Navigation

The Aran Islands

Availability: Out of Stock
ISBN: 9780140184327
AuthorSynge, J.M.
Pub Date15/06/1992
BindingPaperback
Pages208
CountryGBR
Dewey914.174804
SeriesPenguin Modern Classics
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Quick overview Records the author's visits to the Aran Islands in 1898-1901, when he was gathering the folklore and anecdotes out of which he forged "The Playboy of the Western World" and his other major dramas.
€13.82

In 1907 J. M. Synge achieved both notoriety and lasting fame with The Playboy of the Western World. The Aran Islands, published in the same year, records his visits to the islands in 1898-1901, when he was gathering the folklore and anecdotes out of which he forged The Playboy and his other major dramas.

Yet this book is much more than a stage in the evolution of Synge the dramatist. As Tim Robinson explains in his introduction, "If Ireland is intriguing as being an island off the west of Europe, then Aran, as an island off the west of Ireland, is still more so; it is Ireland raised to the power of two." Towards the end of the last century Irish nationalists came to identify the area as the country's uncorrupted heart, the repository of its ancient language, culture and spiritual values. It was for these reasons that Yeats suggested Synge visit the islands to record their way of life. The result is a passionate exploration of a triangle of contradictory relationships - between an island community still embedded in its ancestral ways but solicited by modernism, a physical environment of ascetic loveliness and savagely unpredictable moods, and Synge himself, formed by modern European thought but in love with the primitive.

*
*
*
Product description

In 1907 J. M. Synge achieved both notoriety and lasting fame with The Playboy of the Western World. The Aran Islands, published in the same year, records his visits to the islands in 1898-1901, when he was gathering the folklore and anecdotes out of which he forged The Playboy and his other major dramas.

Yet this book is much more than a stage in the evolution of Synge the dramatist. As Tim Robinson explains in his introduction, "If Ireland is intriguing as being an island off the west of Europe, then Aran, as an island off the west of Ireland, is still more so; it is Ireland raised to the power of two." Towards the end of the last century Irish nationalists came to identify the area as the country's uncorrupted heart, the repository of its ancient language, culture and spiritual values. It was for these reasons that Yeats suggested Synge visit the islands to record their way of life. The result is a passionate exploration of a triangle of contradictory relationships - between an island community still embedded in its ancestral ways but solicited by modernism, a physical environment of ascetic loveliness and savagely unpredictable moods, and Synge himself, formed by modern European thought but in love with the primitive.

Customers who bought this item also bought

Eileen Gray: Her Life and Work

Adam, Peter
9780500343548
A fascinating rediscovery of the life and work of Eileen Gray, one of the twentieth century's most important designers.
€35.07

80: A Memoir

Bewick, Pauline
9781851321919
Ireland's best-known artist celebrates her eightieth birthday with a refreshingly honest memoir of an extraordinary life. From growing up in County Kerry to becoming an internationally successful artist, Bewick remains an intregral part of Ireland's cultural legacy.
€23.31

The Education of an Idealist

Power, Samantha
9780008274924
'Her highly personal and reflective memoir ... is a must-read for anyone who cares about our role in a changing world' Barack Obama THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR A TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT BOOK OF THE YEAR
€12.80