The engaging figure of Irish writer George Moore (1852-1933) comes to life in this collection of essays on his works and influences. So often considered as dangerously controversial in his lifetime, his literary output can now be appreciated as groundbreaking, artistically sophisticated and particularly significant for the innovations he introduced into English literature. In this volume, international Moore scholars venture into previously unexplored literary, historical and psychological territory as they shine new light on Moore's diagnoses, and on his presentation of human quirks. In turn, and in a Moorian spirit, the author is critically examined for his alleged feminist credentials, his spiritual understanding, his cultural insights and his literary experimentation. The analytical focus is sharp; the presence of Joyce, Yeats, Wilde, Zola and Dujardin is strong; and the surrounding atmosphere of Revival Ireland is unmistakable, albeit with a French colouring. This is an entertaining and enlightening compilation that will engage the reader and provide much relevant material for specialists across a variety of fields.

Nearly every major figure of his era, writes his biographer Adrian Frazier, worked with Moore, tangled with Moore, took his impression from, or left it on, George Moore. The Anglo-Irish novelist George Moore (1852 1933) espoused multiple identities. An agent provocateur whether as an art critic, novelist, short fiction writer or memoirist, always probing and provocative, often deliberately controversial, the personality at the core of this book invented himself as he reinvented his contemporary world. Moore s key role3/4as observer-participant and as satirist3/4within many literary and aesthetic movements at the end of the Victorian period and into the twentieth century owed considerably to the structures and manners of collaboration that he embraced. This book throws into relief the multiple ways in which Moore s work can serve as a counterbalance to established understandings of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century literary aesthetics both through innovative scholarly readings of Moore s work and through illustrative case studies of Moore s collaborative practice by making available, for the first time, two manuscript plays he co-authored with Pearl Craigie (John Oliver Hobbes) in 1894 and 1904 through 1906. It is this collaborative practice in conjunction with his cosmopolitan outlook that turned Moore into a key player in the fin-de-siecle formation of an international aesthetic community. This book explores the full range of Moore s collaborations and cultural encounters: from 1870s Paris art exhibitions to turn-of-the-century Dublin and London; from gossip to the culture of the barmaid; from the worship of Balzac to the fraught engagement with Yeats; from music to Celtic cultural translation. Moore s reputation as a collaborator with the most significant artistic individuals of his time in Britain, Ireland and France in particular, but also in Europe more widely, provides a rich exposition of modes of exchange and influence in the period, and a unique and distinctive perspective on Moore himself."

This is the first book to provide a critical assessment of the work of the Irish author Mary O'Donnell. The essays collected here engage with O'Donnell's writing across multiple genres and explore the themes and preoccupations that have characterized her oeuvre. Alongside her creative work, O'Donnell's has been a steady and continuing voice for many years within the world of theatre criticism, book reviewing, essay writing, radio broadcasts and cultural commentary. As a writer, O'Donnell's principal themes include contemporary Irish society, the position of women in Ireland and the role of the artist. Throughout her career, her approach has been unconventional and her work has sometimes presented a challenge to the status quo. The contributors to this volume illuminate O'Donnell's role as a humanist writer searching for truth at all costs, through the fictive lives of her often unusual characters, and through the emotional range and depth of her poetry.

"Nearly every major figure of his era," writes his biographer Adrian Frazier, "worked with Moore, tangled with Moore, took his impression from, or left it on, George Moore." The Anglo-Irish novelist George Moore (1852-1933) espoused multiple identities. An agent provocateur whether as an art critic, novelist, short fiction writer or memoirist, always probing and provocative, often deliberately controversial, the personality at the core of this book invented himself as he reinvented his contemporary world. Moore's key role-as observer-participant and as satirist-within many literary and aesthetic movements at the end of the Victorian period and into the twentieth century owed considerably to the structures and manners of collaboration that he embraced. This book throws into relief the multiple ways in which Moore's work can serve as a counterbalance to established understandings of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century literary aesthetics both through innovative scholarly readings of Moore's work and through illustrative case studies of Moore's collaborative practice by making available, for the first time, two manuscript plays he co-authored with Pearl Craigie (John Oliver Hobbes) in 1894. It is this collaborative practice in conjunction with his cosmopolitan outlook that turned Moore into a key player in the fin-de-siecle formation of an international aesthetic community. This book explores the full range of Moore's collaborations and cultural encounters: from 1870s Paris art exhibitions to turn-of-the-century Dublin and London; from gossip to the culture of the barmaid; from the worship of Balzac to the fraught engagement with Yeats; from music to Celtic cultural translation. Moore's reputation as a collaborator with the most significant artistic individuals of his time in Britain, Ireland and France in particular, but also in Europe more widely, provides a rich exposition of modes of exchange and influence in the period, and a unique and distinctive perspective on Moore himself.