Selected Prose of James Clarence Mangan

by Mangan, James Clarence; Chuto, Jacques; Kamp, Peter Van De; Shannon-Mangan, Ellen

• ISBN13: 9780716527916
• ISBN10: 071652791X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-11-01
• Publisher: Irish Academic Press

Summary

That Mangan is Ireland's foremost Romantic poet is by now a commonplace. The poetry of this self-proscribed 'Out-and-Outer' may have contributed to the picture of an eccentric genius writhing in romantic agony, far removed from the daily throng. But there was a public side to this private poet. In reality, from the age of 28, with his publication of the politically engaged 'The Two Flats: Our Quackstitution', this po���¨te maudit remained in constant dialogue with the wider reading public. Prose afforded the poet his podium. And much of his mature poetry is contained within prose articles. In prose, Mangan taught, thought, deliberated, parodied, and afforded glimpses of himself which were hidden from his poetic alter ego. In his German and Oriental Anthologies, he opened up a world of literature to his Irish readers. Articles like 'A Sixty-Drop Dose of Laudanum' betray his mastery of the well-turned aphorism. Stories like 'The Man in the Cloak' manifest his light-hearted fascination for the Gothic. C.P. Meehan prefaced his pioneering Essays in Prose and Verse by J.C. Mangan with the apologetic observation that 'every scrap of writing from Mangan's pen . deserves to be rescued from the countless contingencies to which manuscripts are exposed.' Having rescued Mangan's work in our collected edition, we offer no such apology: our best of Mangan's prose shows a man with his finger on the pulse, following his one precept-not to bore.

Table of Contents

FOREWORD	vii
The Two Flats; or, Our Quackstitution. An Apologue	1	(6)
An Extraordinary Adventure in the Shades	7	(11)
A Treatise on a Pair of Tongs	18	(12)
My Transformation. A Wonderful Tale	30	(7)
from Anthologia Germanica. No. I. The Lyrical and Smaller Poems of Schiller	37	(3)
from Anthologia Germanica. No. IV. The Poems of Matthison and Salis	40	(5)
from Anthologia Germanica. No. VI. The German Fabulists	45	(3)
from Anthologia Germanica. No. VII. Kerner's Lyrical Poems	48	(11)
from Anthologia Germanica. No. X. Tieck and the Other Song-Singers of Germany	59	(5)
from Literæ Orientates. Persian and "Turkish Poetry. First Article	64	(7)
from Literæ Orientates. Turkish Poetry. Second Article	71	(5)
from Anthologia Germanica. No. XII. The Less Translatable Poems of Schiller	76	(3)
The Thirty Flasks	79	(59)
The Man in the Cloak. A Very German Story	138	(27)
from Anthologia Germanica. No. XIV. Gellert's Tales and Fables	165	(4)
A Sixty-Drop Dose of Laudanum	169	(20)
from Anthologia Germanica. No. XV. Wetzel's Poems.	189	(4)
from Literati Orientates. No. IV. Arabian, Persian and Turkish Poetry	193	(4)
The Discontented Stones	197	(4)
The Story of the Old Wolf	201	(6)
Bodach an Chota-Lachtna, or The Clown with the Grey Coat	207	(9)
My Bugle, and How I Blow It	216	(7)
Chapters on Ghostcraft: Comprising some account of the life and revelations of Madame Hauffe, the celebrated Wirtemberg Ghost-seeress	223	(21)
from Anthologia Germanica. No. XVII. Ballads and Romances	244	(4)
The Threefold Prediction: A Psychological Narrative	248	(22)
from Anthologia Hibernica. No. I	270	(2)
from Introduction to The Poets and Poetry of Munster	272	(6)
Sketches and Reminiscences of Irish Writers. No. I. Maturin	278	(4)
Sketches and Reminiscences of Irish Writers. No. III. John Anster	282	(3)
Sketches and Reminiscences of Irish Writers. No. VI. Gerald Griffin	285	(3)
Sketches and Reminiscences of Irish Writers. No. IX. William Maginn	288	(4)
Autobiography	292	(15)
NOTES	307	(50)
INDEX OF TITLES	357