William Carleton
William Carleton was an influential Irish writer born on March 4, 1794, in Prillisk, County Tyrone. Despite his family's hopes for him to pursue a religious vocation, Carleton's experiences, including a transformative pilgrimage in 1813, led him to abandon this path and seek a career in writing. He worked various jobs, including stonecutting and taxidermy, before establishing himself as a writer and journalist, contributing to numerous Irish periodicals. Carleton's seminal work, "Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry," published in 1830, garnered significant acclaim and brought him fame. His novels, while less commercially successful, are noted for their dark humor and incisive social commentary, particularly his depictions of Irish peasant life and the impact of societal issues like the landlord system and the Irish famine. Carleton's writing is characterized by its realism and is informed by his own experiences. Despite facing financial challenges throughout his career, he was eventually awarded a pension in 1848, which provided some stability. He passed away in Dublin on January 30, 1869, leaving a lasting legacy in Irish literature.
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William Carleton
Irish short-story writer and novelist
- Born: March 4, 1794
- Birthplace: Prillisk, Ireland
- Died: January 30, 1869
- Place of death: Dublin, Ireland
Biography
William Carleton, born in Prillisk, County Tyrone, Ireland, on March 4, 1794, was educated in Irish hedge schools and later at the classical school at Donagh. As a young man he tried stonecutting, taxidermy, and other means of earning a livelihood, for his family was poor and he was the fourteenth child. Although his family had hoped he would become a priest, Carleton was so changed by a religious pilgrimage in 1813 that he gave up the idea of taking holy orders. A period of insecurity ensued, culminating in another pilgrimage, this time to Dublin, where he eventually found work as a writer. He married Jane Anderson in 1822 and became a member of the Church of Ireland. Subsequently, Carleton worked as a teacher and as a journalist, contributing to many Irish periodicals. He became famous as a writer when a collection of his stories was published as Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry in 1830. Several editions were sold, and in 1833 a second series was published. His novels met with less popular success, though the best of them—Fardorougha the Miser; Valentine McClutchy, the Irish Agent; and The Emigrants of Ahadarra—combine dark humor, scathing social commentary, and melodramatic events to give a searing and highly colored picture of Irish peasant conditions in the early nineteenth century. The Black Prophet was based on the Irish famine and typhus plague of the 1840’s and is typical of the novelist’s realism in writing about life in Ireland, especially among the peasants. The Emigrants of Ahadarra is an unsparing study of the landlord system. Most of the realistic detail in Carleton’s work was based on his own intimate knowledge of Irish life. Although he was a voluminous writer, he had constant financial difficulty until he was awarded a pension of two hundred pounds by Lord John Russell in 1848. Carleton died in Dublin on January 30, 1869.
Bibliography
Chesnutt, Margaret. Studies in the Short Stories of William Carleton. Göteburg, Sweden: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 1976. Discussion of Carleton’s combination of folk sources and nineteenth century narrative techniques. Argues that “Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman” is mere literary sensationalism, and as much an example of propaganda as many of Carleton’s weaker stories.
Flanagan, Thomas. The Irish Novelists, 1800-1850. New York: Columbia University Press, 1959. A pioneering work that still has much to offer to those unfamiliar with the literary history of Carleton’s period. The study concludes with a section on Carleton. Kiely’s biographical approach is adapted to provide a broader perspective. The resulting sense of historical context is critical to an appraisal of Carleton’s significance.
Hayley, Barbara. Carleton’s “Traits and Stories” and the Nineteenth Century Anglo-Irish Tradition. Totowa, N.J.: Barnes & Noble Books, 1983. A detailed discussion of the revisions that Carleton made to the stories from their original periodical publication to their publication in the Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry.
Kiely, Benedict. Poor Scholar: A Study of the Works and Days of William Carleton, 1794-1869. 1947. Reprint. Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 1997. The best study of Carleton. Kiely’s approach is largely biographical. The degree to which Carleton’s fiction dovetails with his life is explored in the light of Carleton’s autobiography.
Krause, David. William Carleton, the Novelist: His Carnival and Pastoral World of Tragicomedy. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2000. Examines country life and the tragic in literature. Includes bibliographical references and an index.
O’Donoghue, D. J. The Life of William Carleton. 2 vols. London: Downey, 1986. The one essential work for Carleton scholars, largely because volume 1 consists of Carleton’s autobiography. The second volume is a pallid, informative account of Carleton’s Dublin years. While uncritical, volume 2 contains important information about Carleton’s struggle for survival. The second volume also contains some essays by Carleton, which have not otherwise been reprinted.
Orel, Harold. The Victorian Short Story. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1986. In the chapter on Carleton, Orel discusses Carleton’s use of the folk tradition, his belief in the inextricable mixture of fact and fiction, his use of historical and eye-witness materials, and his experimentation with narrative techniques.
Sullivan, Eileen A. William Carleton. Boston: Twayne, 1983. A general introduction to Carleton’s life and art. Summarizes and critiques critical reception of Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry; discusses the best-known stories in the collection such as “The Linahan Shee” and “The Three Tasks.” Discusses Carleton’s mingling of oral folktale and modern short-story techniques.
Wolff, Robert Lee. William Carleton, Irish Peasant Novelist: A Preface to His Fiction. New York: Garland, 1980. A brief, incisive overview of Carleton’s stories and novels. The approach is chronological and biographical.