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Gerry McCarthy, Irish Sunday Times
'ambition plus technical skill can result in a kind of genius'
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In 1798, Irish patriots, committed to freeing their country from England, landed with a company of French troops in County Mayo, in westernmost Ireland. They were supposed to be an advance guard, followed by other French ships with the leader of the rebellion, Wolfe Tone. Briefly they triumphed, raising hopes among the impoverished local peasantry and gathering a group of supporters. But before long the insurgency collapsed in the face of a brutal English counterattack. Very few books succeed in registering the sudden terrible impact of historical events; Thomas Flanagan's is one. Subtly conceived, masterfully paced, with a wide and memorable cast of characters, The Year of the French brings to life peasants and landlords, Protestants and Catholics, along with old and abiding questions of secular and religious commitments, empire, occupation, and rebellion. It is quite simply a great historical novel.
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First Sentence
Some years ago, when I first took up the pastoral care of the wild and dismal region from which I write, I was prompted to begin a journal in which would be set forth, as I encountered them, the habits, customs, and manners of the several social classes, with the thought that it might someday furnish the substance of a book with some such title as Life in the West of Ireland. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Some years ago, when I first took up the pastoral care of the wild and dismal region from which I write, I was prompted to begin a journal in which would be set forth, as I encountered them, the habits, customs, and manners of the several social classes, with the thought that it might someday furnish the substance of a book with some such title as Life in the West of Ireland. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"The Year Of The French" is the first of Flanagan's Mayo trilogy and possbibly the finest. As historical fiction and reconstruction it rivals the best of Robert Graves, Mary Renault or indeed any other writer in this field. Based on the 1798 United Irishmen uprising and the allied French fleet landing in Mayo, the novel embraces a sweeping cast of characters from Macarthy the hedge schoolmaster, through tenant farmers and the landowners and up to the absent Big Lord. Apart from the profound historical knowledge of the author, what impresses me is the utter credibility of all of the cast, fictional or otherwise. There is no hint of retrospection here; people of all political hues are simply living day by day through exultant and terrifying times.Flanagan mercifully has no interest in viewing the '98 rising through the distorting lens of popular romanticising and equally mercifully eschews all the horrors of "Oirishisms".What he does do is drag the reader,unresisting, into the smells, the conversations and the very thoughts of late eighteenth Ireland-----no small feat for a writer.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
20 reviews
43 of 48 people found the following review helpful
Finest historical novel written in English
3 Dec 2000
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Anyone has a right to be suspicious of claims that appear extravagant, but, upon reflection, I genuinely believe this is the finest historical novel written in English, at least in the twentieth century (I suppose we should count "Vanity Fair" and "A Tale of Two Cities" as historicals, but none of poor, old Walter Scott's works compete). Its foreign language competition is limited to a handful of books, From "War and Peace," "The Leopard," and "The Forty Days of Musa Dagh," to "Am Himmel wie auf Erden," "Vor dem Sturm," and "I Promessi Sposi." Thomas Flanagan is simply a brilliant writer--lucid, thoroughly-engaging, controlled and masterful. His prose is flawless. Except for "The Leopard," I know of no historical novel that so richly and convincingly captures the ambience of a bygone world. The weather and the feel of chilled mud, the prejudice of blood, the nuances of the social order and the confusion of military operations, the errors and casual oversights that shape lives, and the interplay of great events and individual tragedies are all so perfectly interwoven and gracefully presented that the reader forgets this is only a novel and enters another reality. Of course, all this will sound like hyperbole to those who have not yet read this book--but once you have read it, you will find it haunts you for a long time. I've given several copies to cherished friends, as I also have done with Penelope Fitzgerald's "The Blue Flower" (which might have been a competitor for "best historical," were it not such a transcendent book that it won't be characterized by any genre). This is a wonderful book--please read it and help keep it in print.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Sweeping And Poetic
16 Sep 1999
Format:Paperback
The first book in Flanagan's panaromic sweep of Irish history. (see "Tenants of Time" & "The End of the Hunt")
Well written with characters the reader cares about set against the historical back drop of Wolfe Tone's failed 1789 rebellion against the English.
Compelling, a must read! Once you've read one of Flanagan's books you find yourself wishing he had written more, or started writing earlier.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Breathtakingly beautiful telling of a heartbreaking story
19 Jun 2000
Format:Paperback
This is writing at its finest, making the drama of history come alive through characters we relate to and care about. I was swept along from the first paragraph, held captive by beautiful language and vivid detail. As has been said of the Irish, "There's no cause like a lost cause". Writing like this makes one of history's saddest stories live on in the hearts of anyone lucky enough to come across it. I can't recommend this book highly enough.
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