Reviews

The Wild Irish Girl: A National Tale by Sydney Owenson Morgan

katie1775's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

language_loving_amateur's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

2.25

 My copy of this epistolary novel is 252 pages, but it felt like a 500 page slog. A surprising percentage of the book is spent on telling readers how every Irish tradition or artifact actually has its roots in Greek antiquity in an effort to convince English readers of the time that Ireland had some worth. Watch out for how often the words "nature," "natural," "national," and "national character" are used. They are very much used in the sense of "all people from (pick an ethnicity) are born (natal shares an etymological root with nation) with shared (X) characteristics." So get ready for W.A.S.P. on not-white-enough-people racism. The Wild Irish Girl makes a point of saying that that "national character" of the Irish has some really good stuff in it, but it fully buys into the idea that a person's character is 99% predetermined by their pedigree. 
 
The Wild Irish Girl is half pseudo-anthropology and half messed up romance. I could in no way root for these characters to get together, but in an almost Schadenfreude way it is kind of interesting to watch. 

Horatio M., aka Mr. Mortimer, writes flowery descriptions of Ireland and of Glorvina to his best friend back in England. He is a voyeur, and treats 90% of the Irish people he meets as if they were particularly interesting middle schoolers. We never get any perspective from Glorvina, and she spends most of the book silently blushing and sighing. Do you think that isn't a clear, effective medium for conveying thoughts, feelings, and objectives? Never fear! Horatio, whose real identity is not revealed until the last 10 pages, is an expert at interpreting every silent but telling blush (they all mean that she is in love with him). As a metaphor for possible better English - Irish relations, she does love him, and they bring together the best of both countries. 

I want to tell Glorvina, "I know it is not your fault you were written this way." 

When I finally got to the end, my opinion was that Horatio, his father the Earl, and the power they had, were really fucked up. I originally started this for a class, and did not finish it. But as part of Book Riot's 2023 challenge, #6 is finish a book you DNFed 

laurenjpegler's review

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dnf @ 120

cba with boring books !

proffy's review against another edition

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3.0

The Short and Sweet of It
Horatio has been a bad boy, and as his punishment, he is sent to his father's estate in Ireland. While there, he infiltrates the residence of the local Irish royalty his family displaced. He quickly becomes enamored of the family and their

A Bit of a Ramble
This story's subtitle is "A National Tale" and I think that subtitle is more relevant than the title itself. Much of this book is focused on A Look at the Legend of Ireland: History, Culture, and Politics. The "wild Irish girl" in question, Glorvina, is certainly a focal point as she is the vehicle through which much of the Irish culture is filtered for our English protagonist, Horatio. While the romance between Horatio and Glorvina remains at the forefront of Horatio's letters, it is the reversal of Horatio's biased opinions of the Irish and the breakdown of Irish stereotypes that really takes center stage (and comprises the majority of the text).

I think if I was in the right mood while reading this, I could have learned a crapton about Ireland, especially if I had done further research on some of the information. I really am interested to know if the history presented is in fact true. Unfortunately, I do not currently have the time to delve into a project of this sort, so I took the lessons learned at face value and maintained my focus on the story rather than the national history.

And the "story" - the romance - is certainly worthy of attention. Horatio and Glorvina have a slow, understated courtship which is sweet in its subtlety (a type of romance not popular in contemporary lit). Their love is practically unsaid, a connection of minds and personality. To add a twist to the tale, the reader receives the plot through letters Horatio is writing to one of his friends back in England. I find epistolary novels interesting in that they have such a unique point of view - so focused on the thoughts of the protagonist.

Something I didn't like: I would like to start by saying that I adore footnotes. I like annotated copies of works. I actually enjoy reading books about books. And yet, I was annoyed with the footnotes in this book, and pretty much skimmed them (okay, I may even have just completely skipped a few). I couldn't fully explain why these footnotes are so different from those I adore. I guess, in part, I didn't understand why some of the footnotes were footnotes. So much of the text is taken up with discussing Irish history and culture that the separate footnotes for certain historical/cultural tidbits confused me. And I wasn't too impressed with the tone of the footnotes; they weren't that interestingly written (and many footnotes I have really enjoyed are brimming with personality). I guess I need a unique separation and a real voice for my footnotes.

The Wild Irish Girl was a wee bit entertaining and a wee bit informative but didn't wow me on either count. I will say, though, that I really mean it when I say if you get the chance, you should read it.

bigtomlaff's review against another edition

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informative medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Not really one to read for a gripping story, the plot is a very simple romance one between unlikely lovers who slowly come together and end up married, with a decent red herring near the end. However, I must praise this book for it being so informative about Irish literary and historical culture, so informative at times it becomes more of an essay than a fiction. Now, the author does have a somewhat bias towards the Irish, but when this was written there was a lot of discrimination against Irish in England, and Ireland was England's colonial farmland, so it is honourable that Owenson chose to write this defence of Ireland, and provides the other side of the argument in the Anglo-Irish relationship of the time. Despite the bias, the book is covered in footnotes, some referenced, by the author, so the text does work as an informative one, and is worth reading for this alone.

novelideea's review

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hopeful informative reflective relaxing slow-paced

4.75

alrauna's review

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hopeful

2.75

mikayllawilson's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

elizastudying's review

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4.0

3,5/ 5 stars. Enjoyable, but sometimes tedious due to the mixing of antiquarian focus and novel focus. To be studied still.

izvalentyn's review against another edition

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2.0

I'm stopping at 91%. Which is just about done, anyway. I don't care enough for the conclusion.
I didn't care much for the book at all, and if I hadn't been reading it for my friend's bookclub, I would have given up much earlier.

The romance is the only thing that made me give it two stars instead of just one, and even then, I wasn't excited about it. The book just goes on and on without really going anywhere a lot of the time.