STORIES OF THE IRISH PEASANTRY
Edinburgh, Scotland: William and Robert Chambers, 1840. First Edition. Hardcover. Quarto. 6.25 x 9.75 in., pp. 102. Dark brown half-calf over marbled boards. Sevin gilt bars to spine. Two-column text. Rubbing to extremities. Light staining to cover. 1 x .5 in. surface tear to front board; two small surarface tears to rear board. Corners are nudged. Previous owner's signature in pencil on title page and p. 59. Occasional light spotting throughout, but overall, clean and bright. Rare. Only four copyies listed in WorldCat, and only one first edition. Good. Item #85518
Some of the chapters include: "Too Early Wed"; "It's Only a Drop!"; "Do You Think I'd Inform?"; "It's Only the Bit and the Sup"; "The Follower of the Family"; "The Crock of Gold"; "The Wrecker, a Sea-Side Story"; "It's Only My Time"; "Going to Law"; "Union is Strength"; "Debt and Danger". Anna Marie Hall was born in Dublin on 6 January 1800. She lived with her mother, a widow named Sarah Elizabeth Fielding, and stepfather, George Carr of Graigie, Wexford, until 1815. The daughter came to England with her mother in 1815. Anna Maria was educated in part by Frances Arabella Rowden, who was not only a poet, but, according to Mary Mitford, "had a knack of making poetesses of her pupils" Hall's first recorded contribution to literature is an Irish sketch called "Master Ben", which appeared in The Spirit and Manners of the Age. Other tales followed. Eventually they were collected into a volume entitled Sketches of Irish Character, 1829, and henceforth she became an author by profession. In 1831, Hall published a second series of 'Sketches of Irish Character' fully equal to the first, which was well received. The first of her nine novels, The Buccaneer, 1832, is a story of the time of the Protectorate, and Oliver Cromwell is among the characters. To the New Monthly Magazine, which her husband was editing, she contributed Lights and Shadows of Irish Life, articles which were re-published in three volumes in 1838. In 1840, she issued what has been called the best of her novels, Marian, or a Young Maid's Fortunes, in which her knowledge of Irish character is again displayed in a style equal to anything written by Maria Edgeworth. Her next work was a series of "Stories of the Irish Peasantry," contributed to Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, and afterwards published in a collected form. Hall's sketches of her native land bear a closer resemblance to the tales of Mary Russell Mitford than to the Irish stories of John Banim or Gerald Griffin. They contain fine rural descriptions, and are animated by a healthy tone of moral feeling and a vein of delicate humour. Her books were never popular in Ireland, as she saw in each party much to praise and much to blame, so that she failed to please either the Orangemen or the Roman Catholics. She became a prolific writer, producing hundreds of sketches and stories for many papers, nine novels, and three dramas, as well as maintaining an energetic editorial career. She died 30 January 1881. (Adapted from Wikipedia and Dictionary of Irish Biography).
Price: $650.00