What do you think?
Rate this book
Across the Bitter Sea
The heroine is Alice, a passionate woman of peasant ancestry. When a landowner, Samuel, falls in love with her, Alice’s mother agrees to the union. She has had to send two of her sons off across the bitter sea to America in search of prosperity, and knows this could also have been Alice’s fate.
In the turbulent years that follow, Alice sees the unfolding political events from both sides. She follows the career of a charismatic man of her own class, Morgan Connelly, whom she loves, and ultimately Alice’s fortunes and those of her children are inextricably linked to the Irish Movement in this expansive and absorbing novel of ideals and love.
In the turbulent years that follow, Alice sees the unfolding political events from both sides. She follows the career of a charismatic man of her own class, Morgan Connelly, whom she loves, and ultimately Alice’s fortunes and those of her children are inextricably linked to the Irish Movement in this expansive and absorbing novel of ideals and love.
571 pages, Hardcover
First published October 29, 1973
About the author
Eilís Dillon
55 books39 followersEilís Dillon (1920-1994) was born in Galway, in the West of Ireland. Her father, Thomas Dillon, was Professor of Chemistry at University College Galway. Her mother, Geraldine Plunkett, was the sister of the poet Joseph Mary Plunkett, one of the seven signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, who was executed in Kilmainham Gaol at the end of the 1916 Easter Rising.
Eilís was educated at the Ursuline Convent in Sligo, and was sent to work in the hotel and catering business in Dublin. In 1940, at the age of 20, she married a 37-year-old Corkman. Her husband, Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, became Professor of Irish at University College Cork. Eilís had always written poetry and stories, and in the intervals of bringing up three children and running a student hostel for the university, she developed her writing into a highly successful professional career. At first she wrote children's books in Irish and English, then started to write novels and detective stories. Over twenty of her books were published by Faber and Faber, winning critical acclaim and a wide readership. Her work was translated into fourteen languages.
In the 1960s, her husband's poor health prompted early retirement and a move to Rome. He died in 1970. Eilís Dillon's large historical novel about the road to Irish independence in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Across the Bitter Sea, was published in 1973 by Hodder & Stoughton in London, and Simon & Schuster in New York. It became an instant bestseller.
In 1974 Eilís married Vivian Mercier, Professor of English in the University of Colorado at Boulder. They moved to California when Vivian was appointed to a chair in the University of California, Santa Barbara. They spent each winter in California until Vivian's retirement in 1987, returning to Ireland for the spring and summer.
Eilís Dillon was active in a number of public and cultural bodies. She served on the Arts Council, the International Commission for English in the Liturgy, the Irish Writers' Union and the Irish Writers' Centre. She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and a member of Aosdána, the State academy of writers, artists and composers. She had long argued for the establishment of such a body.
Vivian's death in 1989 was followed by the death in 1990 of Eilís's daughter Máire, who was a violinist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Despite these blows, and her own declining health, Eilís kept writing until the last months of her own life. An honorary doctorate was conferred on her by University College Cork in 1992. Her last two published works were Children of Bach (1993), a children's novel set in Hungary at the time of the Holocaust, and her edition of Vivian Mercier's posthumous Modern Irish Literature: Sources and Founders (Oxford, 1994). Her scholarly work on this book meant that her own last novel remained unfinished.
Eilís Dillon died on 19 July 1994. Of her fifty books, ten are now in print and others will shortly be republished. A special prize, the Eilís Dillon Award, is given each year as part of the Bisto Book Awards. She herself had won the main Bisto Book of the Year award in 1989 with The Island of Ghosts.
Eilís was educated at the Ursuline Convent in Sligo, and was sent to work in the hotel and catering business in Dublin. In 1940, at the age of 20, she married a 37-year-old Corkman. Her husband, Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, became Professor of Irish at University College Cork. Eilís had always written poetry and stories, and in the intervals of bringing up three children and running a student hostel for the university, she developed her writing into a highly successful professional career. At first she wrote children's books in Irish and English, then started to write novels and detective stories. Over twenty of her books were published by Faber and Faber, winning critical acclaim and a wide readership. Her work was translated into fourteen languages.
In the 1960s, her husband's poor health prompted early retirement and a move to Rome. He died in 1970. Eilís Dillon's large historical novel about the road to Irish independence in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Across the Bitter Sea, was published in 1973 by Hodder & Stoughton in London, and Simon & Schuster in New York. It became an instant bestseller.
In 1974 Eilís married Vivian Mercier, Professor of English in the University of Colorado at Boulder. They moved to California when Vivian was appointed to a chair in the University of California, Santa Barbara. They spent each winter in California until Vivian's retirement in 1987, returning to Ireland for the spring and summer.
Eilís Dillon was active in a number of public and cultural bodies. She served on the Arts Council, the International Commission for English in the Liturgy, the Irish Writers' Union and the Irish Writers' Centre. She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and a member of Aosdána, the State academy of writers, artists and composers. She had long argued for the establishment of such a body.
Vivian's death in 1989 was followed by the death in 1990 of Eilís's daughter Máire, who was a violinist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Despite these blows, and her own declining health, Eilís kept writing until the last months of her own life. An honorary doctorate was conferred on her by University College Cork in 1992. Her last two published works were Children of Bach (1993), a children's novel set in Hungary at the time of the Holocaust, and her edition of Vivian Mercier's posthumous Modern Irish Literature: Sources and Founders (Oxford, 1994). Her scholarly work on this book meant that her own last novel remained unfinished.
Eilís Dillon died on 19 July 1994. Of her fifty books, ten are now in print and others will shortly be republished. A special prize, the Eilís Dillon Award, is given each year as part of the Bisto Book Awards. She herself had won the main Bisto Book of the Year award in 1989 with The Island of Ghosts.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 15, 2015
Do you know what this book needed? Or rather, what the author needed, seeing as she was so keen to include (MILD SPOILER ALERT) the 1916 Rising? I mean, I see why it was important - to finally touch on victory for Ireland. But I did not want to read on, skipping through a gazillion years, dipping in random moments to introduce and complete yet another - somewhat pointless - story line, until there are great-grand children and the characters we began with are well into their eighties.
This book needed a sequel.
(SPOILERS...)
A sequel in which the author could indulge herself and write forever and ever and ever about Alice and Morgan's descendents and finally see Ireland independent.
I was really enjoying the book until about halfway through part six (I think), once Samuel had died and Alice and Morgan had married. From then on, it was just too focused on the Fenians and their cause. The story lost touch with the characters - we never even found out what happened exactly to Father Kenny.
Apart from my above complaint, I did enjoy this book. It just needed as sequel instead of squeezing everything in at the end.
This book needed a sequel.
(SPOILERS...)
A sequel in which the author could indulge herself and write forever and ever and ever about Alice and Morgan's descendents and finally see Ireland independent.
I was really enjoying the book until about halfway through part six (I think), once Samuel had died and Alice and Morgan had married. From then on, it was just too focused on the Fenians and their cause. The story lost touch with the characters - we never even found out what happened exactly to Father Kenny.
Apart from my above complaint, I did enjoy this book. It just needed as sequel instead of squeezing everything in at the end.
September 16, 2021
Loved it when I read it so long ago - and still remember it to this day.
September 1, 2010
A woman loves two men: one a wealthy landowner and the other a poor revolutionary. Don't you hate when that happens!
September 8, 2024
Compelling reading
Focussing on Samuel, Alice and Morgan, three friends of varying family and history, this novel takes the reader through Irish history. So much detail and description brings the places alive as the three come together and split, meeting again as Ireland fights for its independence.
Although there are an awful lot of characters to remember (not helped by the family tradition of naming children after their parents) it certainly brings to life the chaos and despair of the large families struggling to survive the potato famines and greedy landlords.
An informative and engaging read held together and grounded by a love triangle .
Focussing on Samuel, Alice and Morgan, three friends of varying family and history, this novel takes the reader through Irish history. So much detail and description brings the places alive as the three come together and split, meeting again as Ireland fights for its independence.
Although there are an awful lot of characters to remember (not helped by the family tradition of naming children after their parents) it certainly brings to life the chaos and despair of the large families struggling to survive the potato famines and greedy landlords.
An informative and engaging read held together and grounded by a love triangle .
June 16, 2024
History in the making
Took a long time to separate the characters until the end, but the story was well worth it! Good author.
Took a long time to separate the characters until the end, but the story was well worth it! Good author.
Want to Read
June 15, 2017I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14591390
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14591390
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews