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Jane Barlow

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Jane Barlow (17 October 1856 - 17 April 1917)[1] was an Irish poet and fiction writer.[2]

Jane Barlow (1856-1917) from The Mouth, March 1897. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Jane Barlow (1856-1917) from The Mouth, March 1897. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Jane Barlow
Born Jane Barlow
17 October 1856
Clontarf, County Dublin, Ireland
Died 17 April 1917
Bray, county Wicklow, Ireland
Nationality Irish

Life[]

Youth and education[]

Barlow was born 17 October 1856 in Dollymount, Dublin, the 2nd child and eldest daughter of Rev. James William Barlow, history professor and subsequently vice-provost of Trinity College, Dublin, and his wife and 1st cousin, Mary Louisa (née Barlow) (died 1894).[1]

Reared from early childhood in The Cottage, Raheny, Co. Dublin, she was educated by the family's governess and her father. She became proficient in French and German, and was a talented classical scholar and an accomplished pianist.[1]

She travelled much throughout Ireland, and in her twenties visited Italy, France, Greece, and Turkey.[1]

Career[]

Having written prose and verse from an early age, Barlow began her published career in 1885, with anonymous contributions to the Dublin University Review, then under the editorship of T.W. Rolleston, who was impressed by her work and encouraged her to write more.[1]

In 1892 she published a collection of verse narratives, Bog-land studies, where she attempted to capture the specific qualities of the English language as spoken in the west of Ireland. This was followed by the hugely successful collection of stories Irish idylls (1892). Running into 9 editions, it was read in France, Germany, Britain and America, and led to her being regarded by critics as an Irish version of the Scottish writer William Robertson Nicoll (1851–1923).[1]

Barlow continued to write prolifically, producing a further 5 volumes of verse, 11 collections of stories and 5 novels, among them Kerrigan's quality (1894), The end of Elfintown (1894), Strangers at Lisconnel (1895) and A creel of Irish stories (1897).[1] In 1894 she published her translation of the ancient Greek mock-epic The battle of the frogs and mice, having rendered it in the style of Michael Drayton’s Nymphidia. She also contributed to numerous magazines and journals such as The Nation, Irish Homestead, Hibernia, Dana, The Bookman, Cornhill Magazine, National Review, Living Age, and, in America, the Literary Digest and Eclectic Magazine.[1]

Her efforts to produce a libretto for an opera by Michele Esposito (qv) were rejected by the composer in 1898, and her only play, a sentimental melodrama entitled ‘A bunch of lavender’, staged by the Theatre of Ireland in 1911, was not a success and remains unpublished. Similarly her novels Flaws (1911), in which she focused on the lives of the Anglo-Irish middle class, and her fantasy A strange land (1908), for which she adopted the pseudonym Felix Ryark, did not achieve the same popularity as her more ‘Irish’ works.[1]

Contemporaries such as Katharine Tynan remembered Barlow as a quiet, introverted woman, who led a secluded life centred almost entirely on her family home. However, she was in many ways an active and independent-minded woman. Throughout her life she remained a keen hill walker, and took regular holidays along the west coast of Ireland. She was also an active member of the National Literary Society. A regular contributor to their ‘original nights’, in 1897 she was elected its vice-president.[1]

From 1896 to 1898 she acted as an examiner in English for the Department of Education. Having rejected organised religion, in later years she became increasingly interested in the Psychical Research Society. She was among the earliest members of the society's Irish branch, and became a good friend of its founder, Dr Alfred Russel Wallace.[1]

Despite her family's unionist background, she considered herself a nationalist from childhood. Inspired by the Young Ireland and Fenian movements, she contributed romantic nationalist verse to the United Irishman of Arthur Griffith, though this was published anonymously, to avoid embarrassing her father. Similarly influenced by the Gaelic revival, she attempted to learn Irish and in 1900 was elected as an honorary member of the St Columba branch of the Gaelic League. Her lengthy correspondence with Tynan and with Sarah Purser (who painted her portrait in 1894) testifies to these influences, and she often signed herself Sinéad. However, she later became alienated by the radical turn of Irish nationalism, and responded critically to the 1916 rising in verse.[1]

After the death of her father in 1913 she and her siblings moved to Bray, co. Wicklow. Plagued by poor health and low spirits, she found her work increasingly tedious, though she continued writing up to her death, which occurred on 17 April 1917 at St Valerie, Bray. Her final publication, In Mio's youth (1917), appeared posthumously.[1]

Writing[]

Barlow's early efforts, like so much of her later work, were inspired by the Irish peasantry, with whom she was familiar from walking holidays along the west coast.[1]

Her work was generally well received, but she had her critics: W.B. Yeats, for example, noted that she wrote only of ‘old women and hens’.[1]

Critical reputation[]

Barlow was a very popular and critically acclaimed writer during her own lifetime, but interest in her work was not sustained, and her characterizations of the native Irish subsequently appeared stereotyped.[1]

Recognition[]

Barlow received an honorary D. Litt.[3] from Trinity College, Dublin in 1904, making her the earliest woman awarded an honorary doctorate from the college.[1]

Her poetry was included in many contemporary anthologies of Irish writing.[1]

Her portrait was painted by Sarah Purser in 1894.[1]

Publications[]

Poetry[]

Novels[]

Short fiction[]

Juvenile[]


Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy Ricorso.net.[5]

See also[]

References[]

  • Clarke, Frances. "Barlow, Jane," Dictionary of Irish Biography, February 2019. Web, Jul. 12, 2022.

Notes[]

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 Clarke (2009).
  2. ↑ Jane Barlow, Concise Oxford Companion to Irish Literature, Oxford University Press, 1996. Answers.com, Web, July 17, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Jane Barlow Dead," New York Times, April 20, 1917.[http://www.barlowgenealogy.com/ireland/arts/JaneBarlow/JaneB.htm Jane Barlow, Irish Novelist (1860-1917), Barlow Genealogy. Web, July 1, 2013.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Search results = au:Jane Barlow, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, July 1, 2013.
  5. ↑ Works, Jane Barlow (1857-1917), Ricorso.net. Web, July 1, 2013.

External links[]

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This article incorporates text from the Dictionary of Irish Biography, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license. Original article is at: Barlow, Jane

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