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Irish Literature

The keepers of the Blarney Stone are actually offended when visitors refuse to kiss it (a procedure requiring the kisser to lie on their back and hang over a precipitous drop). But at the same time, the Irish are very protective of the supposed ability bestowed by the Stone: the Gift of Gab, being the ability to speak well and eloquently (or at least overwhelmingly) in one's defense.

While the Gab sounds like a dubious quality to most ears, the Irish revel in it. A recurring theme in the island's literature is the lighting of pipes, drawing in of chairs, and filling of pint glasses prior to a long conversation, debate, or story. In fact, Ireland was more or less a completely verbal culture until relatively recently, despite being home to some of the most literate writers of all time.

It's a bad habit of Irish authors that they can't seem to stop making fun of their countrymen. And it's not just gentle ribbing, either: writers like Flann O'Brien, James Joyce, and Jonathan Swift were downright acerbic. Either they're deriding the ignorance of the rural populations, or they're simply being grumpy old men, but whatever the case Irish novelists often seem more dour than is absolutely necessary.

Not that we would fully understand: the United States broke with England long before living memory, while Ireland (due both to proximity and inner turmoil) has never fully succeeded in throwing off the spectre of English domination. Of course, Ireland is an independent country at this point, but even now the Catholic vs. Protestant conflict (read: Irish vs. English) often erupts in violence.

This hatred of all things British goes back a long way, but not to the beginning. In ancient times Ireland (or Eire, as the native tongue has it) was an insular island of Celtic and pre-Celtic tribes. Among the earliest literature of the island is the Tain Bo Cuailnge, a pre-Christian prose epic centering on distinctly Irish culture, mythology, and history (specifically a bloody cattle raid). For all the reference to the outside world it makes, Ireland may as well be the only locale on the map.

It didn't take long for things to change. The English soon became obsessed with ruling their somewhat wilder neighbors, and sent troops across the Irish Sea to show them what was what. In the 17th century things reached a dangerous pitch when Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell invaded Ireland (1649-50) on the pretense of wiping out English royalists. Irish/English relations have been shaky ever since.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he is a husband and father, teaches adult Sunday school in his Presbyterian congregation, and likes weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats
by W.B. Yeats, illustrated by Jack B. Yeats
from Franklin Library
for 10th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde
Signet Classics
by Oscar Wilde
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Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for 10th-Adult
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$5.06
Dracula
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Dracula
Puffin Classics
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$7.64
Dracula
Everyman's Library
by Bram Stoker
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
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Dracula
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by Bram Stoker, illustrated by Scott McKowen
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Dracula
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Dracula
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$10.16
Dragonriders of Pern Omnibus
by Anne McCaffrey
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in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Dubliners
by James Joyce
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$8.46
Dubliners
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Dubliners
by James Joyce
from Oxford University
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$8.46
Early Irish Myths and Sagas
by Jeffrey Gantz
from Penguin Classics
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Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
from Everyman's Library
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Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
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Satire/Social Commentary for 9th-Adult
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Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
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by Johnathan Swift
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Gulliver's Travels
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by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
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Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
from Gramercy Books
for 8th-12th grade
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Gulliver's Travels
Penguin Classics
by Jonathan Swift
from Penguin Classics
Satire/Social Commentary for 9th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
Gulliver's Travels
Windermere Series 3
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
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Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg
from Heritage Press
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Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Thomas Morten
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Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Victor Candell & R.G. Mossa
from Garden City Books
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Gulliver's Travels
by Johnathan Swift, illustrated by Robert Ingpen
from Welbeck Editions
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Gulliver's Travels
Windermere Readers #15
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Milo Winter
1954 Edition from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$7.20 (1 in stock)
Gulliver's Travels
Windermere Series 1
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
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Windermere Series 2
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
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Windermere Series 4
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
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Gulliver's Travels (Adapted)
by Jonathan Swift, adapted by Sarel Eimerl and illustrated by Maraja
from Golden Press
for 7th-10th grade
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Ideal Husband
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by Oscar Wilde
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Drama for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$3.40
Importance of Being Earnest
Dover Thrift Editions
by Oscar Wilde
from Dover Publications
Drama/Comedy for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$3.40
Importance of Being Earnest
Dover Thrift Editions
by Oscar Wilde
from Signet Classics
Drama/Comedy for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.21
Man and Superman
by George Bernard Shaw
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Picture of Dorian Gray
Whole Story Series
by Oscar Wilde
from Viking Press
Mystery and Suspense for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Picture of Dorian Gray
Dover Thrift Editions
by Oscar Wilde
from Dover Publications
Mystery and Suspense for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.10
Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde
Revised from Penguin Classics
Mystery and Suspense for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$7.65
Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde, illustrated by Eugene Dete & Paul Thiriat
1910 Illustrated from SeaWolf Press
Mystery and Suspense for 10th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
She Stoops to Conquer
Dover Thrift Editions
by Oliver Goldsmith
from Dover Publications
Comedic Drama for 10th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$4.25
She Stoops to Conquer
Merrill's English Texts
by Oliver Goldsmith, edited with an introduction and notes by Mabel A. Bessey
from Charles E. Merrill Company
Comedic Drama for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
South
by Ernest Shackleton
100th Anniversary from SeaWolf Press
Expedition Memoir for 10th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$10.16
South
by Ernest Shackleton
from Living Book Press
Expedition Memoir for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$15.29
Tristram Shandy
by Laurence Sterne
from Wordsworth Classics
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in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$5.09
Ulysses
by James Joyce
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for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Vicar of Wakefield
Penguin Classics
by Oliver Goldsmith
from Penguin Classics
Realistic Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$10.20
Yeats Reader
by W. B. Yeats
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 10th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$22.00
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