Foughilotra: A Forbye Story

(no dust jacket) [quite a decent copy, with modest wear to edges and extremities, a couple of small dents in bottom edge of front cover, foxing/soiling to top edge of text block, small bits of scarring/tape remnants on both front and rear pastedowns, gilt spine lettering still bright and easily readable]. The second of just two books by this Irish doctor, who lived and practiced for most of his life in the Poyntzpass district of Northern Ireland. In addition to his medical practice he was a frequent contributor to the "All Ireland Review," from which the present work (according to a prefatory note) was reprinted. This episodic novel seems to revolve around a woman named Jinnyann, and is partially narrated by her; in the early chapters, she relates her encounters with a "sperrit," but it's not clear to me how much of the rest of the book deals with supernatural matters. The Foreword states: "The term 'forbye,' qualifying the title of this Story, in the Ulster idiomatic sense, means out-of-the-way, strange, extraordinary. In regard to the plot and some of the incidents, the Story is forbye in this sense, but otherwise the reader may find in it something bearing in ordinary life on the formation of character in individuals, families, and nations." (It seems worth noting that MacDermott's Wikipedia entry states that the book was written "entirely in the local dialect of Poyntzpass.")

Product Info

Publisher: Sealy, Bryers and Walker

Year: [1906]

Type: Used

Binding: Hardcover

First Edition

Seller Info

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