Stretching back to 1600 and covering works in English and Gaelic, Irish Classics is an ambitious book which scrutinizes the enduring Irish classics that have challenged readers generation after generation.
Declan Kiberd is Professor of Anglo-Irish literature at University College Dublin.
'Occasionally one comes across a book capable of producing intense feelings of dismay, then joy; dismay on having revealed to oneself an unexpected deficit in one's knowledge, and joy at the author's scholarly relief of it. This is such a book.' Cal McCrystal, The Independent on Sunday; 'What Kiberd has succeeded in doing so remarkably is to draw together the writers in the two languages and in diverse cultural traditions within the same historical framework...His redrawing of Irish traditions along these lines is certain to become a classic of that literature in its own right.' The Sunday Tribune; '...[Kiberd] has the talent for popularising of the public intellectual. Witty, astute, and compulsively readable, he knows how to shape a critical narrative and where to slide in a comic aside...Irish Classics has an infectious verve about it...it tracks the course of Irish writing with brilliant lucidity and unflagging energy...whose powers to expound, amuse and exhilarate are second to none.' Terry Eagleton, The Guardian; 'Irish Classics is a magisterial, yet passionate, evocative and wonderfully accessible journey through the literary masterpieces in both Irish and English from the 16th century to the present. Declan Kiberd...presents a jargon-free guide that is an authoritative and insightful history of the island...' Scotland on Sunday; 'Declan Kiberd...is one of the very few contemporary critics with the skill, intelligence and linguistic competence to undertake such an ambitious critical enterprise. This is literary criticism of the best kind, enlightening and entertaining, authoritative and accessible, committed and inspiring.' Irish Times; '...a beautifully crafted survey of the inextinguishable classics from the bardie era to modern times. I shall treasure Kiberd's insights into a brilliant array of stars...' Kenneth Wright, The Herald; 'Irish Classics...boosts the old form of literary criticism with its original and exhilarating scenarios' The Independent; '[The] cleverness is both engaging and encyclopaedic' TLS
'Occasionally one comes across a book capable of producing intense feelings of dismay, then joy; dismay on having revealed to oneself an unexpected deficit in one's knowledge, and joy at the author's scholarly relief of it. This is such a book.' Cal McCrystal, The Independent on Sunday; 'What Kiberd has succeeded in doing so remarkably is to draw together the writers in the two languages and in diverse cultural traditions within the same historical framework...His redrawing of Irish traditions along these lines is certain to become a classic of that literature in its own right.' The Sunday Tribune; '...[Kiberd] has the talent for popularising of the public intellectual. Witty, astute, and compulsively readable, he knows how to shape a critical narrative and where to slide in a comic aside...Irish Classics has an infectious verve about it...it tracks the course of Irish writing with brilliant lucidity and unflagging energy...whose powers to expound, amuse and exhilarate are second to none.' Terry Eagleton, The Guardian; 'Irish Classics is a magisterial, yet passionate, evocative and wonderfully accessible journey through the literary masterpieces in both Irish and English from the 16th century to the present. Declan Kiberd...presents a jargon-free guide that is an authoritative and insightful history of the island...' Scotland on Sunday; 'Declan Kiberd...is one of the very few contemporary critics with the skill, intelligence and linguistic competence to undertake such an ambitious critical enterprise. This is literary criticism of the best kind, enlightening and entertaining, authoritative and accessible, committed and inspiring.' Irish Times; '...a beautifully crafted survey of the inextinguishable classics from the bardie era to modern times. I shall treasure Kiberd's insights into a brilliant array of stars...' Kenneth Wright, The Herald; 'Irish Classics...boosts the old form of literary criticism with its original and exhilarating scenarios' The Independent; '[The] cleverness is both engaging and encyclopaedic' TLS
In these 35 exciting essays, Kiberd (Inventing Ireland; etc.), professor of Anglo-Irish Literature at University College, Dublin, covers just about every aspect of Irish literature, its writers and the times in which they lived. Beginning with young Gaelic Ireland, Kiberd rapidly advances straight to Jonathan Swift and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. But the meat of the book starts with the political stirrings of the late 18th century. In the Journal of Wolfe Tone Kiberd exposes the rakish personality behind the rather saintly legend that textbooks have applied to one of the most prominent revolutionaries of 1798. Advancing to the late 19th century, the author notes that Oscar Wilde was the antithesis of John Millington Synge. While Synge studied the Irish poor, Wilde, conversely and perversely, studied the British upper class. Kiberd sees Joyce's Ulysses "as a slow-motion alternative to the daily newspaper of Dublin for 16 June 1904." He sees it as a means for Joyce to trumpet the common man, and also as a way to deflate his hubris. Sean O'Casey and Liam O'Flaherty are coupled as postrevolutionary writers. O'Casey's plays, such as Juno and the Paycock, are an attempt to tackle an "outbreak of middle-class morality," and O'Flaherty's The Informer is an "attempt to wrest the meaning and interpretation of the Jesus story from the priests." The essay on Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two-Birds recalls the common joke of mid-20th-century Ireland: "I'm in a terrible state I'm in the Free State!," allowing O'Brien to contrast masturbation with something much worse literary production. There are also essays on Synge, Yeats, Shaw and more. This rich stew is filled with new insights and interpretations, with something for everyone. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
