A Critical Reappraisal of the Writings of Francis Sylvester Mahony
ISBN: 9780429439988
Platform/Publisher: Taylor & Francis / Routledge
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited



This book resituates Francis Sylvester Mahony in an early nineteenth-century literary-historical context, counteracting the efforts of twentieth-century literary historians to obscure his contribution to the emergence of a distinctive Irish Catholic fiction in English. This volume re-explores his ambivalent role as a Catholic unionist contributor to the progressive Tory London periodical, Fraser's Magazine , examining his use of translation to map out an alternative literary aesthetic of the peripheries. The book also traces the development of his political thinking in his Italian journalism for Charles Dickens' Daily News , in which he responded to the events of the Famine by finding common cause with Young Ireland, and looks afresh at his final incarnation as a British Liberal commentator on Irish and European affairs for the Globe newspaper. More broadly, the book seeks to re-evaluate Mahony's cosmopolitan writings in relation to the multifaceted, transnational perspectives on Irish, British, and European affairs presented in his essays and journalism.


Fergus Dunne received his Ph.D. in Anglo-Irish literature at the University of Sussex. His dissertation presented a critical reappraisal of the texts and contexts of Francis Sylvester Mahony. He has published several articles on various aspects of Mahony's literary and journalistic careers in international peer-reviewed journals.

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