Irish novels, 1890-1940 : new bearings in culture and fiction / John Wilson Foster.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"A deplorable facility" : popular fiction -- "When the tide turns" : after the Victorians -- A new theology : Protestantism and the Irish novel -- "Their patience folly?" : Catholicism and the Irish fiction -- Bad blood : sectarianism in the Irish novel -- Studies in green : the condition of Ireland I -- "Society--spelt big" : the condition of Ireland II -- Tiercel and lure : love and marriage -- Métier de femme : new woman fiction -- Fine de siècle : new women, art, and decadence -- Science and the supernatural : among genres I -- Dracula and detection : among genres II -- "Years of the shadow" : writings of the Great War -- "This sharp, bitter cleavage" : war and the rising -- "The ladies' road" : women novelists 1922-1940 -- A note on Joyce and popular fiction.

"Studies of Irish fiction are still scanty in contrast to studies of Irish poetry and drama. Attempting to fill a large critical vacancy, Irish Novels 1890-1940 is a comprehensive survey of popular and minor fiction (mainly novels) published between 1890 and 1922, a critical period in Irish cultural and political history. Since these sixty-odd writers have rarely, if ever, been discussed (Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker are the chief exceptions), the book opens up for further exploration a literary landscape, hitherto neglected, perhaps even unsuspected. This new landscape should alter the familiar perspectives on Irish literature of the period, first of all by adding genre fiction (science fiction, detective novels, ghost stories, New Woman fiction, and Great War novels) to the Irish syllabus, secondly by demonstrating the immense contribution of women writers to popular and mainstream Irish fiction."--BOOK JACKET.