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Irish Review (Dublin) Celtic Wonder Tales by Ella Young; Maud Gonne The Irish Review (Dublin), Vol. 1, No. 1 (Mar., 1911), pp. 50-51 Published by: Irish Review (Dublin) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30062649 . Accessed: 16/06/2014 23:59 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Irish Review (Dublin) is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Irish Review (Dublin). http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 62.122.76.48 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 23:59:01 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Page 1: Celtic Wonder Talesby Ella Young; Maud Gonne

Irish Review (Dublin)

Celtic Wonder Tales by Ella Young; Maud GonneThe Irish Review (Dublin), Vol. 1, No. 1 (Mar., 1911), pp. 50-51Published by: Irish Review (Dublin)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30062649 .

Accessed: 16/06/2014 23:59

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Irish Review (Dublin) is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Irish Review(Dublin).

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.76.48 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 23:59:01 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Celtic Wonder Talesby Ella Young; Maud Gonne

THE IRISH REVIEW

Socialists," and, indeed, " Young Egypt," are glimpses of discovery. The book has not a very close unity. "The Philosophy of Politics " troubles one in reading because it has been left in the form of a lecture, and " A Frenchman's Ireland " is inconclusive without the book for which it was written as an introduction. The personalty of the author is best revealed in " Body v. Soul" and " The Fatigue of Anatole France." Such a title as "The Day's Burden" is suggested in a passage that reviews Francis Thompson's case for the body. " The human frame has . . . under this burden and under the complications of modern life suffered a radical diminution of sheer vital power. No faculty has increased except the faculty of suffering, for, in the elaboration of its nerves it has become as it were soaked in mind." And this sentence has its complement in another essay: " A pessimism stabbed and gashed in the radiance of epigrams, as a thunder cloud is stabbed by lightning, is a type of spiritual life far from contemptible." But these must be read with the profession made in " The Philosophy of Politics." Cynicism, however excusable in literature, is in life the last treachery, the irredeemable defeat. We must be content, or try to be content with little. But we must continue to be loyal to the instinct that makes us hope much; we must believe in all the Utopias.

From this on Mr. Kettle's work will be social and constructive. But we hope he will not silence altogether that part of himself which has affinities with pessimistic literature and pessimistic philosophy.

"CELTIC WONDER TALES.5"* Re-told by ELLA YOUNG. Illustrated and Decorated by MAUD GONNE. Dublin: MAUNSEL

& Co. Price, 3s. 6d.

T HERE are certain books needed in Ireland. One is an anthology of Gaelic poems, the other is a book of Gaelic stories written for young people. We have now got the second book. For

these tales of the De Danaans and the Ultonians there could be no better shanachie than Miss Ella Young. For her Ancient Ireland is a spiritual reality that continually feeds the imagination. Her heart is in the stories, and she tells them in a manner that is natural, simple, and distinguished. We feel that like the older stories, Miss Young's versions were told first and written afterwards. Some are humorous, some heroic, some mystical. " The Eric-fine of Lugh," " Conary Mor," " The Children of Lir," are the finest and the most elaborate. There

* We were not favoured with a copy ot this book for review.

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Page 3: Celtic Wonder Talesby Ella Young; Maud Gonne

NEW BOOKS

are fourteen stories in the book, and we are sorry that there are not a great many more. Will Miss Young give us another series ? The cycle of the fianna does not come into the present book, and in formal Irish history there are many incidents that would capture Miss Young's imagination and suit her style of presentation.

" Celtic Wonder Tales " is illustrated and decorated by Madam Gonne. Some of the pictures do not seem to be of the same world as the stories, but the symbols, initials and tale-pieces are all in keeping with the text. These are very happy, very distinctive, and very Celtic.

"LABOUR IN IRISH HISTORY."* By JAMES CONNOLLY.

Dublin: MAUNSEL & Co., LTD. Price, 2s. 6d. net.

M R. CONNOLLY has written an extremely interesting and an extremely stimulating book. Inflamed with a burning sincerity and passion it presents the Irish working-class as the helots of

the State. Such a work has, of course, the defects of its qualities. The author's main thesis is, that " in the evolution of civilisation the progress of the fight for national liberty of any subject nation must, perforce, keep pace with the progress of the struggle for liberty of the most subject class in that nation." Mr. Connolly displays a wide reading of Irish history, especially since 1782, and many of his chapters recall important facts and episodes that have been too often forgotten. A follower of Marx, Mr. Connolly's is probably the first work published in this country which definitely applies a Marxist interpretation to the Irish problem. Behind all political movements the author sees the economic driving forces. Such a view frequently illuminates the dark places of history, so constantly are men moved by consideration for their material interests. At the same time there are, of course, things the Marxist theory does not explain, and it is easy to criticise its weakness. For instance, if capitalism be but an inevitable phase of economic evolution, nor to be escaped by man in his social progress, then it is idle and illicit for Marxists to write of it as if it were a special product of human wickedness. Questions of theoretical detail apart, however, the main idea and purpose of Mr. Connolly's work is thoroughly sound. On the social development, the moral and material progress of the masses of the people, must surely depend the real worth and glory of a State.

This is decidedly a book which those interested in the problems and the thoughts of present-day Ireland cannot afford to miss.

* We were not favoured with a copy of this book for review.

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