Castle Rackrent, 1800
The novel tells of the decline of a family from her own aristocratic class. Seeking to present an authentic picture of these corrupt, inefficient estate owners, through the narrator Thady Quirk, a faithful steward who recounts the fate of four Rackrent estate owners in unsparing details. He begins with relating how his grandfather was a driver for Patrick O’Shaughlin, who was descended from the Kings of Ireland but forced to change his name to the anglicized Rackrent when a British-imposed Act of Parliament made it a condition for owning property. A great entertainer and drinker, Patrick loses his life after a fit of drinking. After a lavish funeral, where Patrick is mourned by everyone in three counties, he is succeeded by his son, Murtagh, who loses a great deal of the family fortune in litigation suits. Against Thady’s advice, Murtagh digs up a fairy mount and finds himself afflicted with a mortal sickness. Murtagh is succeeded by the dashing officer Kit Stopgap. Kit, who proves himself to be a stopgap by nature, as well as by name, quickly removes to Bath. There, he amasses enormous gambling debts and meanwhile employs a middle man to oversee the estate, demanding that as much revenue should be extracted from it as possible, regardless of the consequences for his tenants. It is around this time that Kit hands over the management of his estate to Thady’s son, Jason. Kit returns to Rackrent with his Jewish wife, whom he hopes will bolster his dwindling fortunes. However, when she refuses to hand over her diamonds, Kit makes her a prisoner in her own bedroom. When it is rumored that about seven years later, she is on her deathbed, Kit begins contemplating who will be his next wife. A scandal erupts and Kit enters a duel among the intended wives’ brothers. When he is killed, the Jewish wife is freed and leaves Rackrent for England. Kit’s successor is Connoly Rackrent, more commonly known as Condy. He is a personal favorite of Thady, who knew him since his boyhood. While Condy had a relatively un-aristocratic background, went to grammar school with Thady’s own son, Jason, and was educated as a lawyer in Dublin, on inheriting Rackrent, he shows no more aptitude than his predecessors. Refusing to take care of the great debts he has inherited, he hands over responsibility to Jason, who in turn wants to be compensated for his years of free service to the family. Condy gives Jason a bargain of some acres, which the latter sells to under-tenants. In need of revenue, Sir Condy sells the hunting lodge on his estate to Mr. Moneygawl. When Moneygawl’s youngest daughter, Isabella, wishes to marry Condy, Condy, who is tormented by having to decide between her and the charming but impoverished Judy M’Quirk, flips a coin to settle the matter. The toss comes up in Isabella’s favor. On marriage to Condy, the theatrical Isabella, who comes with a small amount of her own fortune, spends money on luxuries, such as building private theatres and entertaining. When Condy runs an exorbitant election campaign to become a member of Parliament and is successful, a house in Dublin is added to his expenses. Isabella, who is by now fed up, asks for permission to go back and stay with her family, a request to which Condy agrees to. Cindy’s debts, summarized by Jason, are by now insurmountable: he does not know how he will pay them back. Jason then offers to buy the estate from him, a request which Thady, loyal to the ancestral family, is shocked by. However, the indebted Condy agrees and makes an announcement to the loyal public that he is going to retire into the hunting lodge on the estate for his health. Once there, and with Thady’s assistance, Condy feigns a mortal illness, so that he can experience the adoration of his own deathbed wake. Meanwhile, the news that Isabella may have been in a fatal accident interrupts the festivities. Jason arrives with a shower of golden guineas, which are Condy’s remaining share in the estate. Jason also brings a paper that declares that the entire Rackrent estate will be made over to him and only awaits Condy’s signature. Soon after signing, Condy contracts a mortal fever and dies. Thady is sad, and more mournful for the passing of the Rackrents than proud about his son’s ascent. |
The Wild Irish Girl, 1806
When Horatio, the younger son of an British aristocrat, is banished to his father's estate on the northwest coast of Connacht (i.e. County Sligo) as punishment for accumulating large debts, neglecting his legal studies, and "presiding as the high priest of libertinism at the nocturnal orgies of vitiated dissipation" during his life in London. The novel is primarily epistolary, and its story unfolds via letters written by Horatio to his friend J.D., an MP. In Ireland, Horatio finds a dilapidated castle and the remnants of the Catholic Gaelic nobility that was displaced by his ancestors after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. Living in the castle are the Prince of Inismore, his daughter, the beautiful and talented Glorvina, and their devoted Catholic priest, Father John. Horatio ends up staying with the family under the assumed character of a penniless artist, as he does not want to betray his family's role in displacing the Prince of Inismore's family (technically referred to as the O’Melvilles, although the Prince refuses such a mundane title). Through conversations with the family, Horatio learns a new respect for Irish history and culture, which Owenson underscores in extensive footnotes, made in the seemingly objective voice of an editor; these footnotes both expand on and defend the Irish cultural and historical arguments made by the Prince and Glorvina. Horatio and Glorvina also begin to fall in love, and their interactions demonstrate the novel's indebtedness possibly parodying of the tradition of sensibility. Their courtship gets halted by Horatio's father's plan to marry his son to a wealthy heiress, and by the existence of a mysterious suitor for Glorvina's hand. A seemingly omniscient third-person narrator takes charge of the denouement, explaining how Horatio gets saved from having to make this mercenary marriage when his intended runs off. At almost the same time, the Prince dies, and Glorvina's mysterious suitor is revealed to be Horatio's father, who had also been using a secret identity to cultivate a relationship with the Prince in order to make reparations for his forefathers’ crimes. However, the aristocrat reveals that he was only intending to marry Glorvina out of obligation but not love and is therefore very happy to let Horatio marry her instead. The novel ends with Horatio's father writes to Horatio, explaining his history with the Prince's family, and exhorting Horatio to be a responsible husband and landlord. Finally, the text implies that this potentially happy and fruitful individual union between an English man and an Irish woman might also augur a happy future for the recent union of their two countries. |
The Wild Irish Boy, 1808
The Wild Irish Boy (1808) was Charles Robert Maturin's second novel. Set in Ireland and England, the story follows the adventures of Ormsby Bethel, a young Irishman of uncertain ancestry, as he navigates through the temptations of high life, the intrigues of swindlers, gamblers, and fast women, and his own uncertainties about his place in the societies of both countries. Combining features of the silver fork novel, coming-of-age story, and to some degree (in scenes of Irish life) the national novel. The Wild Irish Boy is an entertaining tale full of unexpected twists and turns, extravagant scenes of fashionable excess, misguided and dangerous passions, and long-held secrets with dire consequences: riches and ruin, both moral and financial. Among the colorful characters is the too-fascinating Lady Montrevor, cultured, ingenious, and enigmatic, who adds a dimension of excitement and intrigue that contributes to making The Wild Irish Boy a novel rich with conflicting social and moral viewpoints. |
The Fudge Family in Paris, 1818
Ostensibly the work is a collection of letters that depict the visit to Paris of the Fudge family in the wake of the Bourbon Restoration. The party is made up of four characters who record their very different impressions. The father, Phil Fudge, is researching a book which he intends to be propaganda on behalf of his patron, Lord Castlereagh, whose parliamentary speeches he parrots. His son Bob is a dandy and glutton, while his daughter Biddy is in search of romance and falls in love with a commoner whom she believes to be royalty in disguise. Their tutor, Phelim Connor, on the other hand, is an Irish revolutionary and Bonapartist opposed to everything that his employer (and distant relative) stands for. Each character is further differentiated by the poetic form of their letters: Phelim declaims in decasyllables, Phil trips in lighter octosyllables, while Bob and Biddy chatter colloquially in anapaestic measure. As well as a comic social satire, the poem is also an attack on the tyrannical politics of the Holy Alliance and English policy in Ireland, identified with the British Tory party and particularly the foreign secretary, Lord Castlereagh. It was the political themes that William Hazlitt preferred in his contemporary review of The Fudge Family in Paris, soon collected in his Political Essays (1819), making of it an opportunity to bludgeon such Lake Poet turncoats as Southey, Wordsworth and Coleridge. Another critic allowed that the work was for its time "a happy blending of the political squib and the social burlesque", yet over the decades "it is the natural fate of ephemeral satire to perish with the events which gave rise to it". |
The Irish Poems of J.J. Callahan
Edited and introduced by Gregory A.Schirmer. Despite the relatively slender volume of his work and the obscurity that marked his brief life – he was known to his friends as ‘the Recluse’ – the Cork poet J. J. Callanan (1795-1829) has come to be recognized as one of the most significant Irish poets writing before Yeats. Inspired equally by English romanticism and Ireland’s Gaelic culture, and drawing often on the life of Irish-speaking communities in West Cork, Callanan’s work negotiates with remarkable effect between Ireland’s two principal traditions, while giving voice to many of the cultural forces that were shaping Irish life in the early years of the nineteenth century. The present selection brings together all his poems having to do with Ireland, including those for which he is best known – his poetic translations from the Irish, lyrics such as ‘Gougane Barra,’ and his long autobiographical poem, ‘The Recluse of Inchidony’. The poems are fully annotated, and original sources for the translations, where known, are given. The introduction provides a detailed account of Callanan’s life, drawing in part on private letters and diaries, as well as a critical assessment of his poetry. |
The Collegians, or the Colleen Bawn: A Tale of Garryowen, 1829
Young Hardress Cregan is a collegian and a rogue, with a wicked, roving eye. Although he is courting his wealthy cousin Anne, he has also embarked on a passionate love affair with the lowly - but very beautiful - Eily O'Connor. Hardress knows that his family would never approve of this match and he should abandon his new fancy. But his lust overwhelms his conscience and he embarks on a fatal deception - secretly marrying Eily while succumbing to his mother's machinations and becoming engaged to Anne. How will Hardress extricate himself from this dilemma? Together with his hunchback half-brother, Danny Mann, he hatches a deadly conspiracy. The Colleen Bawn is a 1911 Irish silent film loosely based upon this melodramatic play. |
The Black Prophet, 1846
The Black Prophet centers upon an unsolved murder and the love affair between the niece of the victim and the son of his supposed killer, and the plot unfolds against the powerfully rendered background of the famine and typhus epidemic of 1817, which Carleton had witnessed at first hand. Yeats praised the novel's 'sombre and passionate dialogue', and said that 'all nature, and not merely man's nature, seems to pour out for me its inbred fatalism.' The book was published during the time of the Great Hunger that resulted from another potato blight that resulted in a drop in the Irish population from eight million to six million (eventually the number would decrease to four million) as people died or immigrated to other areas of the globe. It was this drop in population that eventually ended the Great Hunger of Ireland. |
The Evil Guest, 1851
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s inimitable style continues with The Evil Guest, a murder mystery fraught with dark imagery and mysterious characters. An unwanted guest visiting a dreary and isolated home is murdered; the thriller leads the reader down countless ‘dead’ ends before revealing the identity of the guilty party. |
Willy Reilly and His Dear Colleen Bawn, 1855
It is set in the 1740s in County Cavan, during the Penal Times. It tells the story of the love of a young Catholic gentleman, Willy Reilly, for the Helen Folliard, the "Colleen Bawn" of the story, the daughter of a Protestant squire. Although the squire likes him, but will only consent to his daughter marrying a Protestant. There is a rival Protestant suitor, Sir Robert Whitecraft (a local persecutor of Catholics), whose advances Helen's father had previously approved of, but Helen will not have him. To gain an upper hand, Whitecraft tells the squire that the bandit attacks against the squire were planned by Reilly to secure love of Helen. Whitecraft tries to get Reilly arrested and his property confiscated. As a result, Reilly flees allowing Whitecraft to burn his house. Seeking refugee from Whitecraft, Helen elopes with Reilly, however, they are caught. Reilly is arrested on charges of abduction, and a trumped up charge of robbery. When Whitecraft is dramatically arrested for arson and other crimes, Helen is rescued from marrying him. Whitecraft is sentenced to death. Reilly is found guilty of abduction, but not of robbery. He is sentenced to 7 years' exile. After 7 years, Reilly returns from exile. Helen's father asks Reilly's forgiveness. Reilly sees Helen again, and we are led to believe that she will slowly recover with his love. In 1920, a silent film was made from the book. |
The Evil Eye or the Black Spector, 1864
In a certain part of Ireland, inside the borders of the county of Waterford, lived two respectable families, named Lindsay and Goodwin, the former being of Scotch descent. Their respective residences were not more than three miles distant; and the intimacy that subsisted between them was founded, for many years, upon mutual good-will and esteem, with two exceptions only in one of the families, which the reader will understand in the course of our narrative. Each ranked in the class known as that of the middle gentry. These two neighbors—one of whom, Mr. Lindsay, was a magistrate—were contented with their lot in life, which was sufficiently respectable and independent to secure to them that true happiness which is most frequently annexed to the middle station. Lindsay was a man of a kind and liberal heart, easy and passive in his nature, but with a good deal of sarcastic humor, yet neither severe nor prejudiced, and, consequently, a popular magistrate as well as a popular man. Goodwin might be said to possess a similar disposition; but he was of a more quiet and unobtrusive character than his cheerful neighbor. His mood of mind was placid and serene, and his heart as tender and affectionate as ever beat in a human bosom. His principal enjoyment lay in domestic life—in the society, in fact, of his wife and one beautiful daughter, his only child, a girl of nineteen when our tale opens. Lindsay's family consisted of one son and two daughters; but his wife, who was a widow when he married her, had another son by her first husband, who had been abroad almost since his childhood, with a grand-uncle, whose intention was to provide for him, being a man of great wealth and a bachelor. We have already said that the two families were upon the most intimate and friendly terms; but to this there was one exception in the person of Mrs. Lindsay, whose natural disposition was impetuous, implacable, and overbearing; equally destitute of domestic tenderness and good temper. She was, in fact, a woman whom not even her own children, gifted as they were with the best and most affectionate dispositions, could love as children ought to love a parent. Utterly devoid of charity, she was never known to bestow a kind act upon the poor or distressed, or a kind word upon the absent. Vituperation and calumny were her constant weapons; and one would imagine, by the frequency and bitterness with which she wielded them, that she was in a state of perpetual warfare with society. Such, indeed, was the case; but the evils which resulted from her wanton and indefensible aggression upon private character almost uniformly recoiled upon her own head; for, as far as her name was known, she was not only unpopular, but odious. Mrs. Lindsay's husband was a man naturally fond of peace and quietness in his own house and family and, rather than occasion anything in the shape of domestic disturbance, he continued to treat her intemperate authority sometimes with indifference, sometimes with some sarcastic observation or other, and occasionally with open and undisguised contempt. In some instances, however, he departed from this apathetic line of conduct, and turned upon her with a degree of asperity and violence that was as impetuous as it was decisive. His reproaches were then general, broad, fearful; but these were seldom resorted to unless when her temper had gone beyond all reasonable limits of endurance, or in defense of the absent or inoffensive. It mattered not, however, what the reason may have been, they never failed to gain their object at the time; for the woman, though mischievous and wicked, ultimately quailed, yet not without resistance, before the exasperated resentment of her husband. |
Selected Verses of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, 1869
These poems tell the story of an Irish rebel who was a practical idealist of astounding energy. The verse, as well as being technically superb, simmers with indignation. The poet's attacks on privilege, defense of the poor, and vision of Canada reflect his position as a champion of peace. |
Carmilla, 1872
Carmilla opens by informing the reader that the events of the story— recollections from a young woman about her experiences with a vampire—will be presented from the casebook of Doctor Hesselius. This young woman, whose name will later be revealed as Laura, describes her picturesque childhood living in a manor in Styria, Austria with her widowed father and her governesses, Madame Perrodon and Mademoiselle De Lafontaine. She leads a life of isolation, with the nearest village located miles away. Despite her father’s caring nature and her tendency to get her way with everything, Laura feels lonely without any friends her age for companionship. Laura recalls an event that occurred when she was six years old which has left a distinct impression on her, even years later. She dreamt one night of a girl’s face watching her and then crawling into bed with her. Having been sheltered and kept largely in ignorance of things such as ghost stories, this is the first time she can remember being truly afraid. Some time after, Laura’s father receives a letter from his friend General Spielsdorf, and Laura is disheartened to learn that the General’s niece Bertha Rheinfeldt, who was meant to come visit them, has died. However, shortly afterwards, they witness a carriage crash from which an injured young girl and the girl’s mother emerge. Laura’s father speaks to the mother, who informs him that her journey is urgent and she must continue on even without her daughter. Laura’s father offers to keep the girl in his care until her mother can return in three month’s time. Laura’s father sends for a doctor to examine the young girl, Carmilla, while the governesses comment on her beauty. Laura herself is struck by Carmilla, and when she goes to check on her, she soon recognizes her as the girl from her dream. Carmilla remembers Laura as well, and admires Laura’s own beauty. Laura takes this as a sign that they were meant to be friends. Laura and Carmilla continue to draw closer during the course of her stay, although there are some things about Carmilla that deeply trouble Laura. Laura pushes Carmilla for information about her life, but Carmilla remains secretive. Laura is also confused by the strong affection Carmilla displays for her. Carmilla sometimes makes romantic advances and is overly affectionate to Laura, which makes Laura wonder how Carmilla could hold such intense emotions when they have not known each other for very long. One day, Carmilla and Laura witness the funeral procession of a young girl out in the woods. Laura pays her respects from afar, but Carmilla refuses and, overhearing the funeral hymns, goes into a fit. This puzzles Laura, who has never heard Carmilla pray or discuss religion. Carmilla and Laura return home and buy charms from a hunchback to ward off the evil dreams and spirits that have been plaguing them both. They discuss the illness that has invaded the area, striking a series of young girls with the same symptoms, although no one can determine the cause. One day, a delivery of paintings to the house includes one from 1698 depicting Mircalla, Countess Karnstein, who looks exactly like Carmilla. Laura and her father are struck by the portrait, but Carmilla seems unimpressed and asks Laura to go for a walk in the moonlight. There, she comments on her love for Laura, which further embarrasses and frightens Laura. That night while lying in bed, Laura witnesses a large animal resembling a black cat in her bedroom, followed by a sharp stinging sensation in her breasts. She then notices a female figure at the foot of the bed. She is terrified, but unable to leave her locked room. The next day, Laura recounts what happened to Carmilla and her governesses. Carmilla explains that she was also frightened, but she was protected by the charm they purchased from the hunchback. Laura begins to use her own charm, but she still grows progressively weaker. Not wanting to worry her father, she insists that nothing’s wrong. After dreaming one night of Carmilla drenched in blood, Laura discovers that Carmilla has gone missing. They search all night, and finally find her the next morning. Laura’s father offers a rational explanation for the cause of her actions, saying she was likely sleepwalking. Laura is examined by Doctor Spielsberg, who speaks with her father about her illness. Laura’s father tells her not to trouble herself about it, but she remains worried. They receive a letter from General Spielsdorf, who arrives at their house shortly after. He has been greatly affected by the death of his niece, and insists that they are too stubborn and set in their ways to believe the true cause of her death. They travel together to the ruins of the estates of Karnstein, leaving a note for Carmilla to follow behind them once she wakes. On the journey, the General tells the story of what happened to Bertha. The General and his niece had attended a masquerade full of wealthy aristocrats, at which they had been the poorest people present. There, he engaged in conversation with a beautiful young woman whose face was hidden by a mask. The girl, called Millarca, instantly took a liking to Bertha, and vice versa. The General conversed with the girl’s mother, who asked that Millarca be allowed to stay with them for three weeks while she went off on a secret journey of great importance. The General agreed, but Bertha soon fell ill, and, listening, Laura recognizes the same symptoms in herself, and realizes that Millarca’s secretive and private behavior resembles that of Carmilla. They journey onward towards the ruins and encounter an old woodman who tells them how the village was attacked by vampires and fell to ruins. He informs them that Mircalla’s tomb was moved by the hero who vanquished these vampires. After he departs, the General finishes his story. He recalls how he sent for a physician from Gratz to examine his niece, who told him he suspected Bertha had been bitten by a vampire. The General was skeptical of the existence of the supernatural and hesitant to believe the idea, but he decided to act out of desperation to save his niece. He hid in Bertha’s room and watched as a large black creature crawled into her bed. When he attacked, the creature took the form of Millarca and fled, never to be seen again. Bertha died immediately after. He has since vowed to find the creature responsible for her death and destroy it. His story completed, the group enters a ruined chapel, where Carmilla appears. The General, shocked, moves to attack her, but she runs away. The General reveals that Carmilla and Millarca are the same, and that she is actually the Countess Mircalla, their names all anagrams of each other. At that moment, Baron Vordenburg, a descendant of the hero who defeated the vampires, arrives. Using his extensive knowledge of the creature, they are able to locate Mircalla’s tomb. Laura and her father return home, picking up a priest along the way. The priest performs rites, and Laura’s symptoms disappear. The next day, the General and Laura’s father open Mircalla’s grave and, upon seeing that her body is bloodsoaked and faintly breathing, they realize the truth behind the vampire myth. The men drive a stake through her heart and then burn her body. Although Laura was not present for this, she describes the scene from a written report. With Carmilla defeated, the territory is free from vampires and Laura recovers from her illness. However, she still strongly feels the ramifications of her experiences with Carmilla. She journeys with her father around Italy for a year, but she continues to see images of Carmilla as both the friend she believed her to be and the monster she really was. Despite her father’s best efforts and although the threat of the vampire is gone, Laura feels the effects of her encounters with Carmilla for the rest of her life. In 2020 a film, based on the novella, was released. |
An Unsocial Socialist, 1887
The tale begins with a humorous description of student antics at a girl's school then changes focus to a seemingly uncouth laborer who, it soon develops, is really a wealthy gentleman in hiding from his overly affectionate wife. He needs the freedom gained by matrimonial truancy to promote the socialistic cause, to which he is an active convert. Once the subject of socialism emerges, it dominates the story, allowing only space enough in the final chapters to excoriate the idle upper class and allow the erstwhile schoolgirls, in their earliest maturity, to marry suitably. |
Picture of Dorian Gray, 1890
In his London studio, artist Basil Hallward puts the finishing touches on his latest portrait, that of a young man. Although Lord Henry, who is visiting with Basil, asks about the young man's identity, Basil declines to answer, noting his preference for secrecy. Basil never intends to exhibit the painting, because if he did, it would bare the deepest feelings in his soul. However, Basil lets slip that the subject of the portrait is Dorian Gray, who shortly thereafter pays the two men a house call. Lord Henry immediately begins to influence Dorian, suggesting that he should treasure and guard his youth and beauty while he has them, because they will soon fade. Terrified of aging, Dorian wishes he could trade his soul to stay as young as he looks in the portrait; a short while later, he again wishes that he could stay young while the image in the painting aged. The portrait thus begins to take on a life-like existence; in fact, Basil's threat to burn the portrait is likened to "murder" and Basil prefers the company of the portrait to the real Dorian. Dorian falls in love with a young actress, Sibyl Vane, a woman he barely knows. She plays a different woman at each night's performance, earning the label of "genius" from Dorian, who is as smitten with her acting more than with her personality. They become engaged, much to the surprise of Lord Henry and Basil. The sweet, wholesome Sibyl discusses her engagement with her family. Because her mother is indebted to the theater manager, Mr. Isaacs, for fifty pounds, she is against the marriage unless Dorian is wealthy; they do not know that he is. Sibyl's angry brother, James, is leaving for Australia, but he vows to kill Dorian if he wrongs his sister in any way. James also confronts his mother about gossip he has heard — that his mother and deceased father never married, which Mrs. Vane admits is true. Dorian attends a performance of Sibyl's with Lord Henry and Basil, but the performance is terrible. Sibyl tells Dorian she can no longer act, because he has shown her a beautiful reality. Dorian is disgusted by her poor acting, because her performances were what drew him to her; he dismisses her and returns home. To his surprise, the portrait shows marks of cruelty around the mouth, lines that do not show on Dorian's face. He begins to suspect that his wish is coming true, so he vows to be good so that both he and the portrait can remain young. He, therefore, intends to apologize to Sibyl the next day and makes to marry her after all. However, he is too late: Sibyl commits suicide at the theater that night. Dorian first feels responsibility for her death, but then views it both as wonderful entertainment and a selfish act on her part. Lord Henry tries to keep Dorian's name out of the scandal. Dorian and Lord Henry spend the evening at the opera. The next morning, Basil arrives and expresses concern for Dorian, given the events of the previous day. Dorian, however, is completely unconcerned about Sibyl or her family; he wants to talk only of happy subjects. The next day, he covers his portrait and moves it to the attic, to which Dorian has the only key. He then settles in to read a yellow book sent by Lord Henry; the book becomes Dorian's blueprint for life. At his country estate one week later, Dorian entertains guests but believes James in hunting him. Dorian soon learns, however, that a man accidentally killed in a hunting accident is James, and so he feels safe. The novel concludes six months later. Dorian and Lord Henry dine, and talk turns serious — Dorian talks of Basil, and Lord Henry reflects on a sermon he heard the previous Sunday while walking in the park. Lord Henry also inquires about the secret of Dorian's youth, which Dorian dismisses. Dorian then asks Lord Henry never to give the yellow book to anyone else. That evening, while Dorian examines the portrait, he decides to destroy it with the knife used to murder Basil. Soon after, Dorian's servants and a police officer find an old, ugly man lying dead on the ground in front of a portrait of a young and innocent Dorian. |
The Bogs of Stars and Other Stories and Sketches of Elizabethan Ireland, 1893
A collection of short stories about Ireland in the 1500's. Includes bibliographical references. "My object generally has been to bring the modern Irish reader into closer and more sympathetic relation with a most remarkable century of Irish history; a century which, more than any other, seems to have determined the destiny of Ireland." |
Dracula, 1897
Sometime in the late nineteenth century, Jonathan Harker, a young English lawyer, is traveling to the Castle Dracula, which is located in Transylvania, in order to finalize a transfer of real estate in England to Count Dracula. Harker becomes extremely nervous when all of the local peasants react in fear after they hear of his destination; nevertheless, he continues on to the castle until he meets an emissary of the Count in the Borgo Pass. The mysterious coach driver continues on to the castle, arriving in pitch darkness, to the accompaniment of howling wolves. Even though his accomodations are comfortable, Harker finds Count Dracula to be a pale, gaunt, thin man, rather strange, and Harker is mortified when, after accidentally cutting himself shaving, the Count lunges at Harker's throat in "demoniac fury." Harker soon finds himself imprisoned within the castle and assailed by three seductive female vampires, whom he can barely stave off. Harker also discovers the Count's secret — that is, the Count survives by drinking the blood of human beings — and, now, he is intent on killing Harker. The Count escapes Jonathan's attempt to kill him, and he swiftly leaves the castle with fifty boxes of earth, bound for England. The last we hear of Jonathan Harker, he is weak and sick, left alone with no visible means of escape from the castle. The novel then shifts to England, where Harker's fiancée, Mina Murray, is visiting her friend Lucy Westenra, who has accepted the marriage proposal of Arthur Holmwood, while rejecting the proposals of Dr. John Seward, head of a lunatic asylum, and Quincey Morris, an American from Texas, currently visiting Holmwood. Mina's two main concerns are that Lucy has taken up her old habit of sleepwalking, and that it is a long time since she has heard from her own fiancé, Jonathan. One night while the two women are out walking, they witness the approach of a strange ship. When the ship is wrecked on the beach, the only creature which survives is a huge dog, which quickly disappears. We soon discover that the wrecked ship is carrying fifty boxes of earth from the Castle Dracula. Soon after the shipwreck, late one night, Mina discovers that Lucy is sleepwalking again. In her search, Mina discovers Lucy on the ladies' favorite seat, near the graveyard overlooking the town. Mina is shocked to see hovering over Lucy a tall, thin, black shape, but when she arrives at Lucy's side the shape has disappeared. When awakened, Lucy remembers nothing of what has happened, except that she is chilled. In wrapping Lucy against the cold, Mina assumes that she inadvertently pricked Lucy with a pin, for she sees two tiny red marks on Lucy's neck. On later, successive nights, Lucy is often found standing at the women's bedroom window; next to her is a creature which appears to be a large bird, but it is, in fact, a bat. Lucy's health declines over the next few weeks, and because of this Mina refuses to tell Lucy about Lucy's mother's sickness. Meanwhile, Dr. Seward, Lucy's former suitor, is unable to ascertain the cause of Lucy's decline. Soon, Mina hears from Jonathan, and so she leaves Lucy and goes to nurse him. Almost immediately, Lucy's condition deteriorates, and Dr. Seward finds it necessary to wire for his old friend and mentor, Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, who offers another medical opinion. Van Helsing is particularly disturbed by the two tiny spots on Lucy's throat and her apparent but unexplainable loss of blood since there are no signs of hemorrhage. It becomes necessary to give Lucy numerous blood transfusions, and after each one she improves significantly, only to deteriorate quickly in the next couple of days. Van Helsing finally deems it necessary to drape Lucy's room, as well as her neck, with garlic, a technique, we learn later, which is used to ward off vampires. Eventually, however, the vampire manages to evade the spells against him, and he attacks Lucy again. One significant night, an escaped wolf is used to smash the window of Lucy's room. The wolf's attack so frightens Lucy's mother that she dies of shock, and Lucy, left helpless, is again attacked by the vampire. Van Helsing, knowing that Lucy is near death, summons her fiancé, Arthur Holmwood, to her side. Holmwood himself comes from the deathbed of his father. As Holmwood bends to kiss Lucy goodbye, Lucy, whose canine teeth have become strangely lengthened, attempts to attack Arthur. As Van Helsing throws Arthur back from her, Lucy dies. After Lucy's death, the papers report the strange appearance of a person whom the village children label as "the Bloofer Lady," a creature who has been attacking young children in the area. Van Helsing, shaken by the reports, summons Dr. Seward to attend him in an examination of Lucy's coffin. After Seward's initial shock, he agrees, albeit with reservations, to open Lucy's coffin. In the meantime, Mina and Jonathan have been married, and they return to England. Mina has transcribed Jonathan's diary of his journey in Transylvania, and soon afterward Van Helsing reads it. Van Helsing then calls all of Lucy's ex-suitors together, and he explains to them his belief that Lucy has been bitten by a vampire and has become one herself. The only way to save her soul, he says, is to drive a wooden stake through her heart, cut off her head and stuff it with garlic. Eventually Van Helsing convinces them of the truth of his claims, and the "service" is performed on Lucy. Now the protagonists begin a search for the Count and also for the fifty boxes of earth which he brought with him to England; these six people — Jonathan, Mina, Dr. Seward, Van Helsing, Holmwood, and Quincey Morris — vow to confront the vampire. Soon after the search begins, Van Helsing realizes that a dreadful change is taking place in Mina. One horrific night, Van Helsing and Seward break into Mina's room, find Jonathan unconscious, and Mina being forced to suck blood from a deep slash across Dracula's chest. In a twinkling, Dracula disappears. They finally discover and destroy all of the fifty boxes except one, which they learn has been sent by ship back to Dracula's castle. Using various methods, including the hypnosis of Mina, they follow Dracula all the way to the Borgo Pass in Transylvania, where they find the last remaining box being transported to Castle Dracula by a group of gypsies. They overcome the gypsies, throw the box to the ground, tear open its lid, and discover the body of the Count. With a huge thrust, Jonathan cuts off the vampire's head, while Morris drives his knife into the Count's heart. The Count himself crumbles into dust, and Quincey Morris, having been wounded by the gypsies in an attempt to retrieve the box, dies of a mortal wound, and so the novel ends. |