Download or read book The Penguin Book of Irish Short Stories written by Benedict Kiely and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 1981 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mercurial, intoxicating, witty or sad, the Irish short story is as full of charm (and blarney) as the people themselves.This is a selection of thirty-eight stories covering many generations and many moods of Irish writing. It begins with an exquisite love story, an ancient saga retold by Lady Gregory; continues with George Moore and the birth of the modern short story at the turn of the century; includes such preeminent writers as James Joyce, Sean O'Faolain, Mary Lavin and Liam O'Flaherty, whose work re-established the tradition of the short story; and concludes with the newer but no less practised exponents of the art - Elizabeth Bowen, William Trevor and Edna O'Brien.