The O'Briens and the O'Flahertys

by Sydney Owenson Morgan, Julia M. Wright (Editor)

The O’Briens and the O’Flahertys is a fast-paced tale of political intrigue and aristocratic vanity—a romp through 1793 Dublin as Ireland pitches towards the United Irishmen Uprising of 1798. It follows Murrogh O’Brien as he tries to find his way between his nostalgic father, the politically savvy Irish-Italian nun Beavoin O’Flaherty, the dashing flirt, Lady Knocklofty, the idealistic United Irishmen, and his comically old-fashioned aunts, only to be caught up in a sweep of arrests and revelations in the novel’s dramatic fourth volume. The O’Briens’ original footnotes and authorial digressions detail the failure of colonial policy in Ireland, contributing to the novel’s long-standing reputation as a credible historical account of the turbulent 1790s.

Genres: Classics

550 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Sydney, Lady Morgan, née Owenson, was an Irish novelist.

She was one of the most vivid and hotly discussed literary figures of her generation. She began her career with a precocious volume of poems. She collected Irish tunes, for which she composed the words, thus setting a fashion adopted with signal success by Thomas Moore. Her St. Clair (1804), a novel of ill-judged marriage, ill-starred love, and impassioned nature-worship, in which the influence of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Jean-Jacques Rousseau was apparent, at once attracted attention.

Reviews

[Julia Welch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore this book. I am studying it for my thesis. It is worth struggling through the epistolary form at the beginning of the text to read the rest of the novel.