Celtic Dawn: A Portrait of Irish Literary Renaissance

By Ulick O'Connor

Book Overview

Dublin is the only city in the world to produce three Nobel Prize winners for literature. An indication that something remarkable was taking place, not only in the capital but in the whole country, came in the extraordinary confluence of talent which appeared at the end of the nineteenth century. The names alone - W. B. Yeats, George Moore, George Russell (AE), James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw, John Synge - spell out a renaissance. The revival of the Irish language, folk movements and growing nationalism were other ingredients. Ulick O'Connor has created a brilliant composite portrait of the figures who dominated the era of this literary renaissance. He has written the story of the rebirth of a nation with so much local colour that at times it reads like a novel. Yet every event took place and minor characters are not neglected. Celtic Dawn is acute, passionate, sometimes partisan, a pioneer work of biography, and compulsive reading even for those not closely acquainted with the figures who fills its pages.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 184351513X
• ISBN13: 9781843515135
• Release Date: November 2013
• Publisher: The Lilliput Press
• Length: 324 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.1" x 6.2"

Customer Reviews

Comprehensive and good-willed book.

I'm not really sure whether this book deserves 5 stars, and here's why: I believe it was written in a subpar manner, and could have been better compiled and presented, but the material of which Ulick O'Connor writes is so sublime in itself it takes the book along with it, to a higher plane. During the course of reading this book, and after it's completion, The Irish Literary Renaissance came to be a very interesting and worthwhile subject to me. This story is centered in Ireland, during one of her latest struggles for independence. The coupling of this daring time with the enduring personalities and geniuses of people such as Douglas Hyde, W.B. Yeats, George Moore, Edward Martyn, AE, James Joyce and Lady Gregory made for a very unique and captivating period of time. I came to understand not only these men and women's actions and acievements, and the noble motives behind them, but also their individual passions and goals. O'Connor does digress and deviate regularly, and is a little scattered, but this story is well worth reading. This book takes you directly and personally to the heart of a wondrous and important time. 5 stars!