The first critical synthesis of the Irish novel from the seventeenth century to the present day.

Derek Hand is a lecturer in English at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra.

Introduction: a history of the Irish novel: 1665-2010; Interchapter: Virtue Rewarded, or, The Irish Princess: burgeoning silence and the new novel form in Ireland; 1. Beginnings and endings: writing from the margins 1665-1800; Interchapter: beyond history: Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent; 2. Speak not my name or, the wings of Minerva: Irish fiction 1800-1891; Interchapter: Edith Somerville and Martin Ross's The Real Charlotte: the blooming menagerie; 3. Living in a time of epic: the Irish novel and literary revival and revolution, 1891-1922; Interchapter: James Joyce's Ulysses: choosing life; 4. Irish independence and the bureaucratic imagination: 1922-1939; Interchapter: Elizabeth Bowen's The Last September and the art of betrayal; 5. Enervated island - isolated Ireland? 1940-1960; Interchapter: John Banville's Doctor Copernicus: a revolution in the head; 6. The struggle of making it new 1960-1979; Interchapter: Seamus Deane's Reading in the Dark and the rebel act of interpretation; 7. Brave new worlds - Celtic tigers and moving statues: 1979 to the present day; Interchapter: John McGahern's That They May Face the Rising Sun: saying the very last things; Conclusion: the future of the Irish novel in the global literary marketplace; Bibliography.