Overview

This sharp and stylish biography redefines the woman George Bernard Shaw once described as 'the greatest living Irishwoman'-Augusta Gregory. A remarkable figure in Celtic history, she was married to an MP and land-owner, yet retained an unprecedented independence of both thought and deed, actively championing causes close to her heart. At once conservative and radical in her beliefs, she saw no conflict in idealizing and mythologizing the Irish peasantry, for example, while her landlord husband introduced legislation that would, in part, lead to the widespread misery, poverty and starvation of the Great Famine. Nevertheless, as founder of the Abbey Theatre, an outspoken opponent of censorship, and mentor, muse and mother-figure to W.B. Yeats, Augusta Gregory played a pivotal role in shaping Irish literary and dramatic history. Moreover, despite her parents' early predictions of spinsterhood, she was no matronly figure, engaging in a passionate affair while newly-wedded and, as she approached sixty, falling for a man almost twenty years her junior.

Full Product Details

9780330419932

Table of Contents

Reviews

Biographical portraits are too often nowadays smudged in a surfeit of words . . . this one is a brilliant illumination. * Spectator *

'Biographical portraits are too often nowadays smudged in a surfeit of words... this one is a brilliant illumination' Spectator

Author Information

Colm Tóibín was born in Ireland in 1955. He is the author of ten previous novels, including The Master, Brooklyn, and The Magician, and two collections of stories. He has been three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 2021, he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature. Tóibín is the current Laureate for Irish fiction.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available