The House of Gold, Paperback/Liam O'Flaherty

Descriere

The first novel to be banned in Ireland, The House of Gold is a rare perspective on the Irish at a major turning point in their history. The House of Gold in a turbulent post-Civil War town in the West of Ireland where the old ascendancy has been replaced by a corrupt native elite headed by the avaricious Ramon Mor Costello and his clerical accomplices. His exotically beautiful wife is the catalyst for a series of violent events that lead to an unexpected climax. Greed, priestly lusts, sexual frustration, alcoholism, and murder are themes woven together in this compelling tale by Liam O'Flaherty, one of Ireland's most acclaimed writers. About the Author: Son of a Fenian father, Liam O'Flaherty (Liam O Flaithearta),1896 - 1984, was born in Inishmore, the biggest of the Aran Islands, off Ireland's Atlantic coast. He became one of the most distinguished and prolific writers, in Irish and English, of his generation and was one of the major figures of the Irish Literary Renaissance. Abandoning an early intention to join the priesthood, he joined the British Army, under his mother's surname and was wounded the Western Front. After the war, he traveled to South America, Turkey, Canada and the Soviet Union, holding a variety of jobs before entering the United States illegally in 1920. He joined the Communist Party there, a move that determined the politics he supported for most of his life. He returned to Ireland in 1921, at the height of the War of Independence. His ideas for Ireland's future differed radically from those of Sinn Fein. Two days following the foundation of the Irish Free State, he and some followers occupied and held for four days the Rotunda building in Dublin, flying the red flag in a failed attempt at socialist revolution. Shortly afterwards O'Flaherty made his way to London where he wrote short stories in Irish. However, this early work was badly received, prompting him to write henceforth mainly in English. His first novel, The Neighbour's Wife, was publ