SEAN O'FAOLAIN

by Maurice Harmon ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1967

In his interesting biography of Daniel O'Connell, the Irish patriot, Scan O'Faolain remarks that ""the greatest injustice we can do to any here is to deprive him of his weaknesses."" Professor Harmon's ""injustice"" to his hero, Sean O'Faolain, is a more subtle affair. Everything in this critical study is harnessed to so many exegetical conventions and symmetrical niceties (self and society, loss and growth, tradition and rebellion) that at first one all but despairs of getting through these deadening pages. Persevering, however, one soon realizes that the author's generous summaries of the stories and novels, his record of O'Faolain's ambivalent involvement with the Irish scene, that ""dreary Eden,"" does reveal an accurate and useful guide to O'Faolain's career. Moreover, the chapters concerning the figures (De Valera, O'Neill, Constance Markleviez, O'Connell) to whom O'Faolain was attracted, both as historian and political activist, approach virgin soil as far as literary comment goes, and throw unexpected light on his creative drive and his underlying. If muddled and provincial, attempts to restore some sort of ethical foundation to present-day fiction. Nevertheless, though we may perhaps now better focus on the grubby pastorals and yearning misfits, we do so through thoroughly academic spectacles.

Pub Date: March 1, 1967

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: University of Notre Dame

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1967

Categories: NONFICTION