Emily Lawless, Hurrish

Catherine Smith (Other)

Ed. by Anne Markey, Dublin City University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.4: Irish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Paul Delaney (Trinity College Dublin), Anne Markey (Dublin City University), Ian Campbell Ross (Trinity College Dublin), Sinéad Sturgeon (Queen's University Belfast)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1886

Places

Ireland, Republic of (Eire) (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Prose Fiction Narrative

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Hurrish

was published in 1886, in Edinburgh, by Blackwood and Son. Its subtitle –

A Study

– reflects the wealth of detail which the novel provides in its descriptions of the Burren region of Co. Clare, peasant

mentalité

, political unrest, and the Irish constabulary and judiciary. Furthermore, the narrator offers numerous asides on Anglo-Irish relations and makes predictions of the “coming Irish Republic” (81). Many contemporary British reviewers remarked that the novel had the effect of “explaining” Ireland to them: Gladstone wrote that Lawless had made present to her readers “as a living reality, the estrangement of the people of Ireland from the law” (qtd. in Hansson 69).

Irish reviewers focused on the verisimilitude of the novel’s portrayal of peasant communities.

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2076 words

Citation: Smith, Catherine . "Hurrish". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 February 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34889, accessed 16 April 2024.]

Save this article