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The Ballad of Lord Edward and Citizen Small
Neil Jordan
FREE Delivery in Ireland
Description for The Ballad of Lord Edward and Citizen Small
Hardcover.
Longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize 2022.
From multi- award-winning author and director Neil Jordan comes a new and stunning work of fiction, The Ballad of Lord Edward and Citizen Small. Blending the drama of real events with Jordan’s inimitable storytelling ability, this work spotlights a long-forgotten chapter in Ireland’s history.
The tale is related by Lord Edward Fitzgerald’s manservant Tony Small, a runaway slave who rescued Lord Edward after the Battle of Eutaw Springs during the American War of Independence. While the details of Lord Edward’s life are well-documented, very little is known of Tony ... Read moreSmall, who, in this gripping narrative, examines the ironies of empire, captivity and freedom. Small, who knows too well the consequences of rebellion and resistance, reflects on Lord Edward’s journey from being a loyal servant of the British Empire to becoming a 1798 rebellion leader.
This story is populated with a brimming cast of characters, from Molly, who works as a maid in Leinster House, to Lord Edward’s lover Elizabeth Sheridan, her husband, playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Camden. The action moves from the Carolinas, to London, to Dublin, to the chaos of revolutionary Paris, and back to Ireland for its inevitable, tragic conclusion.
Jordan’s deft approach to The Ballad of Lord Edward and Citizen Small makes for a riveting parable of empire.
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Product Details
Publisher
The Lilliput Press Ltd
Place of Publication
Dublin, Ireland
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 2 to 4 working days
About Neil Jordan
Neil Jordan is an Irish film director, screenwriter and author. His first book, Night in Tunisia, won a Somerset Maugham Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize (1979). He was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature (1981), the Irish PEN Award (2004), and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award for Shade (2005) and Mistaken(2011), which also received the 2011 Irish ... Read moreBook Awards Novel of the Year. His films include Angel (1982), the Academy Award-winning The Crying Game (1992), Michael Collins (1996) and The Butcher Boy (1997). Show Less
Reviews for The Ballad of Lord Edward and Citizen Small
The historical facts are here, in this beautiful work, laid out like a Dublin street ballad with its verses and chorus and a short afterword, containing a chapter poignantly titled 'The Greatest of These' from Corinthians 13, and Jordan doesn't seek to reinvent these men, rather to enhance them.
Anne Cunningham
Irish Independent
Neil Jordan is also ... Read moreone of Ireland’s greatest, if ever-so-slightly unsung, novelists, a fact proven again by his latest work, The Ballad Of Lord Edward And Citizen Small.
Pat Carty
Hot Press
Neil Jordan's depiction of the revolutionary, Lord Edward Fitzgerald and his faithful manservant, Tony Small, is an enthralling and stirring chronicle set against the backdrop of tumultuous late 18th century events, incorporating the American War of Independence and 1798 Irish Rebellion, among others.
Adam Matthews
RTE
The power and beauty of words is a touchstone: [Jordan has] reclaimed a little-known story from Irish history, and given it new life.
Niall McArdle
Books Ireland
A masterwork from one of the most inventive artists of our day.
John Banville Neil Jordan creates a vivid new perspective on one of his nation’s martyred heroes in The Ballad of Lord Edward and Citizen Small ... [he] resurrects a revolutionary era with great panache. The Sunday Times Jordan gives Tony an affectionately acerbic perspective. … [There are] many dramatic episodes in Fitzgerald’s short but wildly eventful life … Jordan has a wonderfully varied cast to work with.’ Alida Becker THE NEW YORK TIMES A thrillingly written, gripping tale that revisits many of Jordan’s lifelong preoccupations with class, Irishness and sexuality to powerful moving effect. The Guardian An enthralling and stirring chronicle … an expertly spun ballad defined by themes of belonging, illusion and, fundamentally, fidelity. Adam Matthews RTÉ Culture One of Ireland’s greatest, if ever-so-slightly unsung, novelists. Pat Carty HOT PRESS Jordan’s prose is lyrical and his recreation of the period is rich in atmosphere … the power and beauty of words is a touchstone: Jordan has reclaimed a little-known story from Irish history, and given it new life. BOOKS IRELAND His skill as a visual storyteller can be felt from the first page of this novel, and he wears his research lightly, galloping along with great drama and humanity … Jordan is a writer of uncommon talent. … [Written] with added cinematic pace and irresistible lyrical beauty. EDEL COFFEY IRISH TIMES Jordan creates an evocative sense of time and place, particularly the streets of Dublin. THE SUNDAY TIMES Panoramic … Jordan possesses the knack of using detail to bring history to life. IRISH INDEPENDENT A beautiful work, laid out like a Dublin street ballad … Jordan's rich imagination soars. ANNE CUNNINGHAM SUNDAY INDEPENDENT This is a wonderful novel oblique and sensitive to his characters as real people, historical figures and is true to their times and its complications. Rarely has a historical novel worn its mastery of its subject so lightly. GOODREADS Neil Jordan is a masterful writer. GOODREADS Show Less
