Ireland and the Fiction of Improvement

This study of ‘improving’ fiction produced in Ireland in the 19th century demonstrates how this pamphlet literature shaped the mainstream literary culture. While uncovering previously neglected material, O’Connell also sheds new light on the work of Maria Edgeworth, Mary Leadbeater, William Carleton, Thomas Davis, J. M. Synge, W. B. Yeats, and others.