Tea at Trianon: An Irish Country Wedding

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, November 11, 2012

An Irish Country Wedding

Author Patrick Taylor continues his lively series about the adventures of feisty Dr. Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly in the Northern Irish village of Ballybucklebo. Set in the 1960s, it is a village overrun by eccentric characters of every kind and is seemingly untouched by the outside world, until the world creeps in unbidden. Dr. O’Reilly is preparing to marry his sweetheart Kitty O’Hallorhan while dealing with the illness of his housekeeper, Kinky Kincaid. In the meantime, his partner in medicine, Dr. Barry Laverty, is having some romantic ups and downs as he helps O’Reilly deal with the various intrigues and crises in the village. Taylor adds a hint of political ferment for the first time ever in the series, which is appropriate considering how close Ballybucklebo is to Belfast. There is otherwise not a trace of religious conflict in the story, and it is difficult to tell who is Catholic and who is Protestant, which seems odd in a book about Ireland. There are a great many subplots which all come together at the end, as well as a prodigious amount of medical descriptions. Fraught with earthy humor, the wedding scene and the reception are particularly enjoyable for the comedy provided. Ballybucklebo is definitely worth a visit.

This review originally appeared in the November 2012 edition of the Historical Novels Review.

(*NOTE: This book was sent to me by the Historical Novel Society in exchange for my honest opinion.)

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