‘Power to Observe’: Irish Women Novelists in Britain, 1890–1916(62 Reimagining Ireland)

Irish women flourished in the publishing world at the turn of the twentieth century, and a number of the most popular and prolific of these authors chose to live and work in Britain. As expatriates, these women occupied a complex cultural space between Ireland and Britain from which they were able to observe the rapidly altering political landscape in their homeland and, in particular, the debates that concerned them as women. This book examines the lives and literature of six Irish novelists – Emily Lawless, L. T. Meade, George Egerton, Katherine Cecil Thurston, M. E. Francis and Katharine Tynan – who lived and worked in Britain between the years 1890 and 1916, between them producing nearly 500 published works. Drawing on a range of their novels, this study explores their participation in the prevailing debates of the era: the Irish Question and the Woman Question. This book was the winner of the 2013 Peter Lang Young Scholars Competition in Irish Studies.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Irish Women, British Politics, and the Novel – A View from ‘Both Sides’: Emily Lawless’s Rebellion Novels and the Irish Question – ‘You Can’t Have a Big World If You Only Just Know This Part’: The Critique of Cultural Insularity in the Novels of L. T. Meade – ‘No Country’ for Old Maids: Escaping Ireland in the Novels of George Egerton and Katherine Cecil Thurston – ‘Your Dream-Ireland Does Not Exist’: M. E. Francis, Catholicism, and the Irish Literary Establishment – ‘Affection for England and Love of Ireland’: The Altering Landscapes of Katharine Tynan – Writing about Ireland; Writing about Problems.

About the Author :
Whitney Standlee lectures in English Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Worcester. Her research interests include late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Irish women’s writing and women’s contributions to popular culture after 1880. She has published on the politics of Irish women’s writing, land war fiction and the Irish Künstlerroman. Currently, she is co-editing the forthcoming collection Irish Women’s Writing 1878-1922: Advancing the Cause of Liberty.

Review :
"The strengths of "Power to Observe" lie in the author's meticulous research and thorough command of her subject matter. ... [This] is an important work that offers fresh perspectives on the lives and works of Irish women writers who forged professional careers in Britain between 1890 and 1916." (Janis Dawson, English Literature in Transition, 59/2016)