Excerpt from Irish Life in Irish Fiction

No attempt has, I believe, been made before to bring into a single survey the Irish novelists of the first half of the nineteenth century and their work. This book aims to give - between a few introductory remarks upon Irish society and a literary estimate - a sketch of the vista of Irish life Opened by the novelists, and, in doing this, to consider their novels most care fully where they seem, in one way or another, representative of national life and character. The value of the fiction of the period before the great famine is on the whole historical in the larger sense; not artistic. It takes on significance chiefly as a remaking of Irish life, which, by virtue of such artistic qualities as it possesses, does what history proper can hardly do, creates the illusion of the life of the past. In the novels may be seen just how the racial antipathies, the religious antagonisms, the sleep less consciousness of past wrongs, and, in short, all the discords that broke harshly upon the everyday intercourse of man and man, found expression.

I am glad of this Opportunity of thanking Mr. William Butler Yeats for the criticisms which he has contributed to the magazines or prefixed to the anthologies he has edited. They have been directly helpful to me because of their unfailing sympathy, their knowledge, and their correct perspective, which I have not found combined in the criticism of a slightly earlier day upon the same or kindred subjects. I wish also to thank my friend, Mr. Lewis Nathaniel Chase, for his kind help. Finally, I must express my indebtedness to Professor George Edward Woodberry for the stimulus of his instruction in the years of undergraduate and graduate work, and in particular for the criticism and suggestion that have been inval nable to me in writing this book.

The bibliography at the end of this volume may be useful to any who wish to acquaint themselves with the Irish fiction of the period here considered. Some authors and a number of novels that did not seem to call for attention in the text are included in the bibliography, together with a list of biographical and other works that have been found especially helpful.

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