Description
Book SynopsisTaking the alleged death of Mrs John Hatch (nee Synge) in 1767 as a focal point, this book explores the varied strands of the Synge family tree in eighteenth and nineteenth century Ireland. It documents key events in the family's history, including a suicide in 1769 which is echoed in an early Synge play.
Trade Review'I believe this is a model for a new kind of literary-historical project... It is not biography, literary history or criticism, but it is this awkwardness that is also the work's major strength. McCormack is probably the leading authority on Irish protestant culture in the C18th and C19th.' - Richard Kirkland
Table of ContentsIntroducing - the Synges from Bridgnorth, Shropshire
Part 1 - Settings
1. Lands Elsewhere: Wicklow
2. Other people: The Hatches
3. A little learning
4. The Mill at Amino
5. The state of the roads
Part 2 - Hatched, matched and despatched
6. An MP and his wife
7. Death in the mountains
8. A battle of wills
9. On debt
Part 3 - The Devil's Glen
10. Roundwood and after
11. Her brother's will, 1792
12. The sceond Archdiaconate
13. Rebellion, union and family romance
Part 4 - Affairs with the moon
14. How Pestalozzi reached Wicklow
15. Melmoth, the Stay-at-Home
16. In Darby's field
Part 5 - Literature at nurse
17. John Hatch, a country doctor
18. Windfalls
19. Work house insurgency
Part 6 - Concerning J.M. Synge (1871-1909)
20. Madness and local government
21. Insulting 'The Playboy'
22. A county in romance
23. The wounded dramatist takes his bow
