J M Synge was one of the key dramatists in the flourishing world of Irish literature at the turn of the century. This volume offers all of Synge's plays, which range from racy comedy to stark tragedy, all sharing a memorable lyricism. The introduction sets Synge's work in the context of the Irish literary movement, with special attention to his role as one of the founders of the Abbey Theatre and his work alongside W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory. Includes: Riders to the Sea; The Shadow of the Glen; The Tinker's Wedding; The Well of the Saints; The Play of the Western World; Deirdre of the Sorrows ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

A re-issue of the collected plays by one of Ireland's most celebrated writers In The Shadow of the Glen an old man tests his wife's commitment by feigning death; Riders to the Sea is inspired by Synge's stay on the Aran Islands and shadows the death of a way of life as a mother sees her sons die before her eyes; The Tinker's Wedding is about a woman's desire for marriage to her tinker husband and is full of Synge's fascination for the tinker breed who had freed themselves from govenment and conventions while giving way to instincts of sexual promsicuity, fighting and drinking; The Well of Saints is set near a holy well known for its cures of blindness and epilepsy and centres on the figure of Martin Doul, who is blind and has two illusions - the first, that he and his wife Mary are a handsome couple and the second, that the visible world is full of wonder and delight; The Playboy of the Western World, in which a young man lies about the death of his father offended audiences when first produced in 1907 on account of its 'immodest' references to Irish womanhood and aroused a prolonged and bitter controversy, which lasted until the author's death in 1909; Deirdre of the Sorrows is Synge's last play, published posthumously and tells the story of a young and beautiful girl, destined to be the bride of an ageing king who elopes with a younger man and after the magical seven years returns only to bring with her the destruction of a city.

Synge, who came from a middle-class Protestant family near Dublin, created a huge scandal at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, where The Playboy was staged in 1907, because its audience did not take kindly to a comedy that seemed to portray the Irish as violent, superstitious sots and swaggerers. Synge relied on and at the same time mocked the Irish dramatic movement and its ambition to create realistic drama that was also poetically beautiful. The play is set 'near a village, on a wild coast of Mayo'. On the first day, a stranger arrives and declares that he is on the run because he has killed his father - for this, the villagers turn him into a hero. On the second day, however, his father arrives walking wounded, and although Christy knocks him down with a spade, his father seems impossible to kill. The set off together, still quarrelling, and the villagers are bereft of their excitement.

Heroic man and "the lies of history," the myths that surrounded them, were vital to the Irish poet William Butler Yeats. This study examines the four Anglo-Irish historical figures who dominated his life and art: Oscar Wilde, Charles Stewart Parnell, Jonathan Swift, and Roger Casement. All were creators—whether they conceived their life artistically, conceived an intellectual vision of Ireland free, or made lasting art. Their powers were matched by the magnitude of their defeat, for all, except Swift, were violently crucified by the mob for their irregular private lives. In defeat, however, they revealed transcendent heroism, as they faced their enemies with aristocratic disdain and unfailing bravery. Their constantly recreated heroic images inspired and haunted Yeats in art and politics, showed him ways to remake himself and to reconcile his devotion to art with his duty to Ireland. Yeats's Heroic Figures traces the intersections of the vivid figures in the "human drama" Yeats saw as history from 1883 to 1938, and considers their shaping forces upon Yeats's art, philosophy, and life. It is the first study to consider these four heroes together, and it brings to light much material previously neglected in comprehensive studies of Yeats.