OWENSON, Miss. Patriotic Sketches of Ireland, written in Connaught. Two volumes.

London: Printed for Richard Phillips, No. 6, Bridge-Street, Blackfriars, By T. Gillet, Wild-Court, 1807. 12mo. pp. (1) [iii], xii, 178 (2) [iii], 162, [163-168 (books recently published by R. Phillips)]. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards, spine divided into six panels by double gilt fillets, title in gilt on red morocco label in the second with volume number in gilt direct in the fourth. A very good set of an extremely rare item.

WorldCat 2. Not in Woulf or Sadleir.

Sydney Owenson, (Lady Morgan) (c.1783-1859), novelist and literary celebrity, was born in Dublin. Her father, the Mayo-born Robert Owenson [originally Mac Eóin (Hughes?)], was an actor whose native command of Irish ensured his success with 'stage Irish' characters; her mother, Jane Hill, was from a Shrewsbury protestant family. Owenson was notoriously coy about her age; her date of birth may have been anywhere between 1778 and 1785. In her youth she imbibed the theatrical flamboyance and the Irish-patriotic politics of her father, who ran a 'national theatre' in Fishamble Street, Dublin. Her harp-playing, which became her trademark in later life, was already featured in the Irish-patriotic performances of this theatre.

[L2 14B]