A love story of almost gushing sentiment. The scene is the barony of Tirerragh, in Sligo (where the book was actually written). Here the “Prince” of Inismore, though fallen on evil days, still keeps up all the old customs of the chieftains, his ancestors. He wears the old dress, uses the old salutations, has his harper and his shanachie, &c. His daughter, Glorvina, is the almost ethereal heroine. The personages of the book frequently converse about ancient Irish history, legend, music, ornaments, weapons, and costumes. There is much acute political discussion and argument in the book. It is fervently on the side of Irish nationality. “Father John” is a fine character modelled on the then Dean of Sligo. It contains many other portraits drawn from real life. Its success at the time was enormous. In two years it passed through seven editions.—(Fitzpatrick, Krans, &c.). ⸺ O’DONNEL. Pp. 288. (_Downey_). 2_s._ 6_d._ [1814]. 1895. The central figure of this tale is a scion of the O’Donnells of Tyrconnell, proud, courteous, travelled, who has fought in the armies of Austria and of France, and finally that of England. He is a type of the old Catholic nobility, and his story is made to illustrate the working of the Penal laws. Nearly all the personages of the story are people of fashion, mostly titled. There is much elaborate character-study, and not a little social satire. The native Irish of the lower orders appear in the person of M’Rory alone, a humorous faithful old retainer, whose conversation is full of bulls. Lady Singleton, the meddling, showy, flippantly talkative woman of fashion, and Mr. Dexter, the obsequious, a West Briton of those days, are well drawn. The main purpose of the book, says the Author, was to exhibit Catholic disabilities. There are interesting descriptions of scenery along the Antrim coast and in Donegal. As fiction it is slow reading, yet Sir Walter Scott speaks highly of it. ⸺ FLORENCE MACARTHY. (N.Y.: _Sadlier_). 1.50. 1816. Combines, as so many of Lady Morgan’s books do, political satire with a romantic love tale. A kidnapped heir asserts his claim to a peerage and estates and unwittingly woos the romantic Florence, to whom he had been betrothed in his youth. Mr. Fitzpatrick calls the book “an exceedingly interesting and erudite novel,” and tells us how, before attempting it, she had “saturated her memory with a large amount of reading which bore upon the subject of it.” The character of Counsellor Con Crawley constitutes a bitter attack on Lady Morgan’s unscrupulous enemy, John Wilson Croker. The half-mad schoolmaster, Terence Oge O’Leary, is a curious type. ⸺ THE O’BRIENS AND O’FLAHERTYS. Three eds. in one year. [1827]. (N.Y.: _Haverty_).