Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Search - List of Books by William Carleton

This is about the Irish novelist. For other uses, see William Carleton .
William Carleton (20 February 1794, Prillisk, Clogher, Co. Tyrone - 30 January, 1869, Sandford, Co. Dublin) was an Irish novelist.

Carleton's father was a tenant farmer, who supported fourteen children on as many acres, and young Carleton passed his early life among scenes similar to those he later described in his books. His father had an extraordinary memory and a thorough acquaintance with Irish folklore; the mother was noted throughout the district for her lovely voice. The character of Honor, the miser's wife, in Fardorougha, is said to be based on her.

Carleton received a basic education. As his father moved from one small farm to another, he attended various hedge schools, which used to be a notable feature of Irish life. A picture of one of these schools occurs in the sketch called "The Hedge School" included in Traits and Stories of Irish Peasantry. Most of his learning was gained from a curate named Keenan, who taught a classical school at Donagh (Co. Monaghan), which Carleton attended from 1814 to 1816. Before this Carleton had hoped to obtain an education as a poor scholar at Munster, with a view to entering the church; but in obedience to a warning dream, the story of which is told in the Poor Scholar, he returned home, where he was admired by the neighbouring peasantry for his supposed learning. An amusing account of this period is given in the sketch, "Denis O'Shaughnessy."

Aged about nineteen, he undertook one of the religious pilgrimages then common in Ireland. His experiences as a pilgrim, narrated in "The Lough Derg Pilgrim," made him give up the thought of entering the church, and he eventually became a Protestant. His vacillating ideas as to a mode of life were determined by reading the picaresque novel Gil Blas (by Alain-René Lesage, 1668-1747). He decided to try what fortune had in store for him. He went to Killanny, Co. Louth, and for six months acted as tutor in the family of a farmer, Piers Murphy. After some other experiments he set out for Dublin, arriving with two shillings and sixpence in his pocket.

He first sought occupation as a bird-stuffer, but a proposal to use potatoes and meal as stuffing failed to recommend him. He then tried to become a soldier, but the colonel of the regiment dissuaded him...Carleton had applied in Latin. He obtained some teaching and a clerkship in a Sunday School office, began to contribute to journals, and "The Pilgrimage to Lough Derg," which was published in the Christian Examiner, attracted great attention. In 1830 appeared the first series of Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry (2 vols.), which immediately placed Carleton in the first rank of Irish novelists. A second series (3 vols.), containing, among other stories, "Tubber Derg, or the Red Well," appeared in 1833, and Tales of Ireland in 1834. From that time till within a few years of his death he wrote constantly. “Fardorougha the Miser, or the Convicts of Lisnamona” appeared in 1837-1838 in the Dublin University Magazine. Among his other novels are:
  • Valentine McClutchy, the Irish Agent, or Chronicles of the Castle Cumber Property (3 vols., 1845)
  • The Black Prophet, a Tale of Irish Famine, in the Dublin University Magazine (1846), printed separately in the next year
  • The Emigrants of Ahadarra (1847)
  • Willy Reilly and his dear Cooleen Bawn (in The Independent, London, 1850)
  • The Tithe Proctor (1849), the violence of which did his reputation harm among his own countrymen.
Some of his later stories, The Squanders of Castle Squander (1852) for instance, are spoiled by the mass of political matter in them. In spite of his considerable literary production, Carleton remained poor, but his necessities were relieved in 1848 by a pension of £200 a year granted by Lord John Russell in response to a memorial on Carleton's behalf signed by numbers of distinguished persons in Ireland. He died at Sandford, County Dublin, and is interred at Mount Jerome Cemetery, Harold's Cross, Dublin.

Carleton wrote from intimate acquaintance with the scenes he described, and drew with a sure hand a series of pictures of peasant life, unsurpassed for their appreciation of the passionate tenderness of Irish home life, of the buoyant humour and the domestic virtues which would, under better circumstances, bring prosperity and happiness. He alienated the sympathies of many Irishmen, however, by his unsparing criticism and occasional exaggeration of the darker side of Irish character. He was in his own words the "historian of their habits and manners, their feelings, their prejudices, their superstitions and their crimes" (Preface to Tales of Ireland).A second factor that alienated him from many of his Irish countrymen was his attitude towards the Catholic religion. It has been argued (for example by Brian Donnelly) that his conversion may have been a pragmatic move, as it would have been difficult for an aspiring young Catholic author to receive the degree of patronage necessary to achieve success. In 1826 he wrote a letter to the then Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel urging him against Catholic Emancipation (Peel was already an outspoken opponent), and offering to provide proof of the involvement of Daniel O'Connell in agrarian crimes, while also vilifying the Catholic clergy and Roman Catholic schoolteachers. Shortly afterwards he befriended Caesar Orway, according to W. B. Yeats an "anti-papal controversialist" who encouraged him to write stories to "highlight...the corrupt practices of an ignorant clergy."

During the last months of his life Carleton began an autobiography which he brought down to the beginning of his literary career. This forms the first part of The Life of William Carleton ... (2 vols., 1896), by David James O'Donoghue, which contains full information about his life, and a list of his scattered writings. A selection from his stories (1889), in the "Camelot Series," has an introduction by William Butler Yeats.

Carleton is featured in the long poem Station Island by Séamus Heaney.

References and Sources   more

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "William Carleton", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0
Total Books: 397
Amusing Irish Tales
Amusing Irish Tales [1892] (Paperback)Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9781104021436
ISBN-10: 1104021439
Genre: Literature & Fiction
  ?

Amusing Irish Tales  by William Carleton
Amusing Irish Tales By William Carleton (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9781151882257
ISBN-10: 1151882259
  ?

Art Maguire
Art Maguire (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9781151598110
ISBN-10: 1151598119
  ?

Art Maguire Or The Broken Pledge A Narrative
Art Maguire or the Broken Pledge a Narrative [1847] (Paperback)Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9781436781671
ISBN-10: 1436781671
  ?

The Black Baronet
The Black Baronet (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9780554387253
ISBN-10: 0554387255
Genre: Literature & Fiction
  ?

The Black Baronet Or Chronicles Of Ballytrain
The Black Baronet or Chronicles of Ballytrain [1858] (Paperback)Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9781437148947
ISBN-10: 1437148948
  ?

The Black Baronet or The Chronicles Of Ballytrain
The Black Baronet or the Chronicles of Ballytrain (Paperback)Paperback
ISBN-13: 9780554084183
ISBN-10: 055408418X
Genre: Literature & Fiction
  ?

The Black Prophet
The Black Prophet (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9781606643891
ISBN-10: 1606643894
  ?

The Black Prophet A Tale Of Irish Famine
The Black Prophet a Tale of Irish Famine (Hardcover)Paperback, Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780554347998
ISBN-10: 0554347997
  ?

The Black Prophet A Tale Of Irish Famine The Works of William Carleton  Volume Three
The Black Prophet A Tale Of Irish Famine The Works of William Carleton Volume Three
Black Prophet
Black Prophet [Irish novels series] (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9780716517986
ISBN-10: 0716517981
Genre: Literature & Fiction
  ?

Carleton's Stories of Irish Life
Carleton's Stories of Irish Life (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9781152149120
ISBN-10: 1152149121
  ?

Carleton's stories of Irish life with an introduction by Darrell Figgis
Collected Works of William Carleton
Collected Works of William Carleton (Paperback)Paperback
ISBN-13: 9780554100128
ISBN-10: 0554100126
Genre: Literature & Fiction
  ?

The Dark Day and Other Tales
The Dark Day and Other Tales (Paperback)Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9781603123396
ISBN-10: 1603123393
  ?

The Dead Boxer
The Dead Boxer (Paperback)Paperback, Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9781406842159
ISBN-10: 140684215X
  ?

Denis O'shaughnessy Going to Maynooth
Denis O'shaughnessy Going to Maynooth (Paperback)Paperback, Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780217797344
ISBN-10: 0217797342
Genre: Literature & Fiction
  ?

The Double Prophecy Or Trials of the Heart
The Double Prophecy or Trials of the Heart (Paperback)Paperback
ISBN-13: 9781141050529
ISBN-10: 1141050528
  ?

The Double Prophecy V1 Or Trials Of The Heart
The Double Prophecy V1 or Trials of the Heart [1862] (Paperback)Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9781104488352
ISBN-10: 1104488353
Genre: Literature & Fiction
  ?

Ellen Duncan and The Proctor's Daughter
Ellen Duncan and the Proctor's Daughter [Illustrated Edition - Dodo Press] (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9781406502701
ISBN-10: 1406502707
  ?

Great Irish Short Stories [Dover Thrift Editions] (Paperback)
Lha Dhu or the Dark Day [Illustrated Edition - Dodo Press] (Paperback)
The Tithe Proctor [Illustrated Edition - Dodo Press] (Paperback)
Traits and Portraits of the Irish Peasantry [Short Story Index Reprint Series] (Hardcover)
Works of William Carleton [Short Story Index Reprint Ser.;Vol. Set] (Hardcover)