, Lawless’s third Irish novel, has a simple plot made vivid by the complex psychology of its eponymous protagonist, and the intense evocations of lifestyle, landscape, and weather of the Aran Islands in Galway Bay, off Ireland’s west coast.

was first published in 1894 in London, by Smith, Elder, and Co., and was favourably reviewed by the

,

,

, and

, among others. The

remarked that there was “nothing to equal this in Irish literature” (qtd. in Hansson 72-3); the poet and man of letters Algernon Charles Swinburne wrote that “it is one of the books about which there can be but one opinion among all readers above the intellectual and moral level of a chimpanzee” (qtd. in Sichel 85). For Yeats, Lawless’s “imperfect…

4196 words

Citation: Smith, Catherine . "Grania". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 February 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34880, accessed 26 April 2024.]