Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction A history of the Irish novel, 1665–2010
- Interchapter 1 Virtue Rewarded; or, the Irish Princess
- Chapter 1 Beginnings and endings
- Interchapter 2 Beyond history
- Chapter 2 Speak not my name; or, the wings of Minerva
- Interchapter 3 Edith Somerville and Martin Ross's The Real Charlotte
- Chapter 3 Living in a time of epic
- Interchapter 4 James Joyce's Ulysses
- Chapter 4 Irish independence and the bureaucratic imagination, 1922–39
- Interchapter 5 Elizabeth Bowen's The Last September and the art of betrayal
- Chapter 5 Enervated island – isolated Ireland? 1940–60
- Interchapter 6 John Banville's Doctor Copernicus: a revolution in the head
- Chapter 6 The struggle of making it new, 1960–79
- Interchapter 7 Seamus Deane's Reading in the Dark and the rebel act of interpretation
- Chapter 7 Brave new worlds
- Interchapter 8 John McGahern's That They May Face the Rising Sun
- Conclusion The future of the Irish novel in the global literary marketplace
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Interchapter 1 - Virtue Rewarded; or, the Irish Princess
Burgeoning silence and the new novel form in Ireland
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction A history of the Irish novel, 1665–2010
- Interchapter 1 Virtue Rewarded; or, the Irish Princess
- Chapter 1 Beginnings and endings
- Interchapter 2 Beyond history
- Chapter 2 Speak not my name; or, the wings of Minerva
- Interchapter 3 Edith Somerville and Martin Ross's The Real Charlotte
- Chapter 3 Living in a time of epic
- Interchapter 4 James Joyce's Ulysses
- Chapter 4 Irish independence and the bureaucratic imagination, 1922–39
- Interchapter 5 Elizabeth Bowen's The Last September and the art of betrayal
- Chapter 5 Enervated island – isolated Ireland? 1940–60
- Interchapter 6 John Banville's Doctor Copernicus: a revolution in the head
- Chapter 6 The struggle of making it new, 1960–79
- Interchapter 7 Seamus Deane's Reading in the Dark and the rebel act of interpretation
- Chapter 7 Brave new worlds
- Interchapter 8 John McGahern's That They May Face the Rising Sun
- Conclusion The future of the Irish novel in the global literary marketplace
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Laws are silent in time of war.
(Cicero, Pro Milone)When Dean Rowland Davies – a chaplain with King William's forces – passed through the Munster town of Clonmel in July 1690, he had his pistol and his boots stolen, he believed ‘by some Danes quartered there’. This, it might be said, is one instance of lawlessness from the margins of history, and yet it is a detail interesting enough to catch the novelistic eye of Elizabeth Bowen, who mentions it in her family chronicle Bowen's Court. It signals a perhaps unconscious tension within the victorious Williamite camp between the Irish Protestant community represented by Davies and those others who have come to Ireland to fight for various reasons – be they personal, political or venal. Dean Davies also talks of having to preach a sermon against swearing to the victors of the Battle of the Boyne. It seems to have been a common complaint among local Anglicans about the Williamite army, who felt that the soldiers seemed
to have banished all but the name of religion, and the only entertainment to be found among the army is drunkenness, injustice, rapine, profanation of the Sabbath, horrid oaths and execrations, and all manner of debauchery: as if they thought their successes were only designed to give them liberty to commit so many great abominations.
If nothing else, the spoils of war should not be corrupted by immoral behaviour.
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- Information
- A History of the Irish Novel , pp. 14 - 23Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011