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Ireland
A new collection of nineteen stories--originally published in The Collected Stories and After the Rain--explores the complexities of rural and middle-class Irish life, capturing the people and their love, faith, duty, and survival in a culture that blends transformation with tradition. Original.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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About the author
William Trevor
177 books761 followersWilliam Trevor, KBE grew up in various provincial towns and attended a number of schools, graduating from Trinity College, in Dublin, with a degree in history. He first exercised his artistry as a sculptor, working as a teacher in Northern Ireland and then emigrated to England in search of work when the school went bankrupt. He could have returned to Ireland once he became a successful writer, he said, "but by then I had become a wanderer, and one way and another, I just stayed in England ... I hated leaving Ireland. I was very bitter at the time. But, had it not happened, I think I might never have written at all."
In 1958 Trevor published his first novel, A Standard of Behaviour, to little critical success. Two years later, he abandoned sculpting completely, feeling his work had become too abstract, and found a job writing copy for a London advertising agency. 'This was absurd,' he said. 'They would give me four lines or so to write and four or five days to write it in. It was so boring. But they had given me this typewriter to work on, so I just started writing stories. I sometimes think all the people who were missing in my sculpture gushed out into the stories.' He published several short stories, then his second and third novels, which both won the Hawthornden Prize (established in 1919 by Alice Warrender and named after William Drummond of Hawthornden, the Hawthornden Prize is one of the UK's oldest literary awards). A number of other prizes followed, and Trevor began working full-time as a writer in 1965.
Since then, Trevor has published nearly 40 novels, short story collections, plays, and collections of nonfiction. He has won three Whitbread Awards, a PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 1977 Trevor was appointed an honorary (he holds Irish, not British, citizenship) Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to literature and in 2002 he was elevated to honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE). Since he began writing, William Trevor regularly spends half the year in Italy or Switzerland, often visiting Ireland in the other half. He lived in Devon, in South West England, on an old mill surrounded by 40 acres of land.
In 1958 Trevor published his first novel, A Standard of Behaviour, to little critical success. Two years later, he abandoned sculpting completely, feeling his work had become too abstract, and found a job writing copy for a London advertising agency. 'This was absurd,' he said. 'They would give me four lines or so to write and four or five days to write it in. It was so boring. But they had given me this typewriter to work on, so I just started writing stories. I sometimes think all the people who were missing in my sculpture gushed out into the stories.' He published several short stories, then his second and third novels, which both won the Hawthornden Prize (established in 1919 by Alice Warrender and named after William Drummond of Hawthornden, the Hawthornden Prize is one of the UK's oldest literary awards). A number of other prizes followed, and Trevor began working full-time as a writer in 1965.
Since then, Trevor has published nearly 40 novels, short story collections, plays, and collections of nonfiction. He has won three Whitbread Awards, a PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 1977 Trevor was appointed an honorary (he holds Irish, not British, citizenship) Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to literature and in 2002 he was elevated to honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE). Since he began writing, William Trevor regularly spends half the year in Italy or Switzerland, often visiting Ireland in the other half. He lived in Devon, in South West England, on an old mill surrounded by 40 acres of land.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 24, 2007
This weekend I was re-reading some of these stories and it reinforced my opinion that William Trevor is right up there with Sean O' Faolain and Frank O' Connor as an absolute master of the short story form. His stories tend a little more towards the bittersweet - one is less likely to encounter a story as overtly comical as O' Connor's "First Confession", or O' Faolain's "Dividends". To me, the finest story in the collection is "The Ballroom of Romance", but there really isn't a bad story in the book.
October 25, 2020
Loved his writing style but all the short stories were quite deep with sad and mundane endings about life.
September 7, 2018
I've just recently discovered William Trevor, and I plan to read a lot more of his works. Known best in the USA as a short story writer, Trevor has penned a score of superb novels and novellas as well. These tales, all taking place in an Ireland that is as green and wet and lonely as you could want, are for the most part terrifically engaging and wonderful. There's a thematic unity in this book that makes you want to get on the first plane and fly to Dublin. Highly recommended.
January 28, 2008
I've been a William Trevor fan for a few years now, and Ireland is doing nothing to challenge my status as such. Trevor's lyrical style is at once deft and blunt, but can at turns also be delicate and heartbreaking in a way that only the Irish can.
June 26, 2021
Masterful short story writers make their craft seem easy. They give you a window to the world that is as accessible and intimate as if you were part of the story. In William Trevor’s case, the writing is so mellifluous that your instinct is to feel a bit guilty for eavesdropping on the lives of his characters.
Ireland is a 1998 collection of previously published stories by Trevor, and my own introduction to his work. Trevor, an Irishman who spent most of his long life in England, died in 2016 and is widely recognized as one of the finest short story writers in the English language. After reading this book, I understand why.
I can’t easily explain why I love Trevor‘s stories, but I do. There’s very little going on in them--at least on the outside. Yet he relates in a rich but digestible style the inner workings of his characters' hearts and minds, and explores their circumstances with a deft gift for description and pacing. He reveals the undercurrent of his characters' lives and so provides a touchstone for our own experiences. Though his stories are often set in the Ireland of the 1940s, there is a universal quality to them that is no doubt part of his global appeal.
We read about two brothers on a long awaited trip to the Holy Land who learn that their mother has passed away back home. We see them react differently to that news and learn about their delicate family dynamic in the process, which spurs us to consider the sensitivities of our own complicated family relationships.
We catch a glimpse of a young woman and her visits with her father, who has divorced her mother and no longer lives with them. He faithfully spends time with her, but their activity is always the same--oysters and drinks at the local pub, and the same surface chitchat interrupted by horse racing advice to various patrons. She takes the bus home; he leaves to his flat. Little happens, yet Trevor masterfully explores her self-doubts, her love for her dad, her worries about the life he leads and whether she could take care of him when she's older. We wonder about the echoes of familiarity with our own relationships.
Similar to Chekhov, Trevor's stories begin and end rather abruptly. This is part of their magic to me. We, the reader, are left to fill in the gaps. I found myself wondering often what became of the characters. In an interview with the BBC before he passed, Trevor said himself that this was part of the magic of short stories. I agree. But for the parts he does reveal to us, he makes a masterwork of it. I'll be on to more from him soon. To think I stumbled across this collection in a used book shop in Denver.
Ireland is a 1998 collection of previously published stories by Trevor, and my own introduction to his work. Trevor, an Irishman who spent most of his long life in England, died in 2016 and is widely recognized as one of the finest short story writers in the English language. After reading this book, I understand why.
I can’t easily explain why I love Trevor‘s stories, but I do. There’s very little going on in them--at least on the outside. Yet he relates in a rich but digestible style the inner workings of his characters' hearts and minds, and explores their circumstances with a deft gift for description and pacing. He reveals the undercurrent of his characters' lives and so provides a touchstone for our own experiences. Though his stories are often set in the Ireland of the 1940s, there is a universal quality to them that is no doubt part of his global appeal.
We read about two brothers on a long awaited trip to the Holy Land who learn that their mother has passed away back home. We see them react differently to that news and learn about their delicate family dynamic in the process, which spurs us to consider the sensitivities of our own complicated family relationships.
We catch a glimpse of a young woman and her visits with her father, who has divorced her mother and no longer lives with them. He faithfully spends time with her, but their activity is always the same--oysters and drinks at the local pub, and the same surface chitchat interrupted by horse racing advice to various patrons. She takes the bus home; he leaves to his flat. Little happens, yet Trevor masterfully explores her self-doubts, her love for her dad, her worries about the life he leads and whether she could take care of him when she's older. We wonder about the echoes of familiarity with our own relationships.
Similar to Chekhov, Trevor's stories begin and end rather abruptly. This is part of their magic to me. We, the reader, are left to fill in the gaps. I found myself wondering often what became of the characters. In an interview with the BBC before he passed, Trevor said himself that this was part of the magic of short stories. I agree. But for the parts he does reveal to us, he makes a masterwork of it. I'll be on to more from him soon. To think I stumbled across this collection in a used book shop in Denver.
January 16, 2019
William Trevor is clearly a gifted writer and I’d consider this a great collection of stories because of the writing but there is one caveat… it’s so depressing. There are 19 short stories about Ireland and I don’t recall one happy moment nevermind a happy ending.
All of the stories are set in Ireland and are about lost opportunity, jilted lovers, lamenting getting old, suffocating religion, abused young maids and of course plenty of death. Often losers in the stories are stuck because any friends or family with a lick of sense have emigrated to England, Canada, or America. Now I find it hard to believe this is the same group of people who came up with songs like, “Wild Rover” and “Whisky in a Jar”!
Just for example: The first story is The Ballroom Romance...
“..Bridies father, who couldn’t get about anymore, having had a leg amputated after gangrene had set in. They’d had a pony and cart then and Bridie’s mother had been alive: it hadn’t been difficult for the two of them to help her father on to the cart in order to make the journey to Mass. But two years later the pony had gone lame and eventually had to be destroyed; not long after that her mother had died.”
This story is set in the 1950’s. Bridie, a 36 year old woman who is taking care of her handicapped father is a small rural Irish farm town. She goes to a small dank dance hall once a week hoping she’ll meet a man to marry. There are few prospects given she must stay in town and take care of her father so her prospects for a decent marriage are slim. She is down to one alcoholic jerk who she is actually considering marrying.
The final story in the collection is:
-Kathleen’s Field
A young girl, Kathleen, is sent off to be a servant for a wealthy family to pay for the fields her already broke family wants to buy. She works for a nasty, arrogant woman and her husband who is a creepy lech who won’t keep his hands off the young girl. The young girl's family is desperate and she is emotionally broken down. It’s well written but ends this book with the most depressing story of all.
There are NINETEEN stories that are just about this depressing. Great writing but holy smokes that's a lot of depression. I think this collection should come with a warning. “Don’t read all of these stories at one time or at least, double up on your antidepressants before you do!”
All of the stories are set in Ireland and are about lost opportunity, jilted lovers, lamenting getting old, suffocating religion, abused young maids and of course plenty of death. Often losers in the stories are stuck because any friends or family with a lick of sense have emigrated to England, Canada, or America. Now I find it hard to believe this is the same group of people who came up with songs like, “Wild Rover” and “Whisky in a Jar”!
Just for example: The first story is The Ballroom Romance...
“..Bridies father, who couldn’t get about anymore, having had a leg amputated after gangrene had set in. They’d had a pony and cart then and Bridie’s mother had been alive: it hadn’t been difficult for the two of them to help her father on to the cart in order to make the journey to Mass. But two years later the pony had gone lame and eventually had to be destroyed; not long after that her mother had died.”
This story is set in the 1950’s. Bridie, a 36 year old woman who is taking care of her handicapped father is a small rural Irish farm town. She goes to a small dank dance hall once a week hoping she’ll meet a man to marry. There are few prospects given she must stay in town and take care of her father so her prospects for a decent marriage are slim. She is down to one alcoholic jerk who she is actually considering marrying.
The final story in the collection is:
-Kathleen’s Field
A young girl, Kathleen, is sent off to be a servant for a wealthy family to pay for the fields her already broke family wants to buy. She works for a nasty, arrogant woman and her husband who is a creepy lech who won’t keep his hands off the young girl. The young girl's family is desperate and she is emotionally broken down. It’s well written but ends this book with the most depressing story of all.
There are NINETEEN stories that are just about this depressing. Great writing but holy smokes that's a lot of depression. I think this collection should come with a warning. “Don’t read all of these stories at one time or at least, double up on your antidepressants before you do!”
August 17, 2023
Some of these stories blew me away. Downstairs at Fitzgerald's was easily one of the best short stories I have ever read
January 4, 2019
Every story is a gem.
December 20, 2007
Such a painful collection of short stories. The subjects of the stories are what is painful, not the writing. William Trevor has a great talent of capturing life's little tragedies (sometimes not so little). I can't decide if he was a depressed person, or just very observant. I love these stories though, even though they deal with sad subject matters. I feel like they make me more sensitive to people around me. A couple of the stories (I won't say which) are a voice for my own personal tragedies, which makes them very painful to read but also very touching and personal.
May 28, 2007
It's sad that this book seems to be widely unavailable/out of print, because it's brilliant. Beautiful snapshots of overlooked lives.
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December 31, 2010God these stories are depressing.
March 8, 2011
Some were very good, some were fairly boring/a bit melodramatic. Decent collection overall.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews