Charles Stewart Parnell

View other editions of Charles Stewart Parnell.
View books by F.S.L. Lyons.

Complex - Rated
I have a couple of problems with this book but they're mostly to do with the old-school style of F.S.L.Lyons. Admittedly this book was published in the 1970s, and Lyons died in early 1980s, but he repeatedly and unecessarily drops in latin phrases which went completely over my head. I've probably also been spoiled by more modern "popular" history books but with few exceptions this book doesn't really have a coherant narrative structure. Far too often he describes some event 200 pages before, in narrative terms, he gets to when it happens. You frequently find yourself flipping backwards and forwards through the book.

Apart from these two problems the book is an excellent biography of Parnell. He comes across as a complex, flawed, slightly nutty, yet brilliant politician. Lyons also shows quite effectively that he had lost his grip on things well before the O'Shea divorce scandal broke. He shows that the fallout from the scandal was more to do with the political impact it was having on the Irish Party-Liberal alliance than any moral issue. It's really this latter part of the book that works the best and it manages to create an air of tension as the key players try to create a compromise deal that would prevent a split occurring.