NOTABLE IRISH BOOKS.
Eleventh Thousand - Now Ready.
ECONOMICS FOR IRISHMEN.
By "PAT." Cr. 8vo. Antique Paper. 164 pp., Cloth, 2s. net. Paper cover, 1s. net. Contents: - Introduction - Wealth - The Agents of Production - Land - Labour - Capital - Resume - The Economic Influences of Religion - Suggestions.
"We strongly advise all interested in Ireland to read this
book; they will find in it much to think over." - Catholic
Book Notes.
New Book by the Author of "Economics for Irishmen."
THE SORROWS OF IRELAND.
By "PAT." Cr. 8vo, Paper cover, 1s. net. A limited number of copies in Cloth, 2s. net. Chapters on: - The Irish Problem and How I Studied it - Derivation of the Problem - Education - The Leagues - Sinn Fein - Politics - Religion, &c., &c.
"No more moving book than this has been written on Ireland for
a century past." - Publisher and Bookseller.
THE NEW IRELAND.
SYDNEY BROOKS. Cr. 8vo. Paper cover, 1s. net. Cloth, 1s. 6d. net. Sinn Fein and the New Nationalism - The Gaelic League - The I.A.O.S. and The Industrial Revival - The Politicians - The Church - The Agrarian and some other Problems - Devolution.
"I have nothing but praise for Mr. Sydney Brooks book on The
New Ireland.... A masterpiece of clear statement and
comprehension ... he is always brilliant, thoughtful, and
persuasive. Everybody, both in England and Ireland, ought to
read this book." - R.W.L. (Black and White).
WHAT IS THE USE OF REVIVING IRISH?
A Review of the Language Movement. By DERMOT CHENEVIX TRENCH. 3d. net.
CLERICALISED EDUCATION IN IRELAND.
A Plea for Popular Control. By J.H.D. MILLER. 4d. net.
BY J.M. SYNGE.
THE ARAN ISLANDS.
By J.M. SYNGE. Large Paper Edition, with Twelve Drawings by JACK B. YEATS, coloured by hand. Cr. 4to. Hand-made paper, limited to 150 copies. 21s. net. Ordinary Edition, Demy 8vo., antique paper (with the Drawings in Black and White), 5s. net.
This book records the experience of several lengthy visits
paid by the author to Inishmaan and Aranmor, the chief islands
of the Aran group. He gives an intimate account of the general
manner of life on these islands, so isolated from
civilisation, where the life is in some ways the most
primitive that is left in Western Europe.
* * * * *
Worth any hundred ordinary travel books. It is full of strange
suggestions to the eye and to the imagination. It is
continuously interesting. - R. Lynd (Sunday Sun).
No reader can put the book down without the feeling that he,
too, has actually been present upon those lonely Atlantic
rocks, cried over by the gulls, among the passionate, strange
people whose ways are described here, with so tender a
charity. - Daily News.
Nothing written by the author of "The Playboy of the Western
World" can be uninteresting or unimportant ... A fine
achievement, and only a sympathetically gifted man would and
could have done it. - The Times.
A charming book. - W.L. Courtney (Daily Telegraph).
American Press Opinions of Mr. Synge's Work.
"Mr. Synge's plays are the biggest contribution to Literature
made by any Irishman in out time.... If there is any man
living and writing for the stage with youth on his side and
the future before him, it is John Synge, whose four plays....
represent accomplishment of the highest order. It is true that
these dramas do deal only with peasants, but they are handled
in the universal way that Ibsen used when he made the
bourgeois of slow Norwegian towns representative of the human
race everywhere.... it is not only in the avoidance of
joyless and pallid words that Mr. Synge has chosen the better
part. He has experienced the rich joy found only in what is
superb and wild in reality; and so it was just because 'The
Playboy' was so true in its presentation of the weaknesses - if
weaknesses they can be called - as well as the strength of his
men and women, that a furore was raised against it as a sort
of satire.... The sympathy of the dramatist with his people
makes itself felt in spite of his ability to stand apart
detachment from them." - New York "Evening Sun."
"'The Aran Islands'.... of vast importance as throwing a
light on this curious development.... is like no other book
we have ever read. This is not because the people described in
it are unique. With the most artful simplicity Mr. Synge gives
you first a just idea of the alternate beauty and bleakness of
that wonderful coast, and then makes you see the inhabitants
in their daily struggle for existence.... This book, with
its sympathetic insight, is the best possible return that Mr.
Synge could have made to his friends on the island." - New
York "Evening Sun."
"Synge is so real it is impossible to resist him. He seems to
have the masterful quality of taking a few scattered peasant
families, and giving to them a universal import.... His
plays are alive. They are real plays in real persons, and not
the least of their charm lies in the dialogue.... He is
tilling what is practically virgin soil, and already he has
demonstrated he is a skilled and sympathetic workman." - New
York Press.
Second Edition now ready.
THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD.
A Comedy in Three Acts. By J.M. SYNGE. Cr. 8vo. Cloth, with preface and portrait of the Author, 2s. net.
A few Copies of the hand-made paper edition still remain. The Price has been raised to 7s. 6d. net.
"The play, as I read it, is profoundly tragic.... It is a
tragedy that does not depress - it arouses and dilates. There
is cynicism on the surface, but a depth of ardent sympathy and
imaginative feeling below, and vistas of thought are opened up
that lead from the West of Ireland shebeen to the stars.... I
said to myself when I had read two pages, 'This is
literature,' and when I laid down the book at the last
line,'This is life.'" - T.W. Rolleston (Independent).
"This intensely national Irish Play ... A comedy of amazing
fidelity to the Irish peasant's gift and passion for a special
quality of headlong, highly figured speech, that rushes on,
gathering pace from one stroke of vividness to another still
wider and better...." - Manchester Guardian.
"Mr. Synge ... certainly does possess a very keen sense of
fact, as well as dramatic power and great charm of style ...
one of the finest comedies of the dramatic renaissance ...
sustained dramatic power.... These peasants are poets, as
certainly they are humorists, without knowing it. Certain
passages of 'The Playboy' read like parts of the English
Bible. There is the same direct and spontaneous beauty of
image.... Mr. Synge has achieved a masterpiece by simply
collaborating with nature. He and the Irish are to be
congratulated." - Holbrook Jackson (The New Age).
"'The Playboy of the Western World' ... is a remarkable play
... its imagery is touched with a wild, unruly, sensational
beauty, and the 'popular imagination that is fiery and
magnificent and tender' is reflected in it with a glow....
There is a great deal of poetry and fire, beside the humour
and satire so obviously intended, in this drama." - Francis
Hackett in Chicago Evening Post.
THE WELL OF THE SAINTS.
A Play in Three Acts. By J.M. SYNGE. Uniform with "The Playboy." Cr. 8vo. 2s. net.
THE TINKER'S WEDDING.
A Play in Two Scenes. By J.M. SYNGE. Uniform with "The Playboy." Cr. 8vo. 2s. net.
BOOKS BY STEPHEN GWYNN.
THE FAIR HILLS OF IRELAND.
Written by STEPHEN GWYNN, and illustrated by HUGH THOMSON. 31 Drawings in black and white and Four Coloured Illustrations. Cr. 8vo. 6s.
This book is the record of a pilgrimage to historic and
beautiful places in Ireland, so arranged as to give an idea
not only of their physical aspect to-day, but also of the
history for which they stand. Places have been chosen whose
greatest fame was in the days before foreign rule, though
often, as at the Boyne, they are associated with the later
story of Ireland. In each chapter the whole range of
associations is handled, so that each reviews in some measure
the whole history of Irish civilisation as it concerned one
particular place. But in a fuller sense the chapters are
arranged so as to suggest a continuous idea of Irish life,
from the prehistoric period illustrated by cyclopean
monuments, down to the full development of purely Irish
civilisation which is typified by the buildings at Cashel.
Seats of ancient sovereignty like Tara, or of ancient art and
learning like Clonmacnoise, are described so as to show what
the observer can find to see there to-day, and what the
student can learn from native Irish Poetry and annals
regarding them.
FISHING HOLIDAYS.
By STEPHEN GWYNN. Cr. 8vo. 3s. 6d.
"Very pleasant volume.... The general reader of angling books
will find much to interest him; and those thinking of visiting
the Donegal district will certainly find many useful hints and
alluring accounts of sport." - Fishing Gazette.
THE MEMOIRS OF MILES BYRNE.
A new edition with an introduction by STEPHEN GWYNN, M.P. Two vols. Demy 8vo. Cloth. 15s.
"His Memoirs are of incomparable value. Nowhere else can be
found such graphic and complete accounts of the action so
renowned in Irish Story. The descriptions convince by their
reticence and restraint, and by a certain spontaneity in the
narrative, which shows Byrne to have been a literary artist of
no mean calibre.... We cordially commend these two volumes to
the study of young Irishmen.... The production reflects great
credit on the publishers." - Freeman's Journal.
"Everyone with a spice of adventure in his composition - and
who would care to confess that he has not? - will welcome this
handsome reprint." - Irish Times.
"The first volume of these Memoirs is as exciting as any tale
of imaginary adventure, with the real horrors of a brutal
civil war for background. Byrne is no half-hearted partisan;
he hates well, but is not unjust, admitting alike the errors
committed by his comrades and the decencies of his
foes." - The Academy.
"His account of those terrible days in Ireland is a
fascinating if often gruesome study, and may be recommended as
a vivid, if not perhaps calmly impartial, portrayal by an
eye-witness of a memorable struggle." - Glasgow Evening News.
THE GLADE IN THE FOREST AND OTHER STORIES.
By STEPHEN GWYNN. Cr. 8vo. Irish Linen. 3s. 6d.
BY GEORGE A. BIRMINGHAM.
THE NORTHERN IRON.
By GEORGE A. BIRMINGHAM, Author of "The Seething Pot," "Hyacinth," and "Benedict Kavanagh." Cr. 8vo. Antique Paper. Bound in Irish Linen. 6s.
"There can be no doubt that this story will have a great
success, for it is intensely alive and holds the interest from
start to finish ... The story is very exciting; the author has
a wonderful power of keeping his grip on it and describing the
incidents with relentless force." - Daily Telegraph.
"Its characters are finely drawn and its interest
compelling." - Morning Leader.
"The book is extremely well done all round, and will be read
as much for its engrossing story as for the admirable picture
it gives of those stirring times which closed the eighteenth
century." - Pall Mall Gazette.
CAMBIA CARTY.
By WILLIAM BUCKLEY, Author of "Croppies Lie Down." Cr. 8vo. Irish Linen. 3s. 6d.
THE QUEST.
By JAMES H. COUSINS, 2s. 6d. net. Contains - The Going Forth of Dana: The Sleep of the King: The Marriage of Lir and Niav, &c.
THE AWAKENING AND OTHER SONNETS.
By JAMES H. COUSINS. With marginal designs by T. SCOTT. Royal 16mo. Cloth, 1s. net; Paper, 6d. net.
THE GILLY OF CHRIST.
By SEOSAMH MAC CATHMHAOIL. With three illustrations by A.M. WENTWORTH SHEILDS. Royal 16mo. Cloth, 1s. net.
THE EGYPTIAN PILLAR.
Poems by EVA GORE BOOTH. Royal 16mo. 1s. net.
ABOUT WOMEN.
Verses by CHARLES WEEKES. Royal 16mo. 1s. net.
WILD EARTH.
A Book of Verse. By PADRAIC COLUM. 1s. net.
POETRY.
POEMS, 1899-1905. By W.B. YEATS.
This volume contains the Plays - The Shadowy Waters, The King's Threshold, and On Baile's Strand, entirely revised and largely re-written, and the collection of Lyrics In the Seven Woods. Cr. 8vo. 6s. net.
DEIRDRE; a Play in One Act. By W.B. YEATS.
(Plays for an Irish Theatre.) Cr. 8vo. 3s. 6d. net.
THE TAIN,
An Irish Epic told in English Verse. By Mary A. Hutton.
Fcap 4to. Antique Paper. Bound in Irish Linen gilt, gilt top. 10s. 6d. net.
This work is an attempt to tell the whole story of the Tain Bo
Cuailngne in a complete and artistic form. The writer, working
always from original sources, has taken the L.L. text of the
tale as the basis of her narrative, but much material has been
worked into its texture, not only from the L.U. version of the
Tain and fragments of other versions, but from very many other
Irish epic sources. Some of the material so used has not yet
been edited. The object always has been to bring out the great
human interests of the story in their own Gaelic atmosphere.
The narrative is divided into fifteen books, and there is a
short introductory narrative called "The Finding of the Tain,"
and a short closing narrative called "The Writing of the
Tain"; these form a sort of Early Christian frame to the great
Pagan tale.
The medium chosen is blank verse; but the verse, being written
under the immediate influence of old Gaelic literature, has a
character of its own.
The author has been engaged on the work for the past ten
years, and, in addition to writing the poem, has compiled a
series of Appendices, comprising a very complete set of
topographical notes, an account of the chief authorities used,
and various other notes and comments. The book should be of
great interest to scholars and folk-lorists, as well as to
lovers of poetry, and to all who are interested in the old
Irish stories.
DRAMA.
THE FIDDLER'S HOUSE.
A Play in Three Acts. By PADRAIC COLUM. Paper cover. Cr. 8vo. 1s. net.
DEIRDRE.
A Play in Three Acts. By A.E. Royal 16mo. 1s. net.
THE PAGAN.
A Comedy in Two Scenes. By LEWIS PURCELL. Cr. 8vo. Antique Paper, 1s. net.
THE TURN OF THE ROAD.
A North of Ireland Play in two Scenes. By RUTHERFORD MAYNE. 1s. net.
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ABBEY THEATRE SERIES OF IRISH PLAYS.
Crown 8vo. 1s. net each.
Kincora. By LADY GREGORY.
The Land. By PADRAIC COLUM.
The White Cockade. By LADY GREGORY.
Spreading the News, The Rising of the Moon, by LADY GREGORY; and The Poorhouse, by LADY GREGORY and DOUGLAS HYDE.
The Building Fund. By WILLIAM BOYLE.
* * * * *
Samhain, 1906. Edited by W.B. YEATS. Containing Hyacinth Halvey, by Lady Gregory. 6d. net.
THE SHANACHIE.
An Irish Illustrated Quarterly. Fcap. 4to. 1s net each number.
The Spring Number contains "Pat's" Pastoral - An Act of
Thanksgiving; The People of the Glens, by J.M. SYNGE; The
Royal Hibernian Academy, by J.B. YEATS, R.H.A.; A National
Dramatist, by GEORGE ROBERTS; Stories by K.M. PURDON and L.
MACMANUS; Poems by JANE BARLOW, THOMAS KEOHLER, JAMES H.
COUSINS, and PADRAIC COLUM. Illustrations by WILLIAM ORPEN,
J.B. YEATS, &c.
The Summer Number contains The Rationale of Art, by J.B.
YEATS. The Resolution, by G.A. BIRMINGHAM; The Crows of
Mephistopheles, by GEORGE FITZMAURICE; A Note on Fanlights, by
J.H. ORWELL; and the first of a series of Articles on the
South West of Ireland, by J.M. SYNGE.
The Autumn Number contains Discoveries, W.B. YEATS; St.
Patrick on the Stage, by JOHN EGLINTON; The Blasket Islands,
by J.M. SYNGE; The Quail, a Story of Turgeniff's, translated
by MARGARET GOUGH; The Shanachie in the East, by Professor
HONWITZ; Poems by PADRAIC COLUM, SUSAN MITCHELL, and S.R.
LYSAGHT. Illustrations by C. MARSH, GRACE GIFFORD, W. DALY,
and O. CUNNINGHAM.
The Winter Number contains The Ballygullion Creamery
Society, a Story by LYNA C. DOYLE; The Passing, by T.D.
FITZGERALD; Mysticism in English Poetry, by J.H. COUSINS;
Marcus of Clooney, a Story by PADRAIC COLUM; On Bullying, by
G.A. BIRMINGHAM; In West Kerry, by J.M. SYNGE; The Doom of La
Traviata, by LORD DUNSANY; An Idle Hour with a Cyclopedia, by
MICHAEL ORKNEY; Poetry by SEUMAS O'SULLIVAN, GEORGE ROBERTS,
PADRAIC COLUM, GRACE MACNAMARA. Illustrations by R.C. ORPEN,
JACK B. YEATS, GRACE GIFFORD.
ANNUAL VOLUME contains above four Parts, bound in Belfast Buckram, 6s.
Cases for binding the Parts can be obtained from the Publishers. Price 1s. each.
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