What I Read to Prepare for Ireland

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Things Previously Read and Re-reviewed

Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. 1954.

Burke, Edmund. Reflections on the Revolution in France. 1791.

Gantz, Jeffrey. Early Irish Myths and Sagas. NY: Penguin. 1981.

Graves, Robert. Oxford Addresses on Poetry. NY: Garden City. 1962.

• —–. The White Goddess – A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth. 1948. NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Second Edition. 1975.

Joyce, James. Dubliners. 1914. Penguin Classics with Notes by Terence Brown. 1992.

• —–. Ulysses. 1922. Random House: NY. 1946.

Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan. The House by the Churchyard. London: Tinsley, Brothers. 1863. Reprint. Dublin: James Duffey. 1904.

Lewis, Clive Stapes. “The Inner Ring.” They Asked for a Paper: Papers and Addresses. London, G. Bles, 1962.

• —–. “De Descriptione Temporum,” They Asked for a Paper.
• —–. “Correspondence: Spenser’s Irish Experiences and The Faerie Queene.” Review of English Studies. Vol. 7. No. 25. (January 1931.) 83–85.
• —–. “Imagination and Thought in the Middle Ages.” Chapter 3 from The Discarded Image: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature. Cambridge UP. 1966.
• —–. The Allegory of Love. Clarendon: Oxford UP. 1936. Second Edition. 1946.
• —–. A Preface to Paradise Lost. 1942. Oxford UP – A Galaxy Book. 1961.
• —–. The Great Divorce: a Dream.  London: Geoffrey Bles. 1946.
• —–. The Four Loves. NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1960.
• —–. Studies in Words. Cambridge UP. 1960.
• —–. An Experiment in Criticism. Cambridge UP. 1962.
• —–. Mere Christianity. 1944. Macmillan, NY. 1952.

Patrick (Saint). Il Confessio. (Declaration of Patrick.) From St. Patrick – His Writings and Muirchu’s Life. Edited and Translated by A. B. E. Hood. Phillimore & Co. London. 1978.

Sterne, Laurence. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. 1756–1767. NY: Oxford World Classics. Edited by Ian Campbell Ross. 1983. 1998.

Thompson, E. A.. “Introduction” Who was Saint Patrick? Rochester, NY Boydell & Brewer Ltd. 1982. Electronic Edition 1999.

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels: Jonathan Swift. Edited by Albert J. Rivero. NY: Norton Critical Edition. 2002.

• —–. Jonathan Swift – Major Works. Oxford World Classics. 2008.

Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. 1890. Barnes & Noble Classics Edition. 2003.

• —–. “The Critic As Artist” Parts I & II (1891)
• —–. “The Decay of Lying” in Intentions (Volume 7 of The Complete Writings of Oscar Wilde). New York: The Nottingham Society, 1909.

Books Read for the First Time

Beckett, Samuel. Murphy. 1938. NY: First Grove Press Edition 1957. First Printing, Collected Works. 1970.

Boswell, James. Life of Johnson (1791)

• Read all passages regarding: Burke, Goldsmith, Sterne, and Swift.

Carleton, William. The Black Prophet: a Tale of Irish Famine. Belfast: Simm and McIntyre. 1847.

Davis, B. E. C. Edmund Spenser: a Critical Study. Cambridge UP. 1933.

Dillon, Martin. The Shankill Butchers: a Case Study of Mass Murder. London: Arrow Books. 1990.

Doyle, Roddy. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. London: Secker & Warburg. 1993.

• —–.Bullfighting. NY: Viking. 2011.

Goldsmith, Oliver. The Vicar of Wakefield. 1766.

Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 1916. NY: Penguin. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Seamus Deane. 1993.

O’Brien, Edna. The Country Girls. 1960. NY: Penguin. 1963. 1975.

O’Casey, Sean. Shadow of a Gunman. 1923. Two Plays. NY: Macmillan Co. 1925.

• —–Juno and the Paycock (1924).

O’Connor, Frank. A Short History of Irish Literature: a Backward Look. NY: Viking. 1967.

O’Hara, Maureen with John Nicoletti. ‘Tis Herself. NY: Simon and Schuster. 2004.

Spenser, Edmund. A View of the State of Ireland. 1596. 1633. Edited by Andrew Hadfield and Willy Maley. Blackwell, Oxford. 1997.

Shaw, George Bernard. The Doctor’s Dilemma. NY: Brentano’s. 1909. [and “Preface”]

• —–Major Barbara. 1907. Bernard Shaw’s Plays. NY: Norton. Edited by Warren Sylvester Smith. 1970. [and “Preface”]
• —–St. Joan (1923) [and “Preface”]

State, Paul. F. A Brief History of Ireland. NY: Facts on File Inc. 2009.

Yeats, William Butler. The Celtic Twilight. 1893.

Articles Read

Abravanel, Genevieve. “American Encounters in Dubliners and Ulysses.” Journal of Modern Literature. Vol. 33. No. 4. (Summer 2010.) 153–66.

Bierman, Joseph. “What The Quiet Man Said: Shifting Contexts and the Polysemy of the Text.” Journal of Film and Video. Vol. 63. No. 3. (Fall 2011.) 30–44.

Cremin, Kathy. “The Dispersed and Dismissed: the World of Irish Women’s Best-sellers.” Critical Survey. Vol. 15. No. 1. (2003.) 60–76.

Dobson, Henry Austin. “IX Oliver Goldsmith,” The Cambridge Encyclopedia of English Literature. 1909–1919.

Haliday, Charles. “On the Ancient Name of Dublin.” The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. Vol. 22 (1849.) 437–51.

Jackson, Alvin. “Unionist Myths 1912–1985.” Past & Present. No. 136. (August 1992.) 164–85.

Kirk, Robin. “Belfast: City of Walls.” The American Scholar. Vol. 80. No. 4 (Autumn 2011.) 7–11.

Kirkland, Richard. “The Spectacle of Terrorism in Northern Irish Culture.” Critical Survey. Vol. 15. No. 1. (2003.) 77–90.

Kittredge, George Lyman . “III.––Sir Orfeo.” American Journal of Philology. Vol. 7. No. 2. (1886.) 176–202 at 195–97.

Lysaght, Patricia. “Visible Death: Attitudes to the Dying in Ireland.” Merveilles & contes. Vol. 9. No. 1. (May 1995.) 27–60.

Markwick, Marion. “Marketing Myths and the Cultural Commodification of Ireland: Where the Grass is Always Greener.” Geography. 86:1. (January 2001.) 37–49.

Moorjani, Angela. “Andre Gidé Among the Partisan Ghosts in the ‘Anglo-Irish’ ‘Murphy.’” Samuel Beckett Today. Vol. 21. (2009.) 209–22.

O’Brien, Peggy. “The Silly and the Serious: an Assessment of Edna O’Brien.” The Massachusetts Review. Vol. 28. No. 3. (Autumn 1987.) 474–88.

Pierse, Michael. “The Shadow of Seán: O’Casey, commitment and writing Dublin’s working class.” Saothar. Vol. 35. (2010.) 69–85.

Rapuano, Deborah and Jessica R. Fernandez. “Remembering and Living Irishness: Tourism, Place and Memory.” International Review of Modern Sociology. Vol. 36. No. 1. (Spring 2010.) 1–21.

Townshend, Charles. “The Making of Modern Irish Public Culture.” Journal of Modern History. Vol. 61. No. 3. (September 1989.) 535–54.

Weston, Elizabeth. “Constitutive Trauma in Edna O’Brien’s The Country Girls Trilogy: the Romance of Reenactment.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature. Vol. 29. No. 1. (Spring 2010.) 83–105.

Wikipedia articles:

• “Plantations of Ireland.”
• “Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.”
• “Partition of Ireland.”
• “Republic of Ireland.”
• “The Troubles.”

Movies, Television, Advertisements

Trailer to The Field

• Shake Hands with the Devil (1953)
•  Cromwell (1970)
• The Field (1990)
• Patriot Games (1992)
•  Far and Away (1992)
• In the Name of the Father (1993)
• The Snapper (1993)
• Michael Collins (1996)
• Waking Ned Devine (1998)
• BBC “The Story of Ireland” (2011)
• BBC “Northern Ireland – Belfast” (2013)
• The Maze [documentary] (2002)
• 1980s Guinness Commercials with Rutger Hauer

Typography and Error

From Irish writer and critic Frank O’Connor (1903-1966) comes an interesting specimen circa 1967:

Never come across a double-line typo before, Frank O’Connor (1967) #Ireland #Literature #typography

A post shared by Christopher Landrum (@bookbread2) on Apr 1, 2017 at 12:28pm PDT

Seven Days Till St. Patrick’s Day – Part 7 of 7

Behold the words of St. Patrick of Wales and see how he conveys his humility:

But what is the point of excuses, however truthful, especially when linked with my audacity in aspiring now, in my old age, to what I did not acquire in my youth? For my sins prevented me from consolidating what I had previously read through. But who believes me even if I repeat what I have said before? As a youth, indeed almost a boy without any beard, I was taken captive, before I knew what to desire and what I ought to avoid. And so, then, today I am ashamed and terrified to expose my awkwardness, because, being inarticulate, I am unable to explain briefly what I mean, as my mind and spirit long and the inclination of my heart indicates.

Il Confessio. (Declaration of Patrick.) From St. Patrick – His Writings and Muirchu’s Life. Edited and Translated by A. B. E. Hood. Phillimore & Co. London. 1978. § 10, p. 43.

See also “Seven Days Till St. Patrick’s Day – Part 6 of 7.”

7 Days Till St. Patrick’s Day – Part 6 of 7

From Edmund Burke (1729-1797):

The worst of these politics of revolution is this: they temper and harden the breast, in order to prepare it for the desperate strokes which are sometimes used in extreme occasions. But as these occasions may never arrive, the mind receives a gratuitous taint; and the moral sentiments suffer not a little, when no political purpose is served by the depravation. This sort of people are so taken up with their theories about the rights of man, that they have totally forgot his nature.

—Reflections on the Revolution in France (1791)

And since ’tis the Ides of March, let us render under Caesar (100BC-44BC):

Men are generally ready to believe what they want to believe.

—Commentarii de Bello Gallico (Gallic Wars) III, xviii

See also “Seven Days Till St. Patrick’s Day – Part 5 of 7” and

“Seven Days Till St. Patrick’s Day – Part 7 of 7.”

Seven Days Till St. Patrick’s – Part 5 of 7

From Laurence Sterne (1713-1768):

I HAVE a strong propensity in me to begin this chapter very nonsensically, and I will not balk my fancy.

––Accordingly I set off thus.

—Tristram Shandy (1760) I, xxiii

See also “Seven Days Till St. Patrick’s – Part 4 0f 7” and

“Seven Days Till St. Patrick’s – Part 6 of 7.”

Seven Days Till St. Patrick’s – Part 4 of 7

I had a book on top of my head. I had to get up the stairs without it falling off. If it fell off I would die. It was a hardback book, heavy, the best kind for carrying on your head. I couldn’t remember which one it was. I knew all the books in the house. I knew their shapes and smells. I knew what pages would open if I held them with the spine on the ground and let the sides drop. I knew all the books but I couldn’t remember the name of the one on my head.

Doyle, Roddy. (1958–) Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. London: Secker & Warburg. 1993. p. 75.

See also “Seven Days Till St. Patrick’s – Part 3 of 7” and

“Seven Days Till St. Patrick’s – Part 5 of 7.”

Seven Days Till St. Patrick’s – Part 3 of 7

Today we have the Anglo-Irishman Jonathan Swift (1667-1745):

Books, like men their authors, have no more than one way of coming into the world, but there are then thousand to go out of it and return no more.

A Tale of a Tub (1704)

 See also “Seven Days Till St. Patrick’s – Part 2 of 7” and

“Seven Days Till St. Patrick’s – Part 4 of 7.”

Seven Days Till St. Patrick’s – Part 2 of 7

From (sometime) Irishman Oscar Wilde (1854-1900):

 Though the mission of the aesthetic movement is to lure people to contemplate, not to lead them to create, yet, as the creative instinct is strong in the Celt, and it is the Celt who leads in art, there is no reason why in future years this strange Renaissance should not become almost as mighty in its way as was that new birth of Art that woke many centuries ago in the cities of Italy.

“The Critic As Artist – Part II” (1891)

See also “Seven Days Till St. Patrick’s – Part 1 0f 7” and

“Seven Days Till St. “Patricks – Part 3 of 7“

Seven Days Till Saint Patrick’s – Part 1 of 7

As I’ve currently undertaken a crash-course in Irish Literature, I’ll provide a quotation from an Irish author every day from today through St Paddy’s next week. The first quotation:

There is a war between the living and the dead, and the Irish stories keep harping upon it. They will have it that when the potatoes or the wheat or any other of the fruits of the earth decay, they ripen in faery, and that our dreams lose their wisdom when the sap rises in the trees, and that our dreams can make the trees wither, and that one hears the bleating of the lambs of faery in November, and that blind eyes can see more than other eyes.

–William Butler Yeats, The Celtic Twilight. 1893. “The Queen and the Fool.”

See also “Seven Days Till St. Patrick’s – Part 2 0f 7“

“They Took Away My Books!”

Book-theft is never a good idea: