In The Wild Irish Girl, the powerful Irish heroine's marriage to a heroic Englishman symbolizes the Anglo-Irish novelist Lady Morgan's re-imagining of the relationship between Ireland and Britain and between men and women. Using this most influential of pro-union novels as his point of departure, the author argues that nineteenth-century debates over what constitutes British national identity often revolved around representations of Irishness, especially Irish womanhood. He maps out the genealogy of this development, from Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent through Trollope's Irish novels, focusing on the pivotal period from 1806 through the 1870s. The author's model enables him to elaborate the ways in which gender ideals are specifically contested in fiction, the discourses of political debate and social reform, and the popular press, for the purpose of defining not only the place of the Irish in the union with Great Britain, but the nature of Britishness itself.

The thuggish twosome, Rough and Tumble, are back and they're looking for vengeance against Sonic and his friends. And they're not the only ones... some of Sonic's greatest foes have returned and, with the help of some new evil allies, have created a threat that's guaranteed to take over the world. Even Sonic can't outrun a Virus for too long. Collects issues #1316 of Sonic The Hedgehog ongoing series.

Harry Palmer is a very funny look at the escapades of a juvenile delinquent, which have more down-to-earth explanations than the outlandish stories about a "magical boy" you may have heard. Pretending to have an interest in magic is how Harry ingratiates himself with a senile old headmaster, whose interest in witchcraft blinds him to what Harry's really up to. Rather than Quidditch (lolwut?), the school is mad for polo, but Harry isn't the star of his house's team. The closest he gets to the action is when he bets on the games. Scheming Harry is surrounded by other memorable characters, including the puny, conniving, and animal-hating groundskeeper, Haggard; Drake Mollify, a straight-shooting boy with a critical father he can't seem to please, and Drake's two close friends. Denis Crumbe and Geoffrey Galle are small and shy but have acerbic wits (they like word-play and puns). Their sarcasm is a trait they share with Professor Snide, housemaster of Serpentine. All of them offer wry commentary on Harry and the thuggish Juan Walsey and Juan's older twin brothers, the school bullies and Drake's main polo rivals. Then there's Perdita Grungy, who seeks approval from her peers by trying to be seductive and worldly, although she usually ends up falling flat on her face and looking very un-sexy. This parody is spot-on and hilarious. You've heard the tall tales told by Harry to a sympathetic (but gullible) best-selling author. Now here's the real story, told by the victims of his pranks.