A celebration of the tenacious life of the enduring Irish
classics, this book by one of Irish writing's most eloquent readers
offers a brilliant and accessible survey of the greatest works
since 1600 in Gaelic and English, which together have shaped one of
the world's most original literary cultures.
In the course of his discussion of the great seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century Gaelic poems of dispossession, and of later work
in that language that refuses to die, Declan Kiberd provides vivid
and idiomatic translations that bring the Irish texts alive for the
English-speaking reader.
Extending from the Irish poets who confronted modernity as a
cataclysm, and who responded by using traditional forms in novel
and radical ways, to the great modern practitioners of such
paradoxically conservative and revolutionary writing, Kiberd's work
embraces three sorts of Irish classics: those of awesome beauty and
internal rigor, such as works by the Gaelic bards, Yeats, Synge,
Beckett, and Joyce; those that generate a myth so powerful as to
obscure the individual writer and unleash an almost superhuman
force, such as the "Cuchulain" story, the lament for Art
O'Laoghaire, and even "Dracula"; and those whose power exerts a
palpable influence on the course of human action, such as Swift's
"Drapier's Letters," the speeches of Edmund Burke, or the
autobiography of Wolfe Tone. The book closes with a moving and
daring coda on the Anglo-Irish agreement, claiming that the seeds
of such a settlement were sown in the works of Irish
literature.
A delight to read throughout, "Irish Classics" is a fitting
tribute to the works it reads so well and inspires us to read, and
read again.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!