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Ten of
the best ... Great Irish authors
Gulliver's
Travelsby Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift's masterpiece is the finest satire in the
English language. Shipwrecked traveler Lemuel Gulliver
finds himself washed ashore in Lilliput, a kingdom
populated by tiny people. Fascinated by their exotic
visitor, the Lilliputians enlist Gulliver's services in
their bitter civil war. But Gulliver becomes the object
of a court intrigue and has to make a hasty escape. On
his next voyage, his ship is blown off course to
Brobdingnag, whose giant inhabitants strike him as
horrific and occasionally revolting. A third journey
takes him to Laputa, a floating island occupied by
pedantic scientists and philosophers. Finally, he
encounters a society of rational horses, the Houyhnhnms,
and witnesses the appalling behaviour of their servants
the Yahoos, a group who are in many ways disturbingly
similar to Man at his most bestial. Swift's brilliantly
original story is a timeless portrait of the human
condition in all its misery and majesty. |
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Finnegan's wake
by James Joyce
Follows a man's thoughts and dreams during a single night. It is
also a book that participates in the re-reading of Irish history
that was part of the revival of the early 20th century. The
author also wrote "Ulysses", "Dubliners" and "Portrait of an
Artist as a Young Man". |
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Angela's
Ashes
by
Frank McCourt
Despite impoverishing
his family because of his alcoholism, McCourt's father passed on
to his son a gift for superb storytelling. He told him about the
great Irish heroes, the old days in Ireland, the people in their
Limerick neighborhood, and the world beyond their shores.
McCourt writes in the voice of the child?with no self-pity or
review of events?and just retells the tales. He recounts his
desperately poor early years, living on public assistance and
losing three siblings, but manages to make the book funny and
uplifting. Stories of trying on his parents' false teeth and his
adventures as a post-office delivery boy will have readers
laughing out loud. Young people will recognize the truth in
these compelling tales; the emotions expressed; the descriptions
of teachers, relatives, neighbors; and the casual cruelty adults
show toward children. Readers will enjoy the humor and the music
in the language. A vivid, wonderfully readable memoir. |
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Pygmalion both delighted and scandalized its first audiences in
1914. A brilliantly witty reworking of the classical tale of the
sculptor Pygmalion, who falls in love with his perfect female
statue, it is also a barbed attack on the British class system
and a statement of Shaw's feminist views. In Shaw's hands, the
phoneticist Henry Higgins is the Pygmalion figure who believes
he can transform Eliza Doolittle, a cockney flower girl, into a
duchess at ease in polite society. The one thing he overlooks is
that his 'creation' has a mind of her own. |
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The
Importance of Being Earnest
by Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde's brilliant play makes fun of the English upper
classes with light-hearted satire and dazzling humour. It is
1890's England and two young gentlemen are being somewhat
limited with the truth. To inject some excitement into their
lives, Mr Worthing invents a brother, Earnest, as an excuse to
leave his dull country life behind him to pursue the object of
his desire, the ravishing Gwendolyn. While across town Algernon
Montecrieff decides to take the name Earnest, when visiting
Worthing's young ward Cecily. The real fun and confusion begins
when the two end up together and their deceptions are in danger
of being revealed. |
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A naive young Englishman travels to Transylvania to do business
with a client, Count Dracula. After showing his true and
terrifying colors, Dracula boards a ship for England in search
of new, fresh blood. Unexplained disasters begin to occur in the
streets of London before the mystery and the evil doer are
finally put to rest. Told in a series of news reports from
eyewitness observers to writers of personal diaries, this has a
ring of believability that counterbalances nicely with Dracula's
too-macabre-to-be-true exploits.
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Echoes
by Maeve Binchy
The bracing sea air brings little pleasure to the year-round
residents of Castlebay, a village on the coast of Ireland, where
class lines are strictly observed and morals publicly monitored.
The youngest daughter of a shopkeeper whose meagre living
depends on summer trade, Clare O'Brien is determined to move
beyond her present circumstances. Hard work and the guidance of
an irreverent, caring schoolteacher bring the resolute scholar
to a college in Dublin. There, her steps falter when she enters
into an ardent affair with David Power, the son of Castlebay's
only doctor and another willing exile. Although David returns
her love, their devotion is sorely tested when they are forced
to marry and return home. |
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Captures the exquisite anguish of a man who circulated in the
grand parlours and palazzos of Europe, who was astonishingly
vibrant and alive in his art, and yet whose attempts at intimacy
inevitably failed him and those he tried to love. This title
presents an account of the hazards of putting the life of the
mind before affairs of the heart. |
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 The
Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia have enchanted millions of readers over
the last fifty years and the magical events described in C.S.
Lewis's immortal prose have left many a lasting memory for
adults and children alike. Now you can discover the magic of the
world of Narnia when you read all seven books in this exciting
bind up. With a film tie-in cover, this book will be a hit with
children and adults alike. |
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The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy,
Gentleman
This revised edition of Sterne's great comic novel retains the
first edition text incorporating Sterne's later changes, and
adds two original Hogarth illustrations and a wealth of
contextualizing information. Tristram's fictional autobiography
features favourites including Uncle Toby, Corporal Trim, Dr Slop
and Widow Wadman.
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