Life
1834-1925; b. Co. Louth, ed. Stonyhurst and TCD; barrister, crown prosecutor,
NE circuit; moved to London before beginning to writing professionally;
reputed 200 works of fiction and history, and several plays (some printed);
responsible for statue of Samuel Johnson on the Strand and a bust of Dickens
at Bath, as well as Boswell’s statue at Lichfield; issued Henry Irving:
A Record of Twenty Years at the Lyceum (1893); novels incl. Beauty
Talbot, The Dear Girl, Bella Donna, Diana Jay, et al. See also Irish
Book Lover, 1. NCBE DIB DIW IBL JMC SUTH. OCIL
Works
Poss. author of A Guide to Nice: Historical and Medical, by Percey
Fitzpatrick (Nice: Soc. Typographique 1858).
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References
J. S. Crone, A Concise Dictionary of Irish Biography (Dublin:
Talbot 1928), calls him a writer, sculptor, painter and musician; ed.
Stoneyburst and TCD; Dickens set in London after legal career in Ireland;
200 vols. of fiction and biog., history and drama; bust of Dickens at
Bath, statue of Dr. Johnson at Strand, and Boswell at Lichfield. d. London
1925. DIW derives from Crone.
Henry Boylan, Dictionary of Irish Biography (Dublin: Gill & MacMillan 1988); 1834-1925, b. Fane Valley, Co. Louth, ed. Stonyhurst and TCD; Crown prosecutor on north-eastern circuit, then London literati; his fiction, biography, history, drama, and Catholic works run to 100 titles. He did busts of Dickens (a friend), Johnson, and Boswell.
Irish Literature, Justin McCarthy, ed., (Washington: University of America 1904); extract from Lives of the Sheridans; short bio-note, MA, FSA; b. Fane Valley, Co. Louth; ed. Stonyhurst Coll., Lancashire, TCD; Irish bar; Crown Prosecutor; most of his works appeared originally in All the Year Round, and ONce a Week; The Lives of Sheridan; Charles Lamb his Friends, his Haunts, and his Books; Life of David Garrick; The Kembles; The Life of George IV; The Royal Dukes and Princesses of the Family of George III; Life and times of William IV; Fifty Years of Catholic Life and Progress’. JMC selects ‘Pitt’s enounciation was unquestionably more imposing, dignified, and sonorous; Fox displayed more argument, as well as vehemence; Sheridan as Orator’ [‘Burke possessed more fancy and enthusiasm; but Sheridan won his way by a sort of fascination.’].
John Sutherland, The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction, (Harlow: Longmans 1988); 1834-1935, ‘Gilbert Dyce’; b. Co. Louth, ed. Stonyhurst and TCD; Bar, and Crown Prosecutor; specialism in history of Hanoverian period; friend John Forster itroduced him to Dickens and encouraged him to write in 1856; also encouraged by Bentley; early Dickens scholarship, Memoirs of An Author, 2 vols. (1895); light novels about flirts, fops, and lovers; first novel serialised in Dublin University Magazine, was Mildrington The Barrister (1863); best-selling work, Bella Donna, or the Cross Before the Names (1864); sequels, Jenny Bell (1866), and Seventy-Five Brooke Street (1867); ran two series simultaneously (‘the Briarian system’); 6 novels ser. in All the Year Round (1866); fiction incl. Fairy Alice (1865); The Second Mrs. Tillotson (1866); The Dear Girl (1868); Beauty Talbot (1870); The Middle Aged Lover (1873); The Parvenu Family (1876). Fatal Zero (1886), a Homburg diary, about gambling mania; 200 vols. to his name, but gave up fiction for popular 18th c. history; Recreations of a Literary Man, or Does it Pay (1882) recounts that he earned £3,000 from fiction.
Fitzgerald’s account of the Sheridans (Lives of the Sheridans,
1886, Vol. 1), and the theory of Anglo-Irish extraction therein, Fitzgerald,
following Mrs Oliphant’s conjecture, remarks, ‘there can be
no doubt that such natures as Goldsmith’s and Sheridan’s are
neither purely English nor Irish. they are uniques; and owe their charm
to this commixture of races. Many Irishmen could be named with much of
the wit and humour of this great pair, yet lacking their finish, elegant
touch, and true sentiment; while in England there have been many with
the same finish and sentiment as goldsmith, yet without his humour and
vivacity. ... such were the Wellesleys, Castlereaghs, Butlers, Wolseleys,
garattans, parnells, with many more.’ In a footnote, Fitzgerald adds
his belief that ‘a strain of Irish or of French blood greatly improves
the ordinary English breed’ [Lost source; p.3]
Belfast Public Library holds 10 titles in history and biography incl. Fifty Years of Irish Social Progress (1901); The Garrick Club (1904); John Foster (1903); Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive (1888); The Real Sheridan (1897); Narrative of ..the Confederates of 48 (1868); Pickwickian Manners and Customs (n.d.); Sheridan Whitewashed (n.d.). ALSO, Henry Irving, A Record of Twenty Years at the Lyceum (1893) NOTE also The Gorgeous Lady (Lady Blessington), BELF CEN.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)