Vertue Rewarded; or, The Irish Princess (1693) is one of the earliest examples of Irish prose fiction. Published in London, the novel is set in and around Clonmel, in August 1690, during the wars between the Jacobite James II and the Dutch Protestant William of Orange, later William III. Remarkably, the principal narrative concerning the young Irishwoman Marinda and the foreign Prince of S_______g, is interwoven with interpolated tales, including that of the Irish princess Cluaneesha, set in pre-Norman Ireland, and of the south American Indian Faniaca, whose story begins in Peru during the Spanish conquest of the Incas. Grounding its romance narrative in a detailed Irish setting, Vertue Rewarded draws American material from Royal Commentaries (1688), a translation by the diplomat and scholar, Sir Paul Rycaut, recently Chief Secretary for Ireland, of the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega's account of native resistance to Spanish imperialism. This edition presents an original-spelling text, with an introduction and extensive annotation designed to make the book readily accessible to scholars, postgraduate and undergraduate students.

Vertue Rewarded; or, The Irish Princess, A New Novel, was first published in 1693 and has never been reprinted until now, almost 300 years since that first publication. An intriguing feature of the work is that its author is unknown and likely to remain so. Only two copies appear to have survived, one of which is in the Bodleian Library, the other in the British Museum. The present text is taken from the British Museum copy. Set in the year 1690, the story is of a foreign prince serving in the army of King William of Orange, billeted in the town of Clonmel, in Ireland. On his first day in the town, the prince falls heavily in love with a Clonmel girl. He is determined to have an affair with the girl and makes numerous attempts to seduce her. Finally, the girl's virtue is rewarded by the prince's agreeing to marry her, and she becomes an 'Irish Princess'.

This book offers the first comprehensive survey of writing by women in Ireland from the seventeenth century to the present day. It covers literature in all genres, including poetry, drama, and fiction, as well as life-writing and unpublished writing, and addresses work in both English and Irish. The chapters are authored by leading experts in their field, giving readers an introduction to cutting edge research on each period and topic. Survey chapters give an essential historical overview, and are complemented by a focus on selected topics such as the short story, and key figures whose relationship to the narrative of Irish literary history is analysed and reconsidered. Demonstrating the pioneering achievements of a huge number of many hitherto neglected writers, A History of Modern Irish Women's Literature makes a critical intervention in Irish literary history.

McDermott argues that the novels of the 18th century should be seen as part of an age-old European tradition going back to Homer rather than as a unique English event. He examines European fictional narratives and romance and their influence on authors such as Richardson and Fielding.

Although the emergence of the English novel is generally regarded as an eighteenth-century phenomenon, this is the first book to be published professing to cover the 'eighteenth-century English novel' in its entirety. This Handbook surveys the development of the English novel during the 'long' eighteenth century-in other words, from the later seventeenth century right through to the first three decades of the nineteenth century when, with the publication of the novels of Jane Austen and Walter Scott, 'the novel' finally gained critical acceptance and assumed the position of cultural hegemony it enjoyed for over a century. By situating the novels of the period which are still read today against the background of the hundreds published between 1660 and 1830, this Handbook not only covers those 'masters and mistresses' of early prose fiction-such as Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, Burney, Scott and Austen-who are still acknowledged to be seminal figures in the emergence and development of the English novel, but also the significant number of recently-rediscovered novelists who were popular in their own day. At the same time, its comprehensive coverage of cultural contexts not considered by any existing study, but which are central to the emergence of the novel, such as the book trade and the mechanics of book production, copyright and censorship, the growth of the reading public, the economics of culture both in London and in the provinces, and the re-printing of popular fiction after 1774, offers unique insight into the making of the English novel.

Ireland was England's oldest colony. Making Empire revisits the history of empire in IrelandEDin a time of Brexit, 'the culture wars', and the campaigns around 'Black Lives Matter' and 'Statues must fall'EDto better understand how it has formed the present, and how it might shape the future. Empire and imperial frameworks, policies, practices, and cultures have shaped the history ofthe world for the last two millennia. It is nation states that are the blip on the historical horizon. Making Empire re-examines empire as processEDand Ireland's role in itEDthrough the lens of early modernity. It covers the two hundred years, between themid-sixteenth century and the mid-eighteenth century, that equate roughly to the timespan of the First English Empire (c.1550-c.1770s). Ireland was England's oldest colony. How then did the English empire actually function in early modern Ireland and how did this change over time? What did access to European empires mean for people living in Ireland? This book answers these questions by interrogating four interconnected themes. First, that Ireland formed an integral partof the English imperial system, Second, that the Irish operated as agents of empire(s). Third, Ireland served as laboratory in and for the English empire. Finally, it examines the impact that empire(s)had on people living in early modern Ireland. Even though the book's focus will be on Ireland and the English empire, the Irish were trans-imperial and engaged with all of the early modern imperial powers. It is therefore critical, where possible and appropriate, to look to other European and global empires for meaningful comparisons and connections in this era of expansionism. What becomes clear is that colonisation was not a single occurrence but an iterative anddurable process that impacted different parts of Ireland at different times and in different ways. That imperialism was about the exercise of power, violence, coercion and expropriation. Strategies about howbest to turn conquest into profit, to mobilise and control Ireland's natural resources, especially land and labour, varied but the reality of everyday life did not change and provoked a wide variety of responses ranging from acceptance and assimilation to resistance. This book, based on the 2021 James Ford Lectures, Oxford University, suggests that the moment has come revisit the history of empire, if only to better understand how it has formed the present, and how thismight shape the future.