Crazy John and the Bishop and Other Essays on Irish Culture

"Readers who know the brilliance of the author will find him here at his high-powered best, the thought of the world seemingly at his fingertips. Eagleton’s focus goes from closeup (Yeat’s poetic form and its difference from Eliot’s; Thomas Moore’s self-conflicted verse; the point of Beckett’s apparent pointlessness) to wide-angle (Augustan concepts of ‘sensibility’ and ‘benevolence’; Irish novelists from Maria Edgeworth to Francis Stuart as ‘cultural emigrés’; Gaelic grouchiness in the work of Steele, Goldsmith, Sterne, and Burke). Eagleton enthusiastically reclaims poet William Dunk and socialist ideologue Frederick Ryan from near oblivion, and his long title essay—which praises John Toland’s philosophic thought as a challenge to Berkeleyan idealism—glitters with sweep and authority. The concluding essay chides revisionist critics for extremism but ends by admitting its necessity in order to achieve human freedom. One can make only a poor pass at suggesting the depth, wit, learning, and elegance of Eagleton’s new work.” —Choice

“Eagleton's ten essays in this fifth volume of the series, offering ‘Field Day Essays and Monographs,’ cover Irish and English history, philosophy, and literature from the 18th century to the present. Throughout, Eagleton tries to counteract 'two kinds of narrowness' in traditional Irish studies. Although one essay does discuss Yeats's poetics, Eagleton avoids 'the Irish literary pantheon' while including a fascinating biographical essay on Frederick Ryan, a contemporary of Yeats and Joyce, now little known. Eagleton also refuses to shape his work to the current 'postmodern agenda,' and the result is a collection of memorable insights into this important literary field." —Library Journal

“These essays, however, represent the serious play of a lively, perceptive critical mind on a wide range of subjects, and the insights and keen observations his [Eagleton] essays yield make this book sa valuable infusion of ideas into Irish atudies— an object he seems always to have in mind and acheives admirably well.” —Southern Humanities Review

“Crazy John marks the continued collaboration of Deane and Eagleton, both of whom have contributed mightily to Irish studies—and Irish culture—for more than a quarter of a century.” —Victorian Studies