Beschreibung:

Letters from 18th-Century Irish Author Griffith (Elizabeth) Author: A file of seven items for long dismissed as of no literary significance, Elizabeth Griffith is now highly regarded as a pioneering figure in the development of writing by Irish women. Together with her husband Richard Griffith of Maidenhall near Bennettsbridge in Co. Kilkenny, she produced a best-selling work based on their courtship correspondence, A Series of Genuine Letters between Henry and Frances (1757). She wrote plays and more epistolary novels, including The Story of Lady Juliana Harley (1776). The file consists of seven items. The first is a copy of a letter written under a pseudonym by Hugh MacDermot (later The MacDermot of Coolavin) from Paris to Elizabeth Griffith in 1778 in connection with her account of his family in Lady Juliana Harley. While praising the work in general, he strongly criticises her portrayal of his grandfather Charles MacDermot and his mother, whom she had met when visiting Coolavin in the mid-1750s. “Old Mr MacDermot, Madam, was neither a Savage nor a Lunatic ??.” In the next letter, Elizabeth thanks him for writing and regrets that she has hurt his feelings, but maintains that her portrayal of the MacDermots was accurate. In a follow-up, she reminds him of his promise to call on her on his route through London. The next three letters are written in 1781 from the south of France, where the Griffith family were spending the winter. In the first, Elizabeth reports on their life in Aix: “Tho’ it is a very pretty town, it has the fault of all French towns, & is of course a little offensive to our saucy English noses.” She hopes to meet him in Paris on their way home. In the second, she thanks him for the verses he has sent her. And in the third she writes of their visit to the Vale of Vaucluse and of its associations with Petrarch; however, “I think the vale of Killarney affords objects as beautiful” – and recommends that he visit it. The final letter is from Richard Griffith junior (father of Sir Richard Griffith the noted geologist and architect of Griffith’s Valuation), written in 1783 from Millicent House, his home in Co. Kildare. He thanks MacDermot warmly and at length for his expressions of friendship, and hopes he will advise him on his plans for seeking relief for those imprisoned for debt. This file, though small, is of particular interest for its portrayal of the life of a significant Irish female novelist of the 18th century. As a m/ss., w.a.f. A lot. (1)