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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
OK nonprofessional biography, January 3, 2007
Toíbín has performed considerable primary research often in the unpublished manuscripts either by or about Lady Gregory, and he combines this work with detailed research into the lives of the writers who were associated first with her husband and later with herself. Indeed, Toíbín's essay is best when he follows his journalistic instincts to collate the scattered information that allows him to enrich our knowledge of Gregory's lesser known social and artistic associations: her husband's friendship with Anthony Trollop, her social encounters with Henry James and Queen Victoria, or her failed efforts to befriend James Joyce.
These strengths notwithstanding, Toíbín is rarely able to discuss Gregory's life without subordinating it to other, often patriarchal, narratives which are portrayed as conditioning her activities; thus, we see her as Sir William's wife, Blunt's mistress, Yeats' long-suffering `helpmeet', Synge's reluctant defender, John Quinn's lover, Robert Gregory's mother, and O'Casey's soulmate. This reluctance to consider Gregory as in herself a subject worthy of direct analysis extends to her career as well: while Toíbín devotes considerable attention to the private love sonnets written for Blunt in the 1880s, in an argument that positions her squarely within a male economy of marital duty and adulterous desire, he largely ignores her successful literary career in the twentieth century. There are exceptions to this general criticism, as in his insightful discussion of her Cuchulain of Muirthemne; nonetheless, the reader has few views of Gregory beyond her social functions as theatre manager, literary patroness, and social dowager. Of her thirty-seven works produced during her lifetime, Toíbín discusses only the early drama co-written with Yeats and very briefly mentions three later plays. It is telling that Toíbín devotes ten percent of his work, roughly twelve pages, to the discussion of Yeats' poetry about Gregory or her estate, while spending a mere seven pages on only three works by her: the aforementioned sonnets to Blunt, her Cathleen Ni Houlihan co-authored with Yeats, and Cuchulain of Muirthemne.
Unfortunately, the refinement of Toíbín's arguments is significantly hindered by his failure to avail himself of the important contributions of the last twenty years; indeed, he lists the largely biographical collection Lady Gregory: Fifty Years After (1987) edited by Ann Saddlemyer as the book's only critical source for Gregory's career. Thus, even at their best, his interpretative expositions lack the rigour and refinement that would have come from a familiarity with the recent critical arguments that frequently pre-empt his own. For example, Toíbín's treatment of Gregory's sexual, political, and artistic awakening through her encounter with Wilfrid Scawen Blunt is central to his explanation of her development in the late nineteenth century, yet his work lacks the scope and insight of Declan Kiberd's treatment of this topic in Inventing Ireland: The Literature of the Modern Nation which appeared in 1997. Similarly, though Toíbín may be forgiven for not having consulted John Wilson Foster's thorough discussion of the historical context for Gregory's Cuchulain of Muirthemne, as well as her other translations of medieval Irish narrative, in his Fictions of the Irish Literary Renaissance (1987), the same cannot be said for Toíbín's failure to benefit from the introduction and thorough bibliography in the widely available Selected Writings of Lady Gregory, which appeared in 1995. Although barely one third the length of Toíbín's book, this introductory essay by Lucy McDiarmid and Maureen Waters covers several topics later discussed by Toíbín and skilfully surveys the major biographical and interpretative issues that have concerned recent criticism.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Arrogance vs. ambiguity, June 24, 2006
This review is from: Lady Gregory's Toothbrush (Hardcover)
The tension of the Anglo-Irish, Toibin argues, can be charted in Lady Gregory's own life, as she negotiated the difficult balancing act of a Coole landowner hosting balls for British nobles before going off to her next social engagement, a tea party for the ladies in the local workhouse. Speaking of the latter, the infamous if well-intended Famine-era "Gregory Act" enacted by her family, that pushed off so many from their small plot of land into emigration, ironically making the conditions for those who remained behind in Ireland better off, is delved into efficiently. Toibin, with sympathy but not apology, notes how she, no less than Pearse, Joyce, O'Casey, Synge, Hyde, Gonne, or Yeats during the period from 1890-1925 (for those among the Revival who managed to live through the Rising and the subsequent strife), had to constantly reinvent and embroider and disguise her contested Irish identity. This extended essay, more a monograph than a full-fledged book, briefly sums up the general trajectory of how the rise of the Free State paralled the life and successes of the coterie led in no small part not only by the more prominent and grandstanding Yeats but also by Lady G.
It's not recommended for those who may be unfamiliar with "The Countess Cathleen," for example, or the plays put on by Yeats, her, and their colleagues/rivals for the Abbey Theatre. While a well-chosen list of primary sources and scholarship is appended, no footnotes are given, and Toibin seems to expect his readers to be already familiar with the Irish political, cultural and literary currents of the early 20c. Little description of her writings and no literary analysis to speak of can be found here. Rather, Toibin seeks to uncover what the title of the book indicates: the gap that Lady G. sought to close but never fully could...between those like Lady G. who used a toothbrush, to cite her bon mot--that is, who were civilized, and those--such as the peasants that she alternately romanticized, ministered to, and ridiculed--who had no such dentifrice.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Candid Historian, February 19, 2009
This review is from: Lady Gregory's Toothbrush (Hardcover)
I have read just about everything that I've found available (in English) of Colm Toibin. As the list of books has grown, I've come to appreciate his candor and writing skills. I appreciated Lady Gregory's Toothbrush because of this refreshing presentation of history. Toibin's connecting of historical persons was delightful since this doesn't often seem to be done (and done so extremely well) by many other authors. Lady Gregory was a real 'corker' to use a bit of slang, someone I just might have enjoyed knowing. I hope some day to connect with Colm Toibin. If his writing style is anything at all like he speaks, he would certainly be more than a delight as someone with whom to spend time!
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