SOURCE: "Miss Edgeworth's Successors," in Irish Literature and Drama in the English Language: A Short History, Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1936, pp. 61-79.

In the following essay, Gwynn reviews the works of upper and lower class authors considered to be "native" Irish.

Before steam transport, Edinburgh and Dublin were a longer journey from London than New York is to-day, and were naturally much more distinct in character than they became when the distance could be covered in a day. Yet the cultivated, well-to-do class in both capitals belonged to the same social order, and members of it, when they wrote, wrote in the main for London readers. Miss Edgeworth was born into this class, Moore was admitted to it, and they were published in London.

But inevitably in cities so distant, each centre had its own fugitive literature addressed to its local public—its own journals and magazines. These...