Gerald Griffin (1803–1840)
A Critical Biography

A full-length critical study of the life and works of the Irish writer Gerald Griffin (1803–1840).

John Cronin (Author)

9780521129435, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 4 February 2010

188 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.1 cm, 0.25 kg

This book, originally published in 1978. was the first full-length critical study of the life and works of the Irish writer Gerald Griffin (1803–1840), who is best known for his once celebrated romantic novel The Collegians. After an unsuccessful start in London in the 1820s, he turned to the writing of regional novels and tales. He hoped these would give the English public a realistic picture of contemporary Ireland, and would induce them to reconsider their often antagonistic attitude to the Irish. Dr Cronin gives a full account of Griffin's life and literary career, and traces his gradual decline into creative sterility, using unpublished letters and other forgotten source material. He explores Griffin's period of journalism, examines the formative influence of his early struggles in London, and analyses in detail his novels, stories and drama. Throughout, he relates Griffin's work to that of his contemporaries and to the troubled Ireland of the time, and seeks to establish him firmly as a significant representative figure in an Anglo-Irish literary tradition.

List of plates
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Textual note
1. The period, family background and early life
2. The London period: 1823–1827
3. Early prose works: Holland-Tide and Tales of the Munster Festivals
4. The Collegians
5. Regional writer, historian, moralist, lover
6. Thelast phase: the later fiction and the creative decline
7. Posthumous publications and Griffin's literary significance
Appendix: Adventures of an Irish Giant
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]