she carried the type to Paris, and the paper was issued there. Mrs. Hinkson says of her,[6] “She was one of the few people I have known who eat, drink, and dream books, and not many can have given to literature a more passionate delight and devotion.”

[6] _Reminiscences_, p. 76-7.

⸺ THROUGH TROUBLED WATERS. Pp. 460. (_Ward, Lock_). 1885.

Scene: chiefly Carantrila House, Dunmore (“Cardene”) near
Tuam, Co. Galway. Opens with an impending lawsuit about the
inheritance of “Cardene.” It is settled by Mrs. St. Leger
giving it up to her brother-in-law for a large sum. Henceforth
she plots to get it back for her son. In later years he comes
on a visit to the place. He falls in love with Nora Dillon, but
carries on an innocent flirtation with a peasant girl. He is
accused of seduction, the real culprit being Nora’s brother,
and denounced from the altar. This latter scene is well done.
But the truth comes out, and all is well with Hartley and Nora.
The portrait drawn of one of the two priests introduced is
rather satirical, but the tone is Catholic throughout.

⸺ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A CHILD. Publ. Anon. Pp. 306. (_Blackwood_). 6_s._ 1899.

Clearly genuine autobiography. Begins in little village in
Kildare, but at five or six the child is taken to Dublin.
Story of an unhappy childhood, for she was treated with great
harshness by sisters and mother. Had some friends, however,
among them an old gentleman, who believed himself to be
Hamlet and O’Donovan Rossa, then a young lad. (_See_ p. 609
in BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE, vol. 164, where the story appeared
serially). Her unhappiness was continued at the convent school,
near Birmingham, where she was educated. Everything is set
down, including a flogging she received and an account of her
first confession. A very curious book, very well written.

=LYON, Capt. E. D.= Late 68th Durham Light Infantry.

⸺ IRELAND’S DREAM: a Romance of the Future. Two Vols. (_Sonnenschein_). 1888.

A forecast of Ireland under Home Rule. Contains much about
relations of Orangemen and Catholics, the National League,
secret societies, emigration, and so on. Represents an Ireland
hopelessly “gone to the dogs”—no security for life or property,
murder rife, prosperity gone, &c. Written in flippant style,
betraying bitter contempt for Irish nationalism.

=LYSAGHT, Mrs.=

⸺ REX SINGLETON; or, The Pathway of Life. (_Wells, Gardner_). 2_s._ Illustr. Third ed., _c._ 1911.

Thoroughly a boy’s book, full of the adventures and pranks of
an Irish boy.—(Publ.).

=LYSAGHT, Sidney Royse.= Eldest son of T. R. Lysaght, of Mintinna, Co. Cork. Has published three volumes of verse between 1886 and 1911. Lives in Somerset.

⸺ HER MAJESTY’S REBELS. Pp. 488. (_Macmillan_). 6_s._ 1907.

In a prefatory note the Author tells us that though the career
of his hero resembles that of Charles Stewart Parnell, Connor
Desmond is not intended as a portrait of Parnell. “There is
an historical basis for the structure of the story—not for
the persons.” A political novel, written mainly about the
course of national life in Ireland, 1875-1891. The central
figure most obviously reproduces the career and even the
personal characteristics of Parnell, who is well and even
sympathetically portrayed. The writer’s view-point is free,
on the whole, from party bias. He is convinced that a Royal
residence in Ireland would be a sure antidote to seditious
tendencies. There is a strong love interest. The Author
depicts many scenes of Irish life among various classes.
The hero is “involved in flagitious relations with several
women.”—(_Baker_, 2).

=LYTTLE, Wesley Guard; “Robin.”= Born, 1844, at Newtownards, Co. Down. Was successively a junior reporter, a school teacher, a lecturer on Dr. Corry’s _Irish Diorama_, a teacher of shorthand, an accountant, an editor. Started, in 1880, THE NORTH DOWN AND BANGOR GAZETTE, a strong Liberal and Home Rule paper. Afterwards owned and edited THE NORTH DOWN HERALD. Died 1896.

⸺ ROBIN’S READINGS. Eight Vols.

Series of humorous stories, poems, and sketches in the dialect
of a Co. Down farmer, of which he had a thorough mastery.
Some verse as well as prose. The Author gave several thousand
recitals in various parts of the three kingdoms. The success of
the above books was immediate and remarkable. They have enjoyed
great popularity ever since. The character of these readings
may be seen from the following titles:—V. I. “Adventures of
Paddy McQuillan”—“a simple country fellow”—“his trip tae
Glesco”—“his courtships”—“his wee Paddy”—“his twins”—“his tay
perty.” V. II. “The adventures of Robin Gordon”—“Peggy and
how I courted her”—“Wee Wully”—“the fechtin’ dugs”—“Robin
on the ice”—“dipplemassy.” V. III. “Life in Ballycuddy, Co.
Down”—“my brither Wully”—“kirk music”—“the General Assembly of
1879” (exciting scenes, Robin’s oration)—“the royal visit to
Ireland”—“the Ballycuddy Meinister”—“wee Paddy’s bumps,” &c.,
&c.

⸺ SONS OF THE SOD: a Tale of County Down. (BANGOR). 1_s._ Paper. 1886.

A racy story dealing with the peasantry of North Down which the
Author knew well, and could depict admirably. The tale gives a
picture of their merry-makings, courtships, humours, joys, and
sorrows—wakes, weddings, evictions, &c., &c.

⸺ BETSY GRAY. Pp. 116. (BANGOR). 1_s._ 3_d._ [1888]. New ed. (BELFAST: _Carswell_). Revised by F. J. Bigger. 1913.

Betsy Gray, the heroine (founded on a real personage) takes
part in the rebellion, and fights at Ballynahinch. A story of
thrilling interest. Relates events that preceded rebellion,
dwelling much on the atrocities of the yeomanry, then describes
in full the chief incidents of the rebellion. Introduces Wm.
Steele Dickson, William Orr, H. Joy McCracken, Henry Munro,
and Mick Maginn—the informer. “The Author has gone over every
inch of the ground, and has hunted up old documents and old
traditions indefatigably.” In entire sympathy with rebels.
There is a good deal of local dialect, and much local colour.

⸺ THE SMUGGLERS OF STRANGFORD LOUGH.

“A melodramatic romance of an old-fashioned type, founded on
facts. What with murder, robbery, abduction, smuggling, secret
societies, and underground caverns, the reader is carried
breathlessly along from start to finish. The local dialect is
well conveyed.”—(I.B.L.). The headquarters of the smugglers
was Killinchy, and the period of the story the end of the
eighteenth century.

⸺ DAFT EDDIE. Pp. 162. (BELFAST: _Carswell_). 6_d._ 1914.

A re-issue of _The Smugglers of Strangford Lough_.

=MACALISTER, R. A. Stewart, M.A., F.S.A.= B. Dublin, 1870. At present Professor of Irish Archæology in the National University. Author of a series of learned works on Palestine exploration, the Philistines, Ecclesiastical Vestments, Irish Epigraphy and Archæology, &c.

⸺ TWO IRISH ARTHURIAN ROMANCES. Pp. ix. + 207. (_Nutt, for Irish Texts Society_). 10_s._ 6_d._ net. 1908.

Text and transl. on opposite pages. Contains two stories:—The
Story of the Crop-eared Dog and The Story of Eagle-Boy. They
are of the Wonder-voyage type. Arthur plays a secondary part.
“The dreamland of _gruagachs_ and monstrous nightmare shapes is
here as typically a creation of Irish fancy as in any of the
stories of the Finn cycle.”... “Eagle-Boy is a striking story,
displaying ... no small constructive ingenuity and literary
feeling.”—(_Introd._).

=M’ANALLY, D. R., Jr.=

⸺ IRISH WONDERS. Pp. 218. (_Ward, Lock_). Illustr. (pen and ink), H. R. Heaton. 1888.

“The ghosts, giants, pookas, demons, leprechawns, banshees,
fairies, witches, widows, old maids, and other marvels of
the Emerald Isle. Popular tales as told by the people.
Collected during a recent lengthy visit, in the course of
which every county in the Island was traversed from end to
end.”—(_Title-page and Pref._). Very broad brogue. Somewhat
“Stage-Irish” in tone.

=“MACARTHUR, Alexander”; Mrs. Nicchia=, _née_ =Lily MacArthur=. At present residing in New York.

⸺ IRISH REBELS. Pp. 219. (_Digby, Long_). 3_s._ 6_d._ _n.d._ (1893).

“O’Donoghue,” the hero, a young Catholic T.C.D. student,
is deputed by the secret societies to shoot a landlord. He
escapes at the time, and has a successful career at the bar, in
parliament, and also in love, for he marries the girl of his
choice, a daughter of “Judge Kavanagh,” a bitter Orangeman.
But years afterwards his crime becomes known to some of his
friends, and the discovery kills his wife. The Author is
entirely favourable to the national cause. Parnell is mentioned
several times. The central figure is not O’D., but “Lowry,” a
remarkable portrait, probably drawn from life.

=M’AULIFFE, E. F.=

⸺ GRACE O’DONNELL: A Tale of the 18th Cent. Pp. 220. (CORK: _Guy & Co._). 1891.

Ireland in Penal times, middle of 18th century (Fontenoy, 1745,
is introduced). Period fairly well illustrated—sufferings
of Catholics, tithe-proctors, hedge-schools, etc. Scene
varies between Galway, Madrid, London, Dublin, and Paris. The
characters all belong to the better class, and the tone of the
story may be described as “genteel”: there is nothing specially
national about it. Author wishes to show “how many claims
each [Catholic and Protestant] has on the other for love and
admiration.” Some poems are included.

=MACCABE, William Bernard.= B. in Dublin, 1801. Was a journalist for the greater part of his life, first in Dublin, then for fifteen years in London, and again in Dublin from 1852-57. Wrote many Catholic works. Died at Donnybrook, 1891.

⸺ AGNES ARNOLD. Three Vols. (LOND.: _Newby_). 1861.

A well constructed plot, with many fine dramatic scenes and
much truthful character drawing. Shows the courses by which the
people were driven into rebellion in 1798. The Author tells us
that much of the materials were gleaned from his conversations
in his boyhood with Wm. Putnam MacCabe, one of the insurgent
leaders. Scene: Wexford.

=M’CALL, Patrick J.= B. in Dublin, 1861, and ed. at Catholic University School, Leeson Street. Much better known as a poet by his _Irish Noinins_, _Songs of Erin_, _Irish Fireside Songs_, and _Pulse of the Bards_ than as a prose writer. Resides in Patrick Street, Dublin.