The Year of the French
A Fiction, Irish Literature, Cultural book. Music and dance. What I have written must surely suggest a people cursed...
In 1798, Irish patriots, committed to freeing their country from England, landed with a company of French troops in County Mayo, in westernmost Ireland. They were supposed to be an advance guard, followed by other French ships with the leader of the rebellion, Wolfe Tone. Briefly they triumphed, raising hopes among the impoverished local peasantry and gathering a group of supporters. But before long the insurgency collapsed in the face of a...
Download or read The Year of the French in PDF formats. You may also find other subjects related with The Year of the French.
- Filetype: PDF
- Pages: 656 pages
- ISBN: 9780099272182 / 99272180
Skai5rd3Ub.pdf
More About The Year of the French
Music and dance. What I have written must surely suggest a people cursed by Heaven,... No people on earth, I am persuaded, loves music so well, nor dance, nor oratory, though the music falls strangely on my ears... More than once I have been at Mr. Treacy's when at close of dinner, some traveling harper would be called in, blind as often as not, his fingernails kept long and the mysteries of his art hidden in their horny ridges. The music would come to us with the sadness of a lost world, each note a messenger sent wandering among the Waterford goblets....
I don't expect to review or rate too many books, but here's one I just had to, mostly because I'm going to start Flannagan's final book on Ireland soon. This one, which I read years ago, is one of the most underrated I can think of. Sad, beautiful, frightening... once I let the adjectives get going, they won't stop. Literature, history... There is a traditional Irish ballad, 'The Wind That Shakes the Barley', that kept coming to mind as I read this. It tells the story of a young man who leaves his love to fight for the United Irishmen in 1798, alongside the French, against English rule, and about his fate. It is sad, and dark, and beautiful, and true (in that way that... Also by Thomas Flanagan: Tenants of Time and The End of the Hunt, both 4 star
