The Lady of Deerpark

Seumas O’Kelly

Set in the west of Ireland of the 1890’s, The Lady of Deerpark is a “big house” novel—an ironic elegy for an Ireland in decay. It is distinguished by craft as well as humor, by a stylistic strength and suppleness that can mix realist and symbolist modes, cut tragedy with farce, comedy with satire, and brush all up with a touch of Turgenev and the Gothic. It is as full of texture, color, and animation as a Jack Yeats painting.

• “O’Kelly’s novel is one of the forgotten gems of the Irish Literary Revival.” —Eamon Grennan