The Year of the French
By Seamus Deane (Introduction by); Thomas Flanagan
(NYRB Classics, Paperback, 9781590171080, 544pp.)
Publication Date: October 31, 2004
Categories: Historical - General
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In 1798, Irish patriots, committed to freeing their country from England, landed with a company of French troops in County Mayo, in westernmost Ireland. They were supposed to be an advance guard, followed by other French ships with the leader of the rebellion, Wolfe Tone. Briefly they triumphed, raising hopes among the impoverished local peasantry and gathering a group of supporters. But before long the insurgency collapsed in the face of a brutal English counterattack.
Very few books succeed in registering the sudden terrible impact of historical events; Thomas Flanagan's is one. Subtly conceived, masterfully paced, with a wide and memorable cast of characters, The Year of the French brings to life peasants and landlords, Protestants and Catholics, along with old and abiding questions of secular and religious commitments, empire, occupation, and rebellion. It is quite simply a great historical novel.
Thomas Flanagan (1923-2002) was a novelist, scholar, and critic. He was the author of The Irish Novelists, 1800–1850 (1959) and the novels The Year of the French (1979), The Tenants of Time(1988), and The End of the Hunt (1994).
Seamus Deane, Professor of English and Donald and Marilyn Keough Professor of Irish Studies, is a member of the Royal Irish Academy, a founding director of the Field Day Theatre Company, the general editor of the Penguin Joyce, and the author of several books, including A Short History of Irish Literature; Celtic Revivals; Essays in Modern Irish Literature; The French Revolution and Enlightenment in England, and Strange Country: Modernity and the Nation.
"A circumspect and grippingly authentic account that stands as a stark warning against the romanticisation of torrid times. The result is a classic of historical fiction." — The Times (London)
" . . . handsomely written . . . [a] splendid novel." — Denis Donogue, New York Review of Books
"I haven’t so enjoyed a historical novel since The Charterhouse of Parma and War and Peace."
— John Leonard, The New York Times
"Such a brutal and pathetic story would alone have sufficed to make this book absorbing, but Flanagan has much more on his mind. He means to create not only a plausible sense of place and character, and an accurate account of evens, but to recreate, from barroom to manor hall, the entire intellectual and emotional climate of the time. . . . not only a serious book. . . . but a distinguished one as well." — Peter S. Prescott, Newsweek
"A masterwork of historical fiction." — The Philadelphia Inquirer
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