1000 YEARS OF IRISH PROSE

The first volume of a two-volume anthology, this casts aside the 930 years between 950 and 1880, and begins its historically purposeful collection with Yeats and the literary Revival. In six sections, each headed by a quotation from Yeats, there is a progression from the late 19th century interest in the rediscovery of the old Gaelic myths and hero tales, through the turbulence and unrest that marked Ireland's many religious and social controversies, on to the experimenters of the twentieth century. As the first selection Yeats' Cathleen is the characterization of the Irish ""soul""; he writings of Synge and Joyce's study of opinion on Parnell, Dead King, are in the section on the average man; third, the spirit of de-Anglicization is represented by AE, Sean O'Casey, Sean O'Faolain; Liam O'Flaherty figures among the writers who brooded on a new eland; when the bitterness of brooding turned to satire, Oliver St. John Gogarty, Parick Kavanagh are among the many humorists; and in the realm of experimental writing here is Joyce and again Yeats with his The written after he had become a major pet. There is merit in the editor's attempt to delineate Irish history through rose rather than parcel a treat from Ireland's abundance of literary genius.