The years between 1780 and 1830 are vital decades in the history of Irish writing in English. This book charts the confluence of Enlightenment, antiquarian, and romantic energies within Irish literary culture and shows how different writers and genres absorbed, dispersed and remade those interests during five decades of political change. During those same years, literature made its own history. By the 1840s, Irish writing formed a recognizable body of work, which later generations would draw on, quote, anthologize and dispute. Questions raised by novels, poems and plays of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries - the politics of language and voice; the relationship between literature and locality; the possibility of literature as a profession - resonated for many Irish writers over the centuries that followed and continue to matter today. This comprehensive volume will be a key reference for scholars and students of Irish literature and romantic literary studies.

‘I highly recommend this rich and valuable book to anyone interested in Irish nineteenth-century literature, in romanticism-or simply in brilliant analysis brilliantly expressed.’

Patrick R. O'Malley Source: Review 19

‘Irish Literature in Transition, 1780-1830 is an invaluable collection, of interest to all scholars of the Romantic period. Confirming the need to read beyond the nation, this volume's contributions successfully redraw the map of Irish literary history, offering innovative and invigorating new avenues of research.’

Anne-Claire Michoux Source: The BARS Review

‘Transition is opportunity, innovation, and critical necessity. Connolly has assembled and modelled an innovative range of essays which will set future research into motion.’

Rebecca Anne Barr Source: Romantic Circles

‘This is an extraordinary achievement, a hugely enjoyable and instructive read. It does not leave Irish Studies as it found it, instead renovating and extending the subject.’

Anthony Roche Source: Irish Times

‘… show[s] how an attention to Irish writing can transform how we understand key concepts like romanticism; literary genres like realism, the gothic, ballads; political formations like empire and the transatlantic slave trade; and periodical culture. I highly recommend these books to scholars interested in learning more about Ireland as well as to established scholars of Irish literature.’

Mary L. Mullen Source: Nineteenth-Century Contexts

‘This is an indispensable collection for scholars and students of Irish studies and Romantic studies alike.’

Colleen English Source: Irish Studies Review

‘… Connolly’s book’s self-professed goal of 'reorienting our understanding of Irish literature' remains an essential task even after decades of significant developments. I imagine that a work of this quality might be able to achieve that goal, as well.’

Brian C. Cooney Source: European Romantic Review