The Aran Islands (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin)
by J. M. Synge
List Price:
Our Price: $7.63
You Save: $7.37 (49%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: J. M. SyngeEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1992-11-03
ISBN: 0140184325
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Book Reviews of The Aran Islands (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin)
Book Review: Stories in another tongue
Summary: 5 Stars
This book describes the adventures of J. M. Synge on the Aran Islands around the turn of the Twentieth Century. William Butler Yeats suggested that Synge visit the island in order to learn Irish and become acquainted with traditional Irish culture as it had been preserved on the islands. Synge followed his suggestion, and made four lengthy trips to the islands. In this book, he recounts his experiences on the islands, together with some of the stories and poems that were recited to him there.
The book is a unique collection of travelogue, journal, and research notebook. Synge describes his relationships with individuals on the islands, as well as some of the common traits and customs observable there. He tells us about harrowing sea passages that he took from island to island in small rowed boats, and records a number of folk-tales that were shared with him by island residents. Synge was to draw on all of this material in his later writing career, making the book quite interesting for those who enjoy his plays. The book also provides informative details of what daily life was like in this remote region at the time.
Summary of The Aran Islands (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin)
In 1907 J. M. Synge achieved both notoriety and lasting fame with "The Playboy of the Western World". "The Aran Islands", published in the same year, records his visits to the islands in 1898-1901, when he was gathering the folklore and anecdotes out of which he forged "The Playboy" and his other major dramas. Yet this book is much more than a stage in the evolution of Synge the dramatist. As Tim Robinson explains in his introduction, 'If Ireland is intriguing as being an island off the west of Europe, then Aran, as an island off the west of Ireland, is still more so; it is Ireland raised to the power of two'. Towards the end of the last century Irish nationalists came to identify the area as the country's uncorrupted heart, the repository of its ancient language, culture and spiritual values. It was for these reasons that Yeats suggested Synge visit the islands to record their way of life. The result is a passionate exploration of a triangle of contradictory relationships - between an island community still embedded in its ancestral ways but solicited by modernism, a physical environment of ascetic loveliness and savagely unpredictable moods, and Synge himself, formed by modern European thought but in love with the primitive.Nothing much happens on the Aran Islands--at least, not much went on there in the late 19th century, when John Synge sailed out to these mist-shrouded, salt-sprayed, and wave-battered chunks of rocks south of Ireland. Therein lies the charm of the setting and of this lovely book, which captures the saltiness of both the marine air and the time-lost characters, who deeply believe in the magical "wee people." In cottages where nets and fishing tackle hang from beams, the women (who always wear red dresses and petticoats, as do some of the boys) sit at their spinning wheels or sew cow-skin sandals, while the fishermen spin yarns about fairies, sunken vessels, and bags of gold gained from adulterous wives. The big happening of the year is when roofs are rethatched--an event that blossoms into a festival with twisted rope stretching from kitchen table through lane to nearby field. Synge seems an ambassador from a different world: addressed as "noble person," he brings tokens of modernity--be they clocks or simple magic tricks that beguile the locals. First published in 1907, this re-released travelogue gives a poignant peek into another time and begs a visit to the Aran Islands to see how, or if, they have changed. --Melissa Rossi
Literary Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literary Books
Island (Perennial Classics)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
Angelsby Marian Keyes
William Morrow; Published: 2002-05-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.30
Price in other shops:
A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.17
Price in other shops:
The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptationby Paulo Coelho
Harper; Published: 2006-07-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops:
Boonville: A Novelby Robert Mailer Anderson
Harper Perennial; Published: 2003-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Carameloby Sandra Cisneros
HarperAudio; Published: 2002-10-01; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
Headhunterby Timothy Findley
PERENNIAL PUBLICATIONS; Paperback; Book
The Crimson Petal And The Whiteby Michel Faber
Harcourt, Inc./Harvest; Published: 2003; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.50
Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
This Side of Paradiseby Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Translations: A Play (Faber Paperbacks)by Brian Friel
Faber & Faber; Published: 1995-03-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.90
Price in other shops:
The Last Septemberby Elizabeth Bowen
Anchor; Published: 2000-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.96
Price in other shops:
Ireland 1798-1998: War, Peace and Beyondby Alvin Jackson
Wiley-Blackwell; Published: 2010-05-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $31.82
Price in other shops:
The Burning of Bridget Cleary: A True Storyby Angela Bourke
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2001-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.06
Price in other shops:
Modern and Contemporary Irish Drama (Second Edition) (Norton Critical Editions)W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2008-12-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.20
The Islandman (Oxford Paperbacks Series)by Tomas O'Crohan
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1978-03-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.68
Price in other shops:
The Poor Mouth: A Bad Story About the Hard Life (Irish Literature Series)by Flann O'Brien
Dalkey Archive Press; Published: 1996-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.30
Price in other shops:
An Old Woman's Reflections (Oxford Paperbacks)by Peig Sayers
Oxford University Press; Published: 1962; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.95
Price in other shops:
Twenty Years A-Growingby Maurice O'Sullivan
J.S. Sanders Books; Published: 1998-11-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.65
Price in other shops:
Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage (New York Review Books Classics)by Tim Robinson
NYRB Classics; Published: 2008-08-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.20
Price in other shops: